United States v. Baysdon

A jury convicted Bobby Weldon Baysdon of counterfeiting, and the district court sentenced him to 48 months imprisonment based on its calculation of the face value of the counterfeit items at issue under Sentencing Guideline § 2B5.1. Baysdon appeals, contending that the district court erred by (1) allowing the government to impeach his testimony by asking if he had ever been convicted of a felony, and (2) miscalculating the face value of the counterfeit items that he was capable of producing. We affirm Baysdon's conviction but vacate his sentence and remand to the district court for resentencing. Impeachment Issue Baysdon testified at trial. Before he took the stand he filed a motion in limine to exclude evidence of his prior felony conviction for incest, arguing that the court should exclude evidence of the conviction under Federal Rule of Evidence 609 because the prejudicial effect of the evidence outweighed its probative value. The court agreed with Baysdon that evidence of the incest conviction would be excessively prejudicial, but it allowed the government to ask Baysdon on cross-examination if he had ever been convicted of a felony, and Baysdon responded affirmatively.