United States v. Horacio Yepiz

MEMORANDUM

Appellant Horacio Yepiz (Yepiz) challenges his convictions for racketeering, violence in aid of a racketeering enterprise, and conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Yep-iz maintains that the district court erred in excluding the testimony of Yepiz’s mental health expert, and in admitting, as a prior consistent statement, the testimony of the murder victim’s mother that she was told that Yepiz committed the murder. Yepiz also asserts that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, as the government failed to sufficiently prove the single conspiracy alleged in the indictment. We have jurisdiction and affirm the convictions.

1. The district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding Yepiz’s proffered expert testimony because Yepiz “did not sufficiently show how [the expert’s] testimony would have applied to the facts of his case....” United States v. Redlightning, 624 F.3d 1090, 1111 (9th Cir.2010); see also United States v. Scholl, 166 F.3d 964, 971 (9th Cir.1999), as amended. In any event, even if the district court erred in excluding the expert’s testimony, “it is more probable than not that the error did not…