United States v. Bates, No. 15-31087 (5th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseDefendant was convicted of charges related to his involvement in a murder-for-hire scheme. The court concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion by allowing defendant's former cell-mate to testify because defendant failed to point to any evidence showing that the government affirmatively enticed the cellmate to solicit any information from defendant. The court concluded that the mere presence of some conflicting evidence in the record does not render a jury verdict improper, and the court rejected defendant's challenges to the credibility of the witnesses where their criminal history, drug problems, trustworthiness and past relationships with defendant all came out at trial and were presumably considered by the jury. Therefore, the court affirmed the district court's denial of defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal. The court affirmed the judgment.
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