United States v. Edwards, No. 21-1874 (7th Cir. 2022)
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Edwards and several accomplices robbed three cellphone stores in northeastern Illinois. Each time, the team would enter around 5:30 p.m. wearing hats and hooded sweatshirts, wait until all the customers had left, announce a robbery, point a gun at an employee, force the employee to assist them, stuff black garbage bags with cellphones, and flee through the back door. Edwards was charged with multiple counts of Hobbs Act robbery stemming from the three crimes and brandishing a firearm in connection with two of the robberies. Edwards pleaded guilty to robbing two stores but claimed not to be involved in the third robbery. The government sought to introduce evidence of the two admitted crimes to prove Edwards’s identity through a common modus operandi. The district court admitted the evidence subject to a limiting instruction. After beginning deliberations, the jury sent a note asking if one of the witnesses identified Edwards. The district judge instructed the jury to “rely on your collective memory of the testimony.” The jury convicted Edwards on the remaining charges.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed. The district court did not abuse its discretion by admitting evidence from the other two robberies or in declining to provide the jury with a trial transcript in response to its question.
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