United States v. De La Cruz

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

In this criminal appeal, the appellant strives to convince us that we ought to overturn his convictions for theft of public money, use of a falsely obtained social security number, and aggravated identity theft. We are not persuaded: neither the appellant’s quest for suppression of evidence nor his challenge to the district court’s jury instructions has merit, and the record reveals that the government’s case rests on a durable foundation. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment below.

I. BACKGROUND

We start with a sketch of the facts and the travel of the case. To the extent…