United States v. Elwyn Has the Eagle, Sr.

MEMORANDUM

Defendant-Appellant Elwyn Has the Eagle, Sr. (Has the Eagle) was convicted for urging Kari Lamere, a witness in his son’s double murder trial, to give false testimony, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1503 and 1512(b)(1). The district court sentenced him to 108 months’ imprisonment. He appeals, arguing that the district court abused its discretion during voir dire by refusing to ask, and prohibiting him from asking, prospective jurors about his son’s double murder trial; that the district court erred in denying his Rule 29 motion for acquittal; and that his sentence is substantively unreasonable. We affirm.

1. We need not determine whether plain error or abuse of discretion review applies to the district court’s decision not to conduct or allow specific voir dire regarding Has the Eagle, Jr.’s double murder trial, because the district court did not err under either standard. United States v. Garcia-Rivera, 353 F.3d 788, 792 (9th Cir.2003); see also United States v. Steele, 298 F.3d 906, 910 (9th Cir.2002).

Has the Eagle sought to ask whether prospective jurors had heard anything about his son’s murder trial. On its face, this question did not raise any issues of bias or…