United States v. Morris, No. 12-1525 (8th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseDefendants appealed their convictions for 44 counts of fraudulent behavior relating to theft of government funds, filing of their personal taxes, and actions they took as paid tax preparers. The court concluded that there was sufficient evidence to support the convictions; the district court did not plainly err by joining defendants for trial; the district court did not err in excluding expert witnesses for the defense; taken as a whole, the district court's instructions "fairly and adequately" submitted the issue of good faith to the jury and it was not error to reject defendants' proffered good faith instruction; and the district court did not err in calculating restitution. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court.
Court Description: Criminal case - Criminal law and sentencing. Evidence was sufficient to support defendants' convictions for theft of funds from the VA and Social Security Administration, conspiracy, concealment and obtaining DOE Pell Grants by fraud; evidence was also sufficient to support their tax fraud and fraudulent tax preparation convictions; joinder of defendants' cases was proper; evidentiary challenges rejected; no error in rejecting defendants' proposed "good faith" jury instruction; district court's restitution calculation was not erroneous.
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