United States v. Ridley, No. 15-1309 (7th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseIn 2008, two men wearing ski masks staged an armed robbery of a Hoyleton, Illinois bank, taking $115,000 in cash. A teller testified, describing the gun carried by each robber and the getaway vehicle, a “bluish purple Ford.” After the robbers left, she called her husband, who placed himself along the getaway route and saw a blue Ford Ranger driving at high speed. He noted the license plate number. Area residents found the truck, which had been stolen from a dealership, in a field, with its doors open and the interior covered in pink dye. DNA evidence gathered from the truck matched Ridley. Johnson, the other robber, turned on Ridley and confessed in detail. Ridley was convicted of armed bank robbery, brandishing a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, 18 U.S.C. 924(c)(1)(A); making false statements to a federal officer, and obstruction of justice, and was sentenced to 246 months' imprisonment. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, rejecting challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence of brandishing; admission of an FBI agent’s lay testimony regarding cell phone tracking; and supplemental instruction to jurors when they said they were at an impasse. A statement that “The Court requests that the jury continue in their deliberations in an effort to reach a unanimous verdict,” to which neither side objected, was not prejudicial.
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