Submitted: November 15, 2018
Appeal
from United States District Court for the Northern District
of Iowa - Waterloo.
Before
BENTON, BEAM, and ERICKSON, Circuit Judges.
ERICKSON, Circuit Judge.
In
October 2017, a jury found Daniel Louis Jackson guilty of all
counts of a four-count Superseding Indictment for his role in
a bank robbery in Hopkinton, Iowa: (1) Armed Bank Robbery and
Aiding and Abetting Armed Bank Robbery; (2) Aiding and
Abetting the Use, Carrying, and Brandishing of a Firearm
During a Crime of Violence; (3) Conspiracy to Commit Armed
Bank Robbery; and (4) Conspiracy to Use, Carry, and Brandish
a Firearm During a Crime of Violence. Jackson appeals,
challenging (1) the admission of three Facebook videos into
evidence and (2) the district court's[1] instruction on
the elements of aiding and abetting the use, carrying, or
brandishing of a firearm during a crime of violence. We
affirm.
I.
Background
On
October 17, 2016, Daniel Jackson and his co-defendant Jason
Centeno traveled from Muscatine, Iowa, to the Citizens State
Bank of Hopkinton, Iowa. While Jackson waited in the car,
Centeno entered the bank and took video of its interior.
Three days later, Jackson (in the company of Centeno and
their roommate Edgar Pauley) went to the Muscatine Wal-Mart
and purchased black pantyhose, ski hats, and zip ties.
On the
morning of October 21, 2016, Jackson and Centeno donned the
disguises they purchased at Wal-Mart and entered the bank.
Once inside, the two men leapt over the counter, whereupon
Jackson displayed a knife, used a zip tie to secure a
teller's hands behind her back, and took money from her
drawer. Meanwhile, Centeno brandished a .38 special revolver
and demanded that a second teller give him the money from her
drawer. Having accomplished his task with the first teller,
Jackson approached the second teller and ordered her to the
ground.
While
this was going on, the bank's manager entered the bank,
having just re-parked his car to find the robbery in
progress. Jackson accosted him, ordered him to the ground,
and secured his hands with a zip tie, inadvertently dropping
a zip tie on the floor. Jackson's DNA was later found on
both zip ties.
Jackson
and Centeno made their getaway with approximately $8, 225 of
purloined cash in their possession. The pair then fled the
state with Pauley, leaving the .38 revolver with
Centeno's mother in New York and eventually making their
way to Daytona Beach, Florida, where they were arrested.
Prior
to trial, defense counsel moved to exclude three videos that
Jackson messaged to his Facebook friends in the days leading
up to the robbery. The first video, sent to "EBK
Rich," showed Jackson driving through a residential area
and twice telling Centeno to fire the revolver toward the
houses. Centeno complied. EBK Rich and Jackson also had a
conversation through Facebook Messenger. Jackson said that he
was "bout to do some real shit." EBK Rich then
asked Jackson, "What you about to do?" Jackson
responded with two words: "Bank" and
"Robbing."
The
second video showed Centeno firing two rounds from the
revolver into an abandoned building while wearing the same
jacket he wore during the robbery. Centeno then passed the
gun to Jackson, who also fired two rounds.
The
third video showed Jackson displaying twenty rounds of
ammunition and stating, "Get what you want. I went to
the store and got bullets with no, no ID." He picked up
a black .38 special revolver and said, "I got this
pretty baby." He then pointed the gun at the camera and
dry fired it.
The
district court denied Jackson's motion in limine, ruling
that the videos were intrinsic evidence that "tend[ed]
to logically prove the elements of the crimes at issue."
In the alternative, the court found that if the evidence was
extrinsic to the charged crimes, it ...