United States v. Veliz

Defendants, Narcisa Veliz Novack and her brother Cristobal Veliz, appealed from convictions of numerous offenses related to defendants' participation in an association-in-fact Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.c. 1962, enterprise with the primary purpose of assaulting Novack's husband and her mother-in-law. The court rejected Veliz's argument that his conduct did not violate 18 U.S.C. 1512(b)(3) because solicitation to murder does not constitute the use or attempted use of “intimidation, threat[s], or corrupt[] persua[sion].” The court held that solicitation of a third party to murder a witness constitutes attempted corrupt persuasion under the statute. The court further concluded that the evidence that Veliz had committed multiple related crimes across multiple states was sufficient to support the jury’s finding that communication with a federal investigator was reasonably likely. The court rejected Veliz's argument that his witness-tampering convictions must be vacated because he has not shown reasonable probability that the challenged instruction affected the jury’s verdict. Finally, the court rejected Veliz's contention that the inclusion of the term "physical force" in the jury charge constructively amended the indictment because the government’s theory of guilt was consistent from indictment to summation and the jury clearly based its verdict on the conduct charged in the indictment. The court addressed and rejected the remaining challenges in a summary order. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. Veliz" on Justia Law