United States v. Jesus Navarro-Montes

MEMORANDUM

Jesus Navarro-Montes appeals his conviction of second degree murder and his sentence of life in prison. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

1. The district court did not abuse its discretion by excluding evidence that Navarro-Montes pleaded guilty to a drug charge which arose from a different incident than the charges for which he was tried. This is true even though the district court admitted a cooperating witness’s guilty plea to drug smuggling charges. That a cooperating witness entered into a plea agreement is generally relevant to the witness’s credibility. See United States v. Universal Rehab. Services (PA), Inc., 205 F.3d 657 , 666 (1999). However, the rationale behind this general rule does not extend to Navarro-Montes’s defense strategy of introducing his guilty plea to a drug charge to bolster his innocence of the murder, for which he was tried. Therefore, the court did not err in concluding that the guilty plea was irrelevant.

2. The district court did not plainly err by disallowing cross-examination about the government’s failure to use “double-blind” protocols during the photo ID lineups used to identify Navarro-Montes. Because…