United States v. Emerson Seschillie

One evening Emerson Seschillie fired shots at four people, including himself, at a bead stand on the Navajo Reservation. At his jury trial, Seschillie’s sole defense with regard to all the shootings was that he did not intend to pull the trigger of his .357 revolver. Rather, Seschillie argued, each time the gun was fired he and someone else were struggling for control of the gun, causing him to accidentally fire it. We must decide whether the jury conviction should be set aside because (1) the trial court prohibited Seschillie’s expert witness from testifying about the possibility that the gun was accidentally discharged or (2) because the trial court ordered from the courtroom the expert witness Seschillie called to testify to the scientific plausibility of this version of events. We conclude that the conviction should stand.

I. BACKGROUND

Late in the afternoon of September 22, 1999, Bernita Jensen (for clarity “Berni-ta”) and her older sister Rosie Jensen (“Rosie”) stopped by the home of Bernita’s off-again, on-again boyfriend Seschillie. Seschillie was drunk when they arrived. After a brief exchange with Seschillie, Ber-nita and Rosie drove off.

Later in the evening, Bernita…