United States v. Clayton, No. 14-2887 (8th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseBased largely on the testimony of his accomplice, Anderson, Clayton was convicted of stealing $11,284 from Citizens State Bank in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Other evidence included witness testimony and cell phone records. A search of the home of McDonald, the girlfriend of Clayton’s cousin, turned up a roll of cash that contained four of the bait bills that were taken during the bank robbery. Clayton's cousin was connected to Anderson and the men had gone to her home after the robbery. Clayton was sentenced to 129 months’ imprisonment, based on an upward variance due to his prior criminal conduct and the fact that he made violent threats before and during the robbery. The Eighth Circuit affirmed, rejecting challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence.
Court Description: Schiltz, Author, with Bye and Smith, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Criminal law and sentencing. Law enforcements officers did not improperly coach defendant's co-conspirator Anderson prior to his trial testimony against defendant; assuming for the sake of argument that law enforcement did improperly coach a second government witness, it is clear that the conduct did not prejudice defendant as her testimony was only corroborative of Anderson's and defendant freely used her past inconsistent statements to impeach her testimony; evidence was sufficient to support defendant's conviction for bank robbery; nor was the jury verdict against the weight of the evidence; the evidence at sentencing was sufficient to support the district court's finding that defendant had previously robbed a Mr. Money and had made violent threats during the course of the robbery.
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