Denzil Stewart was charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and multiple counts of distribution. His co-defendant, Carlos Avila, pleaded guilty and testified against Stewart, receiving a 97-month sentence. The government's case relied heavily on Avila's testimony, direct observations by DEA agents, pole-camera footage, and fingerprint evidence linking Stewart to drug transactions. The jury convicted Stewart on two counts but acquitted him on two others. After the verdict but before sentencing, Stewart learned of a new police report revealing that Avila had purchased cocaine from a confidential source shortly before the trial, suggesting Avila had lied about his drug activity during testimony. Stewart moved for a new trial under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 33, arguing this evidence proved perjury and warranted an evidentiary hearing. The district court denied the motion, ruling that the evidence was merely cumulative impeachment and that the overwhelming physical evidence of guilt rendered the new report immaterial to the verdict.
The Eleventh Circuit reviewed the denial of the Rule 33 motion for abuse of discretion. The court reiterated that motions for new trials based on newly discovered evidence are highly disfavored and require the defendant to prove five elements: the evidence was discovered after trial, the failure to discover it was not due to lack of diligence, the evidence is not merely cumulative or impeaching, it is material, and it would probably produce a different result. The court found that Stewart failed to satisfy the requirement that the evidence be more than merely cumulative or impeaching. Unlike the precedent in United States v. Espinosa-Hernandez, where an agent's false statements directly resulted in the unavailability of a key defense witness, here there was no allegation of withheld witnesses or prosecutorial misconduct. The court noted that the jury had already acquitted Stewart on counts where Avila's testimony was the primary evidence, demonstrating they viewed Avila as uncredible. Furthermore, the evidence supporting the guilty verdicts on Counts 1 and 3 included direct agent observations, fingerprint evidence, and testimony from other witnesses, which was sufficient to sustain the conviction independent of Avila's credibility. Consequently, the new police report would only serve to further impeach Avila in a cumulative fashion without altering the outcome. Regarding the request for an evidentiary hearing, the court held that the district court judge, who presided over the entire case, was well-qualified to decide the motion based on affidavits without a hearing, as there were no unique circumstances like jury tampering or third-party confessions requiring a hearing.
Stewart's conviction and sentence remain in full force. The decision reinforces the high bar for obtaining a new trial based on newly discovered evidence in the Eleventh Circuit, particularly when the evidence is limited to impeachment of a witness whose credibility was already challenged by the jury's partial acquittal. It clarifies that district courts do not abuse their discretion by denying evidentiary hearings on Rule 33 motions when the presiding judge has sufficient information from the trial record to evaluate the motion.
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