United States v. Pablo

Before BRISCOE, Chief Circuit Judge, EBEL and HOLMES, Circuit Judges.

This appeal arises out of Jonathan Pablo’s conviction by a jury for vaginal rape, kidnapping, assault resulting in serious bodily injury, and carjacking. Pablo was tried with a co-defendant, Isaac Gordo, whom the jury convicted on similar counts. Here, we are faced only with Pablo’s appeal, and he raises three challenges to his convictions: (1) that the district court deprived him of his confrontation rights under the Sixth Amendment by admitting testimony of a DNA expert, Kortney Snider, when that expert relied on reports prepared by analysts not called to testify and conveyed the contents of those reports to the jury; (2) that the prosecutor and district court impermissibly interfered with his right to present a defense by raising the specter of self-incrimination to dissuade two defense witnesses, Zachary and Alzado Gordo, from testifying; and (3) that the district court erred by excluding certain evidence under Federal Rule of Evidence 412. We exercise jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and, for the reasons that follow, we AFFIRM.*fn1