United States v. Santos Flores-Elias

Santos Flores-Elias was convicted of smuggling and conspiracy to smuggle illegal aliens from El Salvador into the United States. During the smuggling effort, thirteen of the Salvadorans died in the Arizona desert. The survivors and their guides were later apprehended by immigration authorities. This tragic incident received widespread media coverage. Flores-Elias brought a pretrial motion for change of venue, alleging prejudicial pretrial publicity, which was denied by the district court. The district court conducted voir dire of the potential jurors, and denied the defendant’s challenges for cause to two of the jurors. Flores-Elias appeals his conviction, contending that the district court erred in denying his motion for a change of venue, rejecting his juror challenges, and conducting an inadequate voir dire. We affirm.

I. CHANGE OF VENUE

The district court should grant a change of venue when there exists in the district “so great a prejudice against the defendant that he cannot obtain a fair and impartial trial .... ” Fed.R.Crim.P. 21(a). A trial judge is granted broad discretion in ruling on a change of venue motion, and will only be reversed for an abuse of discretion.…