United States v. Banks, No. 16-6322 (10th Cir. 2018)
Annotate this CaseA jury convicted Michael Banks of sixteen drug-related crimes, and the district court sentenced him to life in prison plus 60 months. In a direct appeal to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, Banks challenged his convictions. A split panel of the Tenth Circuit found and rejected Banks’ sufficiency arguments, finding he largely ignored the evidence presented at trial. Furthermore, the Court determined the evidence was sufficient to support most, if not all, of the crimes he was ultimately convicted of, “Banks appears to make the curious assertion that when a victim disputes that a defendant committed a particular offense against him or her, the evidence is necessarily insufficient to support a conviction for that offense. The Court rejected Banks’ argument the evidence at trial did not constructively amend the indictment, resulting in a fatal variance requiring reversal. Furthermore, the Court found the district court did not miscalculate the sentence Banks received.
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