United States v. Addison
United States v. Addison
Opinion of the Court
MEMORANDUM
Appellant Curtis Addison (“Addison”) contests his conviction and sentence for
Further, even if we were free to review the ineffective assistance claim, there is no proof that his trial counsel’s performance fell below a standard of objective reasonableness, as required by Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). Trial counsel’s strategic decisions are owed deference, and on the record before us we cannot conclude that counsel’s handling of Agent Metaxas’s testimony falls outside the wide range of reasonable professional assistance. Id. at 689. Counsel inquired into Metaxas’s use of informants on voir dire, subjected Metaxas to cross-examination informed by the voir dire, and directly argued the issue of Metaxas’s credibility before the jury. Trial counsel moved for a Fed. R.Crim. Proc. Rule 29 judgment of acquittal at the close of the government’s evidence. Trial counsel also filed a post-trial motion for new trial based at least in part on the questionable nature of Agent Metaxas’s testimony. The failure to move for the suppression of Agent Metaxas’s testimony for lack of candor, evaluated as of the time the motion could have been raised, and in light of the facts of the case, does not rise to the level of ineffective assistance.
Finally, even if we were free to revisit the issue of prejudice, Addison does not demonstrate with reasonable probability that the jury’s decision would have been different if Agent Metaxas’s testimony had been excluded. Id. at 694. In denying a motion for new trial, the district court concluded that even absent Metaxas’s testimony “overwhelming evidence would support the verdict.” Whether the court had in mind evidence that appellant’s latent fingerprint was found on one of the bags of contraband, or something more, nothing in the record before us calls into question the district court’s conclusion.
AFFIRMED.
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and may not be cited to or by the courts of this circuit except as may be provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
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