United States v. Sufyaan Mohamed

MEMORANDUM

Sufyaan Mohamed (“Mohamed”) appeals his jury conviction for possession of an immigration document obtained by fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1546 (a), arising from Mohamed having fraudulently obtained lawful permanent residence in the United States. Mohamed contends that two of the district court’s rulings on pretrial in limine motions were in error and also that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction.

The district court denied Mohamed’s motion in limine to exclude evidence of the nature of his prior arrest, even though he offered to stipulate that he had been arrested and that the arrest was material to his application for legal permanent residence. See Old Chief v. United States, 519 U.S. 172, 182 , 117 S.Ct. 644 , 136 L.Ed.2d 574 (1997). The district court’s decision to admit evidence over Mohamed’s objection is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Ganoe, 538 F.3d 1117, 1123 (9th Cir.2008). The district court properly weighed the probative value of Mohamed’s proposed stipulation against the arrest records and the prejudicial nature of both, and found that the nature of the arrest was extremely probative of Mohamed’s state of…