United States America v. Alexander Danzey and Warren Gore

This appeal, like a number of others involving bank robbery charges, entails questions of similar act evidence and identification testimony. It also involves a severance issue. Appellants Alexander Danzey and Warren Gore were convicted in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Thomas C. Platt, Judge, following a jury verdict on two counts of bank robbery and armed bank robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. ?? 2113(a) and (d), and 18 U.S.C. ? 2. Danzey was sentenced to twenty-five years imprisonment and Gore to twenty years imprisonment for armed bank robbery; the conviction on the bank robbery count was merged into the armed bank robbery count at sentencing. Appellant Gore contends that he was unfairly prejudiced by the introduction of evidence that he had admitted to robbing fifteen other banks, using a modus operandi similar to the one utilized in the robbery for which he was convicted but which he did not admit. Appellant Danzey argues (1) that the trial court erroneously refused to suppress testimony about a photographic identification and subsequent in-court identification of him; (2) that the evidence against him was insufficient as a matter of law because the only testimony linking him to the crime was too full of inconsistencies to support the jurys verdict of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt; and (3) that he was denied his right to confrontation under Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S. Ct. 1620, 20 L. Ed. 2d 476 (1968), because he was not permitted a severance and his codefendants admissions were insufficiently redacted. We affirm as to Gore and reverse and remand as to Danzey.