United States v. Manuel Acosta-Garcia, United States of America v. Florencio Urias-Montoya

Appellants were arrested, indicted and, after jury trial, convicted of unlawful importation of marihuana pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 176a.

At the beginning of trial, as appellants were being brought into the courtroom, some members of the panel of prospective jurors saw that appellants were in handcuffs which appellants contend created a prejudicial atmosphere not dissipated by the trial court’s admonition that appellants’ custody was not to be equated with guilt. Appellants specify this as error.

We do not agree. The mere fact that some prospective members of the jury may have seen appellants in handcuffs is not so prejudicial as to require a mistrial, Loux v. United States, 389 F.2d 911 (9th Cir. 1968), particularly where, as here, the trial court took great pains to explain that this occurrence was to have no bearing on the jury’s consideration of the merits of the case against appellants.

In addition to the handcuffing issue, which applies to both appellants, appellant Acosta-Garcia urges that the trial court erred: (1) in denying his motion to sever trial of his case from that of co-defendant Urias-Montoya, and (2) admitting testimony by a government witness, one Treto, that…