United States v. Williams

MEMORANDUM *

Thomas Edward Williams and Roxie Nadine Carroll 1 appeal their judgments of conviction and sentences on conspiracy charges, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 , as well as multiple counts of mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341 , wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343 (Williams only), bank fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344 (Williams only), and false representation of a Social Security number, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 408 (a)(7)(B) (Carroll only). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and we affirm.

Although the indictment is concededly “muddy,” it can be fairly read as charging one conspiracy with multiple objects: the violation of each of the substantive fraud offenses charged. Cf. United States v. Bauer, 84 F.3d 1549, 1560-61 (9th Cir.1996). Appellants’ 2 preferred reading — that the conspiracy had only two objects, the first of which was to violate all of the substantive fraud statutes together, and the second was to engage generally in a “scheme” to commit real estate fraud — is nonsensical. Thus, the jury instructions informing the jurors that they needed to find only “a plan to commit at least one of the crimes alleged in the…