Criminal Law

In prosecution on drug conspiracy charge, prosecutor did not error in commenting on unrebutted nature of state's evidence against defendant after defense counsel claimed during closing argument that defendant's defense was unrebutted. Prosecutor never commented directly on defendant's exercise of his right to remain silent, and jury would not have understood that prosecutor's remarks, that defendant failed to contest the fact that defendant was in video of controlled purchase or that defendant made phone calls arranging for drug purchase, constituted comments on defendant's failure to testify since defendant could have called others to rebut state's evidence. Moreover, while prosecutor erred in introducing unrelated evidence that defendant had discharged firearm on New Year's Eve, said error was harmless where jury heard other admissible evidence of defendant's use of firearms during course of his drug dealing activities.

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s habeas petition challenging his 66-year term of incarceration on his vehicular homicide conviction, even though defendant asserted that trial court had based said sentence on inaccurate information regarding amount of alcohol defendant had consumed prior to crash that resulted in four deaths. Defendant had procedurally defaulted his claim after failing to object to alcohol calculation in presentence report, and defendant further failed to demonstrate that trial court had relied on materially incorrect information when calculating defendant’s sentence. Ct. similarly found that defendant had procedurally defaulted his related ineffective assistance of counsel claim.

Dist. Ct. erred in sentencing defendant to 240-month term of incarceration on charge of traveling in interstate commerce to engage in sexual conduct with minor. Applicable guideline range was 57 to 71 months, and instant sentence was not reasonable where it was based on speculation about defendant's alleged commission of prior uncharged crimes and his potential for recidivism.

In prosecution on drug conspiracy charge, Dist. Ct. did not err in admitting evidence of prior drug arrests even though defendant argued that said evidence only demonstrated his propensity to commit crimes. Said arrests, which occurred at times alleged in indictment, constituted direct evidence of defendant's role in charged conspiracy. Moreover, although Dist. Ct. erred in allowing officers to testify regarding two conversations they had with non-testifying confidential informants, who implicated defendant in charged offense, any error was harmless where other evidence corroborated contents of said conversations.