United States v. Wiley

ENGEL, Circuit Judge.

James Maurice Wiley and William Earl Patrick O’Donnell were convicted in a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, 18 U.S.C. § 371. Wiley was also convicted of a substantive count of mail fraud in the same trial. 18 U.S.C. § 1341; 18 U.S.C. § 2(b).

The government alleged that defendant Wiley requested his barber Sherman Roy Dean to set his houseboat on fire in order to collect the insurance proceeds of $3,817 for the loss of the boat and its contents. Dean enlisted the help of a number of his…