U.S. v. Ayala — criminal — affirmance — Chagares

Yesterday the Third Circuit affirmed the conviction and 11-year sentence of a Virgin Islands woman who played a supporting role in the gunpoint robbery of a St. Thomas jewelry store. Her defense was that her involvement (securing plane tickets, hotel rooms, and a rental car for the robbers, sitting in the getaway car, and paying the robbers afterward) was the product of duress because she feared for her life and that of her brother at the hands of two violent men who told her to do it.

The court rejected a number of interesting challenges, including that D.V.I. courts lack jurisdiction to hear federal criminal cases and that D.V.I. judges lack authority serve after their 10-year terms have expired. The court rejected the defendant’s argument that certain evidence was erroneously excluded under Federal Rule of Evidence 403, but it noted that it was troubled that the district court did not give its reasoning on the record. Finally, the court upheld the district court’s decision to shackle her during sentencing based on the marshals’ view (the basis for which apparently was not discussed and is anything but obvious to this reader) that there was a security concern.

The court’s opinion presents the facts of the crime and the trial without comment, but, for me at least, it’s hard to read it without wondering whether justice was done here.

Joining Chagares were Hardiman and Restrepo. Arguing counsel were Joseph Diruzzo III of Florida for the defendant and Kim Chisholm for the government.