USA V. KELECHI AJOKU, No. 11-50230 (9th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CaseThis opinion or order relates to an opinion or order originally issued on June 3, 2013.
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NOT FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FILED FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT SEP 23 2014 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, No. 11-50230 D.C. No. 2:08-cr-01094-WDK-5 v. MEMORANDUM* KELECHI AJOKU, aka Kelechi Ajouku, Defendant - Appellant. On Remand From The United States Supreme Court Argued and Submitted September 16, 2014 San Francisco, California Before: GOODWIN, HAWKINS, and WARDLAW, Circuit Judges. Kelechi Ajoku ( Ajoku ) was convicted of four counts of making a false statement relating to a health care benefit program under 18 U.S.C. § 1035. On appeal, Ajoku challenges the district court s jury instruction on the statute s willfulness mental state element. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we reverse and remand for a new trial. * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. As conceded by the government in its opposition brief to Ajoku s petition for certiorari, the district court erred by giving an instruction on the element of willfulness that does not comply with Bryan v. United States. See 524 U.S. 184, 191-92 (1998) ( As a general matter, when used in the criminal context, a willful act is one undertaken with a bad purpose. In other words, in order to establish a willful violation of a statute, the Government must prove that the defendant acted with knowledge that his conduct was unlawful. (footnote and internal quotation marks omitted)). It is thus undisputed that Ajoku s jury received an erroneous instruction. We apply harmless-error analysis to cases involving improperly instructed juries on a single element of the offense. See Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. 1, 9-10 (1999). On the record before us, we are unable to conclude that it is clear beyond a reasonable doubt that a rational jury would have found [Ajoku] guilty of the charges had it been properly instructed. Id. at 18. We therefore reverse and remand for a new trial or other proceedings consistent with this disposition. REVERSED AND REMANDED. -2-
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