U.S. v. Urena

In prosecution on charge of being in U.S. without permission after having been deported to Mexico, Dist. Ct. did not err in refusing to exclude evidence of defendant’s seven prior removals from U.S. Defendant had been given written warning in 2011 not to reenter U.S. without permission, and defendant elicited from agent that warning had been written in English. As such, govt. could properly introduce evidence of seven prior removals, where: (1) defendant gave jury impression that he did not know he could not come back to U.S. after prior removal; and (2) govt. could introduce evidence of prior removals to establish defendant’s knowledge that he could not lawfully reenter U.S. without permission. Also, while govt. improperly introduced document that made reference to defendant’s prior class 4 felony drug conviction, Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s motion for mistrial, where reference to prior conviction was not obvious in document, and where Dist. Ct., once alerted to presence of prior conviction, properly ordered it to be redacted.