United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 22-1546 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. BUDDY H. GUNTER, Defendant-Appellant. ____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois. No. 4:19-cr-40064-SLD-2 — Sara Darrow, Chief Judge. ____________________

ARGUED DECEMBER 8, 2022 — DECIDED AUGUST 11, 2023 ____________________ Before RIPPLE, ROVNER, and WOOD, Circuit Judges.

ROVNER, Circuit Judge. Following a criminal trial, Buddy Gunter was found guilty of conspiracy to distribute metham- phetamine, and sentenced to 300 months’ imprisonment. Gunter now appeals that conviction, arguing only that he was denied his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial. In February 2019, Buddy Gunter and his brother-in-law Michael Grommet participated in multiple transactions as 2 No. 22-1546 part of a conspiracy to deliver methamphetamine. Those transactions included a controlled purchase of actual meth- amphetamine from Gunter by law enforcement agents. On September 17, 2019, a federal grand jury returned an indict- ment charging Gunter, Grommet, and others of conspiring to distribute and possessing with intent to distribute at least fifty grams of actual methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(A), and 846. Gunter was arrested on July 2, 2020, and the district court set an initial trial date of August 31, 2020. Gunter moved to continue the trial to allow time to prepare with his attorney and determine how to proceed. The court then continued the case for two months, setting a new trial date of October 26, 2020 and a pretrial conference on September 23. At that con- ference, Gunter’s attorney requested another continuance, and the trial date was extended to November 2, 2020. In the meantime, the court had ordered a competency evaluation for Gunter’s co-defendant Grommet, and on October 14, 2020, Grommet was found competent to proceed to trial. Because the trial was less than a month away, Grommet’s attorney re- quested a continuance, which Gunter opposed. However, the court granted the request and continued the trial until Janu- ary 19, 2021. The next pretrial conference was in November 2020, but by that time all jury trials had been suspended through January 25, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the district court therefore set a trial date of February 2, 2021. A pretrial conference was held on December 16, 2020, at which time Gunter objected to a motion by co-defendant Grommet to delay the trial again. The district court continued the trial date to March 22, 2021. Even absent that motion by No. 22-1546 3 Grommet, a continuance ultimately would have been neces- sary because of the pandemic-related suspension of jury trials through March 23, 2021. Six days later, on December 22, 2020, Gunter filed a motion to sever his trial from the trial of Grommet. Although the mo- tion was filed just days after the trial was again continued for a later date, he did not present any argument in that motion that a severance would protect his right to a speedy trial un- der the Sixth Amendment. Instead, the motion to sever the trial was based solely on the argument that Grommet had made statements to the police that incriminated Gunter. Gun- ter argued that severance was required because the use of those statements in the government’s case-in-chief at trial would violate his Sixth Amendment right to confront wit- nesses as recognized in Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123 (1968). 1 The government subsequently professed that it would redact the statement