United States v. Jose Serrano, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Jose Angel Serrano, Jr. appeals his conviction and sentence for conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute MDMA (“ecstasy”) in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 and 846. We affirm.

I. Serrano contends that the district court’s rulings, deprived him of his right to present his entrapment defense to the jury. We review a district court’s nonconstitutional evidentiary rulings for abuse of discretion and “reversal is appropriate only if the error more likely than not affected the verdict.” United States v. Ajoku, 718 F.3d 882, 890 (9th Cir.2013) (internal quotation marks omitted), vacated, — U.S. —, 134 S.Ct. 1872 , 188 L.Ed.2d 905 (2014). If the ruling precluded the presentation of a defense, our review of the ruling is de novo. United States v. Lynch, 437 F.3d 902, 913 (9th Cir.2006) (en banc).

We do not find the district court’s rulings regarding pretrial discovery and access to the government informant to be erroneous. Nor do we find that the district court abused its discretion in declining to give a missing witness instruction as to the informant, as Serrano did not demonstrate that the informant was “peculiarly within the power” of the…