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By Shari Allison

PublishedUS v. Headman, No. 09-1033, 2/4/10 - Defendant and others were drinking together. Two of them started fighting and defendant and two women joined in. They and the winner threw the loser into the trunk and drove to the Southern Ute Indian Reservation. They got the loser out, continued beating and also stabbing him, and eventually killed him. Defendant went to trial and was convicted of first degree premeditated murder, first degree felony murder, and kidnapping. His defense at trial was intoxication. Held: 1) As the government conceded, defendant could not be convicted of both felony murder and kidnapping, so one or the other had to vacated on remand; 2) No Brady violation, and therefore no plain error, in failing to disclose that the two women, who had pled and testified against defendant at trial, were sharing a cell at the tribal jail before and during trial, where both stated in affidavits they did not discuss their testimony with each other and defendant alleged no facts to contradict them; and 3) no plain error in failing to specifically instruct jury that intoxication was a defense to aiding and abetting first degree murder...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tenth Circuit Blog on February 04, 2010 (boomark / email).