United States v. Sammour, No. 13-13962 (11th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseDefendant was convicted of charges stemming from his participation in a scheme to file fraudulent income tax returns with stolen identities. Defendant, an Arab Muslim, argues that he was denied a fair trial after Juror 9, at the start of deliberations, slipped a note to the clerk stating that she feared for her safety because “this reeks of al Qaeda.” The court concluded that the evidence was sufficient to support the convictions of aggravated identity theft; the jury instructions did not plainly amend the indictment by adding an additional means of identification to the means listed in the indictment; the district court did not abuse its discretion in responding to the note from Juror 9 where the district court did not clearly err in finding that Juror 9 could be fair and impartial; and the district court did not abuse its discretion in applying an enhancement under USSG 2B1.1(b)(2)(B) for an offense involving fifty or more victims; the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying a downward departure under USSG 3E1.1(a) for acceptance of responsibility where the district court found that defendant had not accepted responsibility; the district court did not abuse its discretion when it departed upward to a higher criminal history category; and the sentence is substantively reasonable. Accordingly, the court affirmed the convictions and sentence.
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