United States v. Israel Araiza

FILED NOT FOR PUBLICATION SEP 09 2011 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS U .S. C O U R T OF APPE ALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 09-50432 Plaintiff - Appellee, D.C. No. 2:09-cr-00130-R-1 v. MEMORANDUM * ISRAEL ARAIZA, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Manuel L. Real, District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted September 1, 2011 Pasadena, California Before: ALARCÓN, O’SCANNLAIN, and SILVERMAN, Circuit Judges. Israel Araiza argues that the district court erred in taking a partial verdict. The taking of a partial verdict is reviewed for abuse of discretion. See United States v. Ross, 626 F.2d 77, 81 (9th Cir. 1980). The jury had been deliberating for less than two hours, there was no indication that the jury was deadlocked with * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. respect to any of the counts, and neither party requested a partial verdict–indeed, defense counsel objected to the taking of the partial verdict. Under these circumstances, there was insufficient justification to take a partial verdict. Because we conclude that the district court abused its discretion when it took the partial verdict, we need not address Araiza’s other arguments. REVERSED and REMANDED. 2