No. 22-1676 ___________________________

United States of America

Plaintiff - Appellee

v.

Darrius Decnan Redd

Defendant - Appellant ____________

Appeal from United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa ____________

Submitted: June 15, 2023 Filed: September 5, 2023 ____________ Before GRUENDER, KELLY, and GRASZ, Circuit Judges. ____________ GRASZ, Circuit Judge.

A jury convicted Darrius Redd of sex trafficking, facilitating prostitution, and distributing a controlled substance to a person under twenty-one years old. On appeal, Redd argues he is entitled to a new trial on two of the three counts because the district court 1 made evidentiary errors and the government deprived him of a fair trial. We affirm.

I. Background

A jury found Redd guilty of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, 18 U.S.C. § 1591(a)(1) and (b)(1); facilitating prostitution, 18 U.S.C. § 1952(a)(3)(A); and distributing methylenedioxymethamphetamine (“MDMA”) to a person under twenty-one, 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 859. Most relevant for this appeal, the government relied on evidence related to the trafficking of A.E. who, at the time, was a college student and under twenty-one. According to the indictment, Redd trafficked A.E. between approximately February 2 and March 14, 2020.

A.E. testified at trial and recounted the following. On or about February 2, sometime after midnight, A.E. met Redd at a gas station in Iowa. A.E. gave Redd her phone number and social media information, and Redd gave A.E. the drug commonly known as “molly.” 2 A.E. believed Redd’s name was “Shawn Cory” because of his social media profile.

A month later, in the early morning on March 3, Redd visited A.E.’s sorority house after insisting he “needed to meet up with” her and that “it wouldn’t take that long.” Shortly after he arrived, Redd suggested A.E. use the molly he brought with him. A.E. eventually agreed. The drug made her feel “very relaxed” and “talkative.” Using a cell phone, Redd openly recorded A.E. while asking her personal questions, including about her family and sexual history. The encounter turned sexual, and Redd recorded A.E. and himself having sex.

1 The Honorable Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger, United States District Judge for the Southern District of Iowa. 2 A certain type of MDMA is commonly referred to as molly. -2- At some point on March 3, Redd proposed to A.E. that she could make money as a prostitute, but first she had to pay back a “debt” she owed Redd for helping her prostitute. Before A.E. began working with Redd, he warned her that she did not “want to know the consequences” if she had sex with anyone “he didn’t approve of,” meaning she could only have sex with people who were giving her money in exchange. While Redd told A.E. he made money “off of other girls that were having sex for him,” he also told her that he sold or abused the women who worked for him if they did not “do what he wanted them to.”

Later that same day, Redd scheduled appointments for A.E. to prostitute herself. After driving A.E. to meet with two clients, Redd took the money she received. By this point, Redd made A.E. share her location with him via a social media application. A.E. was eager to “help” Redd by, for example, texting him about her new “goals” to earn more money in part because she was afraid Redd could retaliate against her by releasing the videos fr