United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 19-1563 ___________________________ United States of America lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellee v. Robert Phillip Ivers lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellant ____________ Appeal from United States District Court for the District of Minnesota ____________ Submitted: May 15, 2020 Filed: July 23, 2020 ____________ Before SMITH, Chief Judge, MELLOY and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges. ____________ SHEPHERD, Circuit Judge. Following a jury trial, Robert Ivers was convicted of one count of threatening to murder a federal judge, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 115(a)(1)(B), and one count of interstate transmission of a threat to injure the person of another, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 875(c). The district court1 sentenced Ivers to 18 months imprisonment with three years of supervised release to follow. Ivers appeals his conviction, arguing that the statements at issue were privileged, that there was insufficient evidence suggesting that he made a true threat of present or future harm, that the district court erred in instructing the jury, and that the district court’s cumulative errors deprived him of his right to a fair trial. Having jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm. I. “We recount the relevant testimony and other evidence presented at trial in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict.” United States v. Shavers, 955 F.3d 685, 688 n.2 (8th Cir. 2020). A. In February 2015, Ivers filed a lawsuit in Minnesota state court against a life insurance company, which was then removed to federal court and eventually assigned to Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright of the District of Minnesota. See Ivers v. CMFG Life Ins. Co., No. 15-cv-1577-WMW-BRT (D. Minn. filed Mar. 23, 2015). In September 2016, Judge Wright entered an order granting summary judgment in favor of the life insurance company on all but one of Ivers’s claims. The following month, Ivers mailed Judge Wright a packet of various court-related materials on which Ivers had written notes. These notes included statements such as “I do not know where I am fucking sleeping tonight! Think about it!”; “I am sick and tired of this fucking bullshit!”; “I want my fucking money . . . .”; “I will not negotiate!!!”; “Have I made myself clear!!!”; “I am in dire fucking straits!”; and “I am becoming a very dangerous person!!!” 1 The Honorable Robert W. Pratt, United States District Judge for the Southern District of Iowa, sitting by designation in the District of Minnesota. -2- Although the case had been scheduled for a settlement conference before Magistrate Judge Becky R. Thorson, the conference was cancelled. And because neither party demanded a jury trial, the case was instead set for a bench trial before Judge Wright. In November 2016, Ivers sent a letter to the court, demanding “a jury trial or [his] fucking money.” In that letter he also stated: “I smell a rat! Somebody needs to explain to me what the fuck is going on!?” Ivers’s communications were forwarded to the United States Marshals Service (USMS). Deputy Marshal Jeffrey Hattervig started investigating ...
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