DISCLAIMER:  The following unofficial case summaries 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.