United States v. Antonio Ciranda-Sanchez

NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FILED
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT AUG 22 2011
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 10-50392
Plaintiff - Appellee, D.C. No. 3:09-cr-01558-JM-1
v.
MEMORANDUM*
ANTONIO CIRANDA-SANCHEZ,
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of California
Jeffrey T. Miller, Senior District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted June 7, 2011
Pasadena, California
Before: B. FLETCHER and N.R. SMITH, Circuit Judges, and GWIN, District
Judge.**
The district court did not abuse its discretion by substituting an alternate
juror because of the original juror’s loud, distracting cough. A district court abuses
its discretion when it “base[s] its ruling on an erroneous view of the law or a
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
**
The Honorable James S. Gwin, District Judge for the U.S. District
Court for Northern Ohio, Cleveland, sitting by designation.
clearly erroneous assessment of the evidence.” United States v. Hinkson, 585 F.3d
1247, 1259 (9th Cir. 2009) (en banc) (quoting Cooter & Gell v. Hartmarx Corp.,
496 U.S. 384, 405 (1990) (internal quotation marks omitted)). Neither error
occurred in this case.
Whether a juror is unable to continue to serve “is the kind of question
peculiarly suited to the exercise of discretion by the trial judge.” United States v.
Echavarria-Olarte, 904 F.2d 1391, 1395 (9th Cir. 1990). Although the original
juror was willing to complete her jury service, the district court observed not only
her cough, but the other jurors’ reactions to her cough. The district court’s
determination that the cough’s distraction to both the juror herself and the other
jurors required the substitution of an alternate juror “is one that a rational jurist
could have made based on the record presented to him.” See United States v.
Bonas, 344 F.3d 945, 948 (9th Cir. 2003).
AFFIRMED.