U.S. v. BROWN, 2010-2 U.S. Tax Cases (CCH) P50,578 (11th Cir. 2010)
Defendant was convicted of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, under 18 U.S.C. Sections 1341, 1343, and 1349, in the disclosing of allegedly false and fictitious mortgage applications and associated documents; failure to timely file income tax returns, under 26 U.S.C. Section 7203; and tax evasion, under 7201. The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida sentenced defendant to 240 months. Defendant appealed.
On appeal Defendant argued that the district court should not have permitted him to represent himself.
The court found that the district court did not abuse its discretion in accepting defendant's waiver of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel and in permitting him to represent himself because (1) the district court advised defendant of the perils of self-representation on two separate days, and questioned him regarding his education and mental health; (2) his trial performance supported his waiver; and (3) the decision to represent himself was based on his disagreement with his attorney over strategy. The district court committed no plain error in instructing the jury regarding defendant's decision to represent himself. The district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting evidence of defendant's prior conviction, his probationary status, and his prior false statements, under Rule 404(b), because the evidence was properly introduced to establish his criminal intent and to rebut his claim that the misstatements were accidental or merely mistakes. Finally, the sentence was substantively reasonable.
Defendant's conviction and sentence were affirmed.
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