United States v. Lindemann

85 F.3d 1232 (7th Cir. 1996)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

'Charisma,' a show horse, died in its stall on the night of December 15, 1990. The insurance company concluded that the death was the result of natural causes and paid the $250,000 value of the policy. The Federal Bureau of Investigation uncovered an alleged conspiracy between Tommy Burns and Barney Ward to kill horses for pay, allowing the horses' owners to collect insurance proceeds. Burns gave the FBI D, a partial owner of Charisma. At trial, Burns spilled the beans in great detail and implicated D in the killing. Burns' testimony was corroborated by other testimony and evidence. The evidence strongly indicated that a conspiracy to kill Charisma existed, and that it contained the following members: (1) Burns, who did the killing; (2) Ward, who set up the contact between Cellular Farms and Burns; (3) Hulick, who pointed out to Burns the method of entrance to Cellular Farms and which of the horses was Charisma; and (4) some unknown conspiracy member, who ordered the killing and planned to pay Burns for doing it. The evidence identifying D as the unknown member rested on the testimony of Burns. D attacked Burns’ credibility on cross-examination. D suggested that Burns would not have gotten his plea deal unless he gave up a “big fish.” P offered evidence to rebut this assertion. It proffered that Burns was part of a much larger investigation involving the killing of 15 horses, including Charisma. Burns testified that he cooperated against other wealthy people long before D got into the picture. D talked about 30 people who he turned in and how 90% of them pled guilty. The court immediately gave a limiting instruction as to the scope of cooperation and not inferring that there was a 90% change of D being guilty. The evidence got in, and D was convicted and appealed.