United States Ninth Circuit

Defendant's convictions of distribution, possession with intent to distribute and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine are: 1) affirmed as to the convictions for distribution and possession with intent to distribute, where a) the district court did not abuse its discretion by failing to deliver a "missing witness" instruction informing the jury that it could conclude that the government did not call the go-between as a witness because his testimony would have hurt the government case, b) the district court did err by sua sponte instructing the jury not to speculate about the reasons for the go-between's absence as a witness, but c) this error was harmless; and 2) vacated and remanded as to the conspiracy conviction, where there was insufficient evidence of an agreement between the defendant and someone else to distribute methamphetamine.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/29/2013
• Published 04/29/2013

Judges

• KOZINSKI

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel