DISCLAIMER: Any unofficial case summaries below are prepared by the clerk's office
as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.
171300P.pdf 08/28/2018 United States v. Jordan Davis
U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 17-1300
U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota - St. Paul
[PUBLISHED] [Colloton, Author, with Smith, Chief Judge, and Murphy,
Circuit Judge]
Criminal case - Criminal law. This opinion is filed by Chief Judge Smith
and Judge Colloton pursuant to 8th Cir. Rule 47E. Submission of the
indictment to the jury is a matter within the sound discretion of the
trial court provided the jury is properly admonished that the indictment
does not constitute evidence; the court did not err in determining that it
would only submit the indictment with a limiting instruction; this circuit
has disapproved jury instructions which state that a defendant's good
character, standing alone, is enough to warrant acquittal, and the
district court did not err in denying defendant's proposed "good
character" instruction; while this may not have been a classic case for a
willful blindness instruction, the giving of the instruction did not
prejudice defendant as there was abundant evidence that he had actual
knowledge of the fraud and the jury rejected his testimony that he was
unaware of it; evidence was sufficient to support defendant's convictions
for mail fraud and conspiracy to commit theft from a federally funded
program in connection with defendant's receipt of pay for a "no-show" job.