United States v. Armando Garcia-Turino

The first numbered of the above two appeals rest upon two alleged errors: first, the trial court erred in ruling that the defendant’s absence from his trial was voluntary; and second, that defendant had ineffective assistance of counsel.

We find no merit in either contention. Rule 43 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure provides that:

Here, after a hearing on January 11, 1971, and the denial of a motion to suppress evidence on that day, and after the setting of the case for trial on January 23, 1971; and after a partial day’s trial during which the defendant was present with his retained counsel, the defendant, at the afternoon recess, absented himself from the courtroom about 3:15 p.m. The trial judge recessed the trial for 15 minutes, then recessed it until the following morning, properly and carefully admonishing the jury [R.T., p. 104], to the satisfaction of appellant’s counsel. [R.T., p. 105] The reason for appellant’s absenting himself so suddenly was deemed by those in the courtroom to have been occasioned by appellant’s knowledge, for the first time, that his co-defendant Rodriguez was about to take the stand to testify for the government against appellant. [R.T.,…