United States v. Thomas, No. 14-1599 (8th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseThomas was convicted of four counts of wire fraud based on a scheme she perpetrated to defraud mortgage lenders by submitting false income information on loan applications. The district court sentenced Thomas to 48 months imprisonment and ordered her to pay restitution. The Eighth Circuit affirmed, upholding evidentiary rulings allowing the government to introduce evidence of a separate, subsequent scheme in which Thomas attempted to defraud mortgage lenders and evidence related to Thomas’s unfiled 2006 tax return; jury instructions regarding the “intent to harm” element of wire fraud; issuance of an Allen charge, advising deadlocked jurors to reconsider their positions; and polling of individual jurors. Allowing evidence and closing argument that Thomas should be convicted based on a failure to disclose debts did not amount to allowing the government to constructively amend the indictment.
Court Description: Shepherd, Author, with Murphy, Circuit Judge, and Harpool, District Judge] Criminal case - Criminal law. The district court did not err in denying defendant's request for an instruction on intent to harm in this wire fraud case; no error in permitting the government to introduce evidence that defendant was involved in a separate scheme to defraud mortgage lenders as the evidence was relevant to defendant's intent and lack of mistake and was similar in kind and not remote in time to the offense charged; no error in permitting the government to introduce defendant's unfiled tax return as her actual income during the time covered by the return was integral to the mortgage fraud charges; claim of constructive amendment, or variance,of the indictment rejected; no error in polling jury members or giving an Allen charge after the jury sent a note indicating it was deadlocked.
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