United States v. Kevin Sawyer

MEMORANDUM

"Defendants, a husband and wife, were charged in a twenty-one count indictment with conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud, making false statements to a financial institution, and money laundering. The charges stem from alleged real estate investment fraud and mortgage fraud schemes. After the district court granted the government’s motion in limine to exclude evidence of defendants’ intent or ability to repay the investors in the schemes, defendants entered conditional guilty pleas reserving their right to challenge that ruling. They contend the excluded evidence is relevant to establishing their specific intent to defraud, which is an element of several of the charges against them. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and affirm the district court’s order.

1. We review a district court’s eviden-tiary rulings for abuse of discretion. United States v. Waters, 627 F.3d 345, 351-52 (9th Cir.2010). We conclude the district court did not abuse its discretion by excluding evidence of defendants’ intent or ability to repay as irrelevant under Federal Rule of Evidence 401. The ability to repay is irrelevant because to prove fraud, the government only needed to show that…