Case: 17-13265 Date Filed: 07/02/2019 Page: 1 of 106 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 17-13265; 17-13330 ________________________ D.C. Docket No. 1:16-cr-20908-JAL-2 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus RENADO SMITH, RICHARD DELANCY, Defendants-Appellants. ________________________ Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ________________________ (July 2, 2019) Before ROSENBAUM, HULL and JULIE CARNES, Circuit Judges. HULL, Circuit Judge: After a jury trial, defendants Renado Smith and Richard Delancy appeal their convictions for conspiracy to commit alien smuggling, alien smuggling, and 1 Case: 17-13265 Date Filed: 07/02/2019 Page: 2 of 106 attempted illegal reentry. Both defendants argue that at trial the district court erred in admitting the videotaped deposition testimony of passenger Vanessa Armstrong Vixama, a smuggled alien in their boat. Smith also argues that the prosecutor’s improper comments to the jury during closing argument warrant a new trial. After careful review of the record and the parties’ briefs, and with the benefit of oral argument, we affirm Smith and Delancy’s convictions. I. TRIAL EVIDENCE We recount the overwhelming trial evidence of alien smuggling in this case. For starters, on November 4, 2016, defendants Smith and Delancy, both Bahamian nationals, set out from Freeport, Bahamas on a 24-foot Grady White boat with 21 passengers. Smith was the operator of the vessel, and Delancy assisted him. Of the 21 passengers on the boat, 20 were Haitian nationals, including Vixama, and one was a Bahamian national. Sometime after leaving Freeport, this small boat ran out of fuel and drifted at sea for approximately six days. There was little water and no food on the boat. Fortunately for the passengers, on November 9, 2016, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) aircraft, conducting a routine border security patrol, spotted the boat drifting about 24 miles off the coast of Key Largo, Florida. The boat was also about 24 miles to the southwest of Bimini, Bahamas and was drifting 2 Case: 17-13265 Date Filed: 07/02/2019 Page: 3 of 106 in a northerly direction with the Gulf Stream current. The CBP aircraft personnel notified the U.S. Coast Guard of the boat’s position and continued to monitor the boat from the air until a Coast Guard vessel arrived. A Coast Guard cutter was dispatched to the boat’s location and used a small boat to ferry passengers from the disabled boat to the cutter. The passengers, who were tired and dehydrated but otherwise in good health, were eager to leave the disabled boat. Smith and Delancy, however, asked Coast Guard personnel to supply the two of them with water and fuel to continue their trip. A Coast Guard officer advised them that the Coast Guard could not provide them with fuel, and Smith and Delancy agreed to board the cutter. At the time, Smith and Delancy claimed that they were taking the passengers to Bimini, Bahamas. Coast Guard officers testified, however, that they were skeptical of the defendants’ claims because they “didn’t make sense.” The officers ...
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