United States v. Baltazar Saenz

Defendant-appellant Baltazar Saenz was convicted following a jury trial on one count of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute a quantity in excess of 100 kilograms of marijuana, and one count of possession with the intent to distribute approximately 1,185 pounds of marijuana.

The primary basis for Saenz’s challenge to his conviction is that the district court deprived him of a fair trial by questioning witnesses in a manner and to a degree that made the court appear to be partial to the prosecution. 1 Saenz argues that the district court’s questions of the chief prosecution…