United States v. Burns, No. 19-3205 (8th Cir. 2021)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction for wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. 1343. Defendant's conviction stemmed from his involvement in a scheme to construct an aquaponics facility. The court concluded that the evidence was sufficient to support defendant's conviction; the district court did not abuse its discretion by instructing the jury on willful blindness; the district court did not err by giving a jury instruction that enabled a finding that only defendant committed wire fraud; the district court did not err by giving an explicit unanimity instruction where there was no genuine risk of the jury finding nonunanimously; and defendant waived his argument that the district court did not err by sua sponte individually polling the jury.
Court Description: [Smith, Author, with Loken and Gruender, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Criminal law. In a wire fraud prosecution concerning defendant's representations to investors in an aquaponics operation, the evidence was sufficient for the jury to find defendant had actual knowledge of the fraud or was willfully blind; the district court did not err, on this record, in giving a willful blindness instruction; the wire fraud instruction did not constitute an impermissible variance from the indictment; claim that the district court should have sua sponte given an explicit unanimity instruction rejected; defendant waived the issue of an individual poll of the jurors when his counsel declined the judge's offer to conduct such a poll.
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