United States v. Jon Raymond Ware

After Ms conviction in district court for two counts of bank robbery, the petitioner filed a motion to vacate his sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 , claiming that the government had presented insufficient evidence of the banks’ federally-insured status at the time of the robberies. The district court denied the petition and the petitioner appealed. Considering the totality of the trial evidence, including the short period of time that elapsed between the robberies and the petitioner’s trial, we conclude that there was sufficient evidence to support the petitioner’s conviction. We therefore affirm the district court’s denial of habeas relief.

I

A. Factual Background

The parties do not dispute the relevant facts of the underlying conviction. In October 1995, the petitioner robbed two Las Vegas branches of First Interstate Bank. Less than five months later, on March 18, 1996, a two-day jury trial commenced in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. The government elicited the following testimony from a bank teller who was working at the first bank branch at the time of its robbery:

The government also elicited the following testimony from a teller who was…