Full opinion text
KANNE, Circuit Judge.. Chicago Police Department officer Glenn Lewellen arrested drug dealer Saul Rodriguez in 1996 and eventually turned him into an informant. By 1998, the two had established a more lucrative arrangement: Rodriguez, would collect information about local drug dealers, and then Lewel-len would make a seemingly legitimate detention of the dealers and rob them of their drugs and money. Over the next several years, ■ Rodriguez and Defendant Lewellen ran a successful criminal enterprise, bringing in at least thirteen more participants, including Defendants Hector Uriarte (“Hector”), Jorge Uriarte (“Jorge”), Tony Sparkman, and Robert Cardena. -Robbing drug dealers eventually escalated into kidnapping them for ransom money or even murdering them for money and drugs. Although several of the members arranged plea agreements, six of the organization’s members were tried, and five were convicted. They appealed, challenging various aspects of their convictions, and we affirm. In addition, Defendants Hector, Jorge, and Sparkman challenge their sentences. We vacate those sentences and remand for resentencing in light of Alleyne v. United States, — U.S. —, 133 S.Ct. 2151, 186 L.Ed.2d 314 (2013). I. Background This case involves an extensive cast of characters engaging in numerous criminal acts. The conspiracy’s collapse resulted in the indictment of at least fifteen individuals and a three-month jury trial for six Defendants. Despite the complexity of the conspiracy, investigation, and trial, each issue raised on appeal has a discrete set of relatively simple facts. For that reason, we will lay out the facts relating to a particular claim at the time it is discussed. Before turning to Defendants’ arguments, however, we offer a brief description of the crimes that brought us here. In 1996, Chicago Police Department (“CPD”) officer Glenn Lewellen arrested Saul Rodriguez for marijuana distribution, and Rodriguez agreed to become an informant. Rodriguez was not the typical informant, however, because by 1998, his information on area drug dealers was no longer being used for law-enforcement purposes. Instead, Rodriguez would identify drug dealers for Lewellen, and Lewellen— sometimes with help from Rodriguez— would rob them.. Often, Lewellen would pretend to conduct a traffic stop or arrest and would confiscate the dealers’ drugs and money to share with Rodriguez. The venture was profitable, and it evolved to. include more members and more violent crimes to further the venture. Between 1998 and 2009, members of the conspiracy committed at least three murders, twenty kidnappings and robberies, and numerous drug-trafficking offenses. A. Indictment The conspiracy came to an end in April 2009 when the Drug Enforcement Agency (“DEA”) filmed an attempted robbery of 600 kilograms of cocaine from a warehouse. A lengthy prosecution followed. The third superseding indictment, returned on January 13, 2011, alleged two conspiracies: (1) Count 1 alleged a racketeering conspiracy to commit murders, kidnappings, robberies, drug trafficking, and obstruction of justice (“RICO conspiracy”) and (2) Count 13 alleged a conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five or more kilograms of narcotics (“narcotics conspiracy”). Defendants were charged with both conspiracies, with the exception of Cardena who was only charged with participation in the narcotics conspiracy. Along with conspiracy charges, Defendants were also charged for their individual participation in substantive offenses of the conspiracy. We briefly describe those relevant to this appeal. In 2006, Defendants Hector, Jorge, Sparkman, and Cardena broke into a house in Joliet, Illinois, and stole several boxes containing 300 kilograms of cocaine (“Joliet robbery”). The Joliet cocaine belonged to a high-ranking member of the Mexican cartel. After the cocaine was stolen, the cartel hired Rodriguez to investigate. Rodriguez blamed rival drug dealers Lou Vega and Francisco Pizarro. Rodriguez, Hector, and Jorge kidnapped Pizarro and Vega and then bound, threatened, interrogated, and tortured them to convince the cartel that it had thoroughly investigated the cocaine theft (“Vega/Pizarro kidnapping”). In 2007, Hector, Jorge, Sparkman, and co-conspirator Andres Flores robbed Pedro Avila, who Rodriguez believed was hiding $2 million in cash in his home (“Avila kidnapping”). The group posed as police officers and used a battering ram to break into the home. The group threatened Avila, his- wife, and children, and stole only $2,000. Defendants Hector, Jorge, and Sparkman were also charged with using firearms in connection with this offense. In 2008, Hector, Jorge, Sparkman, and Flores kidnapped Jose Carranza and his friend (“Carranza kidnapping”). Hector served as lookout while Sparkman kicked in Carranza’s door. Flores covered Carranza with a blanket and held a gun to his head, while Jorge did the same with Carranza’s friend. The group found and stole only $2,000 in cash. Defendants Hector, Jorge, and Sparkman were also charged with using firearms during this offense. In April 2009, the crew attempted to steal 600 kilograms of cocaine from a warehouse in Chahnahon, Illinois (“Chann-ahon robbery”). The DEA filmed the robbery and arrested most of the co-conspirators at that time. B. Trial Six Defendants went to trial—Lewellen, Hector, Jorge, Sparkman, Cardena, and Manuel Uriarte. The government’s case-in-chief spanned eleven weeks with more than 100 witnesses, including the testimony of cooperating co-conspirators Rodriguez, Flores, Fares Umar, . Lisette and David Venegas, Jorge Lopez, Pedro Victoria, and Andres Torres. On January 31, 2012, the jury returned its verdict. The jury acquitted Manuel Ur-iarte on two counts and could not reach a verdict on count 1; he subsequently pled guilty to count 1 and is not involved in this appeal. Defendants Lewellen, ■ Hector, Jorge, Sparkman, and Cardena were each convicted on some or all of the charges against them, and they appeal. C. Sentencing Cardena and Lewellen, who do not challenge their terms of imprisonment, were sentenced to 120 months and 216 months, respectively. Because Hector, Jorge, and Sparkman were convicted of two 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) offenses each, they were subject to a mandatory minimum of 40 years’ imprisonment. The district court sentenced Sparkman to .the mandatory minimum of 504 months; Jorge to a below-guidelines sentence of. 720 months; and Hector to a below-guidelines sentence of 600 months. II. Analysis ' We turn now to the issues raised in Defendants’ appeals. Defendants raise numerous distinct issues on appeal arising from both their trial and sentencings. We treat each issue in turn. A. Dismissal of Juror 24 for Cause Defendants first challenge the district court’s dismissal for cause of Juror 24. During voir dire, the district court asked if any juror had ever been arrested. Juror 24 did not raise his hand. Later, a police officer, unbeknownst to the government, ran a criminal history check on Juror 24 and found that he had been arrested nine times. The district court then asked Juror 24 if he had ever been arrested, but he only disclosed one arrest for marijuana. The government then moved to dismiss Juror 24 for cause. The district court asked the government to confirm the accuracy of the criminal history report before it would grant the motion. The report was correct, so the district court dismissed Juror 24 for cause because of his false statements. Generally, we review a district court’s ruling on for-cause challenges to jurors for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Fletcher, 634 F.3d 395, 409 (7th Cir. 2011). We need not even consider whether the district court abused its discretion, however, because Defendants have not pointed to any legally cognizable harm. See Marshall v. City of Chicago, 762 F.3d 573, 578 (7th Cir. 2014) (“[E]ven quoting the standard of review is getting ahead of ourselves. [The defendant] has suggested no remotely cognizable legal harm to support this argument.”). There is “no legally cognizable right to have any particular juror participate in [a defendant’s] case.” United States v. Polichemi, 201 F.3d 858, 865 (7th Cir. 2000). We have repeatedly rejected the challenge Defendants raise, explaining: [The defendant’s] argument that one prospective juror who did not sit on his jury would have been unbiased does not establish a violation of his constitutional rights to due process and an impartial jury; these rights are satisfied as long as a defendant is tried before a “qualified jury composed of individuals not chal-lengeable for cause.” United States v. Russell, 463 Fed.Appx. 585, 586-87 (7th Cir. 2012) (quoting Rivera v. Illinois, 556 U.S. 148, 157, 129 S.Ct. 1446, 173 L.Ed.2d 320 (2009)); see also United States v. Osigbade, 195 F.3d 900, 905 (7th Cir. 1999). Defendants’ reliance on cases where a district court denied a for-cause challenge is misplaced because such a denial may have resulted in the seating of a juror who is actually partial, thereby affecting the impartiality of the jury. There are no such concerns where a for-cause challenge may have been mistakenly granted, but the jury was otherwise impartial, which is the circumstance we face here. B. Rereading the Silvern Instruction Defendants next argue that the district court abused its discretion when it chose to reread the Silvern instruction instead of declaring a mistrial after the jury indicated that it was unsure if it could reach a verdict. Before deliberating, the jury was read a modified version of the instruction this court promulgated in United States v. Silvern, 484 F.2d 879 (7th Cir. 1973) (en banc). After twenty-three hours of deliberation, the district court received a note from the jury that said: “Dear Judge, we have been talking about all the evidence, and unfortunately believe that there are some counts we can’t agree on. What might our next step be? We have voted, discussed, voted over and over again. Some of us stand very strong in our opinions.” (Trial Tr., vol. 32, 5432.) In light of the note from the jury, Defendants moved for a mistrial, but the government requested that the distinct court reread the Silvern instruction instead. During the discussion about the jury’s note, the district court disclosed that the previous day a court security officer had told the court that “one of the jurors [was] near tears because she’s afraid she’s going to lose her job if these deliberations don’t come to an end.” (Id. at 5433.) The court instructed the officer to tell the jury that if there is “any juror who needs me to deal with an employer, they should bring their concerns to me.” (Id. at 5441.) No juror approached the court. The defense requested, and the district court agreed, to take this fact into consideration when deciding whether to reread the Silvern instruction. The district court found it appropriate to reread the instruction instead of declaring a mistrial. We review a district court’s decision to read (or reread) the Silvern instruction for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Sanders, 962 F.2d 660, 676 (7th Cir. 1992). The Silvern instruction may be reread “to the jury after deliberations reach a deadlock, provided that a supplemental instruction is deemed necessary.” United States v. Collins, 223 F.3d 502, 509 (7th Cir. 2000) (internal quotation marks omitted). At bottom, “[t]he relevant inquiry, under Silvern, ... is whether the court’s communications pressured the jury to surrender their honest opinions for the mere purpose of returning a verdict.” United States v. Kramer, 955 F.2d 479, 489 (7th Cir. 1992) (internal quotation marks omitted). The content of the instruction is not inherently coercive. Sanders, 962 F.2d at 676; United States v. Beverly, 913 F.2d 337, 352 (7th Cir. 1990). But, Defendants argue, it was the context in which the instruction was reread that led to coercion. In this case, the jury sent one deadlock note after only three days of deliberation in a trial that had lasted eleven weeks and had six Defendants and more than 100 witnesses. In such a situation, the district court did not abuse its discretion in rereading the Silvern instruction. See, e.g., Sanders, 962 F.2d at 665-66, 676 (no error in two rereadings of Silvern instruction after two-month, multi-defendant trial where jury had only deliberated for two days but one juror was refusing to participate). In addition, the jury did not return its verdict until five days after the court reread the Silvern instruction, and it did not convict all Defendants of all counts, indicating that rereading of the instruction did not pressure jurors to “surrender their honest opinions for the mere purpose of returning a verdict.” Kramer, 955 F.2d at 489 (internal quotation marks omitted). With respect to the crying juror, it' is quite speculative to infer that the juror felt coerced to agree. No juror came forward after the district court requested the jury be informed that anyone having trouble with an employer should discuss the issue with the court. It is more likely that whatever frustration plagued that juror had been resolved, or else the district court would have been informed. Accordingly, the district court did not abuse its discretion in rereading the Silvern instruction. Nor did the district court abuse its discretion in refusing to grant a mistrial. A district court has broad discretion to deny a motion for a mistrial, and we only review for an abuse of that discretion. Beverly, 913 F.2d at 351. Again, deliberations had only gone on for three days after a trial that'had lasted almost three months. The jury had only sent one note to the court expressing its inability to agree. The district court responded appropriately by asking for jurors to come forward if there were problems with work and rereading the Silvern instruction to encourage further deliberation. C. Failure to Hold Hearing about Crying Juror Defendants, relying on Remmer v. United States, 347 U.S. 227, 74 S.Ct. 450, 98 L.Ed. 654 (1954), also contend that the district court abused its discretion when, it did not hold a hearing to assess whether the crying juror’s employment pressures were an extraneous jury influence that violated their right to a fair trial. No Defendant requested a hearing to evaluate the upset juror’s situation, nor did any Defendant object to the district court’s solution, which was to request that any juror having trouble with work bring it to the court’s attention. A failure to object, coupled with acquiescence in the district court’s solution, could constitute waiver of a hearing. See United States v. Verkuilen, 690 F.2d 648, 658 (7th Cir. 1982) (“Defense counsel’s express acquiescence to the manner in which the court handled the jury taint question clearly amounts to a waiver of the issue.”). Even if not waived, our review is made particularly difficult in light of the fact that Defendants did not request a hearing. See United States v. Walker, 160 F.3d 1078, 1083 (6th Cir. 1998) (“[A] defendant who waits until appeal to request a [Rem-mer] hearing bears a heavy burden, since the defendant has thereby effectively deprived this court of any basis for concluding that a hearing would be necessary, and asks us to presume that the district court would not have acceded to such a request, and would have done so. for erroneous reasons”). Defendants’ claim that the district court erred in failing to sua sponte order a Remmer hearing cannot survive the heavy burden of plain-error review, which requires an. error that is plain and affects the defendant’s substantial rights. Fed. R. Crim. P. 52(b); United States v. Marcus, 560 U.S. 258, 262, 130 S.Ct. 2159, 176 L.Ed.2d 1012 (2010). While it is true that extraneous influences on a juror can give rise to a violation of a defendant’s right to an impartial jury, Wisehart v. Davis, 408 F.3d 321, 326 (7th Cir. 2005), not all extraneous influences are presumptively prejudicial such that they require a Remmer hearing. See United States v. Warner; 498 F.3d 666, 680 (7th Cir. 2007) (“Sometimes the circumstances are such that the Remmer presumption does not even apply.”). To invoke the Remmer presumption, “the extraneous communication to the juror must be of a character that creates a reasonable suspicion that further inquiry is necessary to determine whether the defendant was deprived of his' right to an impartial jury.” Wisehart, 408 F.3d at 326. “How much inquiry is necessary (perhaps very little, or even none) depends on how likely was the extraneous communication to contaminate the jury’s- deliberations.” Id. In the present case, any extraneous communication was not “of a character that creates a reasonable suspicion that further inquiry is necessary.” Id. The juror was near tears because of concern about losing her job; nothing about the communication was related to the case-or to influence a vote. This was not a “purposeful intrusion into the sanctity of the juror’s domain” to which the Remmer presumption applies. Schaff v. Snyder, 190 F.3d 513, 534 (7th Cir. 1999). In addition, the district court relayed to. the jurors that if there were problems with an employer, they should alert the district court. No juror came forward, indicating that any extraneous communication was no longer affecting the juror. And finally, the district court disclosed the situation and its solution to both parties, at which point Defendants did not request a hearing. Those facts are a far cry from Remmer where the extraneous communication was an offer to bribe a juror, and the court and prosecutor resolved the situation ex parte. 347 U.S. at 228-29, 74 S.Ct. 450. D. Government’s Introduction of “False” Testimony Defendants Hector, Jorge, Sparkman, and Lewellen argue that the government knowingly introduced false testimony at trial, which warrants a new trial. Because Defendants did not object at trial to the government’s alleged presentation of knowingly false testimony, our review is for plain error. United States v. Peak, 856 F.2d 825, 830-31 (7th Cir. 1988). Undoubtedly, it violates due process for the government to obtain a conviction by the knowing use of perjured testimony. Napue v. Illinois, 360 U.S. 264, 269, 79 S.Ct. 1173, 3 L.Ed.2d 1217 (1959); Schaff, 190 F.3d at 530. But, to receive a new trial, the defendant must show “(1) that there was false testimony; (2) that the government knew or should have known it was false; and (3) that there is a likelihood that the false testimony affected the judgment of the jury.” United States v. Freeman, 650 F.3d 673, 678 (7th Cir. 2011). 1. Victoria’s■ Testimony, Defendants first allege that Pedro Victoria gave testimony the government knew to be false regarding Hector’s involvement in the Avila kidnapping and De-latorre robbery. The false testimony at issue is Victoria’s trial testimony that he gave the government information in January, November, and December 2008. that Hector was involved in the Avila kidnapping. But Officer Healy testified that he did not .recall Victoria identifying the Uriartes as being involved until his - grand-jury testimony in February 2010. Thus, Victoria’s, “false” testimony relates to the dates on which he informed the government that Hector was involved in the Avila kidnapping. But, “[t]he alleged perjured testimony must bear a direct relationship to the defendant’s guilt or innocence.” Shasteen v. Saver, 252 F.3d 929, 933 (7th Cir. 2001) (internal quotation marks omitted), The date on which Victoria told .the government that Hector was involved in the Avila kidnapping has nothing to do -with whether Hector was involved or not,, and so any falsehood does not bear on- Hector’s guilt or innocence. Rather,' the argument that the government presented' Victoria’s false testimony appears to be an attempt to reweigh the credibility of Victoria’s testimony. Their contention is that when Rodriguez was placed in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in February 2009 along with Victoria and other government witnesses, Rodriguez coerced or attempted to coerce those witnesses to corroborate his story so that he could get a better plea deal. But the jury was fully apprised of the fact that Rodriguez had engaged in such conduct. Defendants cross-examined Victoria extensively about the dates, and the jury also heard Officer Healy’s testimony that Victoria did not identify Hector as involved until February 2010. Defendants were able to argue to the jury the implication that Rodriguez told Victoria to testify that Hector was involved, an implication it rejected by convicting Hector. “When a jury has chosen to credit crucial testimony with full knowledge of the many faults of the witness providing it, we have no basis to interfere,” United States v. Alcantar, 83 F.3d 185, 189 (7th Cir. 1996), and we decline to do so here. 2. Vega’s and Rodriguez’s Testimony Next, Defendants argue that the government presented false testimony from either Rodriguez or Vega over whether there was a dead body in the basement where Vega was held during his kidnapping. Vega’s testimony was the following: Q: From where you were, you could see a dead male body on the floor of the basement? A: Yes. Q: You were able to look at that body for an hour or so because you were— while you were in the basement you were not blindfolded? A: Yes.... Q: Based on the clothes and the build of the body, you believed that the body was Mauricio’s. A: Yes. (Trial Tr. 2474-75.) Rodriguez, however, testified .to the following: Q: ... Let me ask you this: Was there a dead body on the floor by this body shop guy [Vega]? A: No. Q: Was there ever a dead body in Rogelio Corral’s home? A: No.... Q: Was [Mauricio’s] dead body lying on the floor of Rogelio Corral’s home? A: There was no dead body. (Id. at 3566-67.) According to Defendants, one of the two had to be lying about whether there was a dead body, and therefore, the government knowingly presented false testimony. But “[m]ere inconsistencies in testimony by government witnesses do not establish the government’s knowing use of false testimony.” United States v. Verser, 916 F.2d 1268, 1271 (7th Cir. 1990) (internal quotation marks omitted). The difference in testimony between the two witnesses as to whether Mauricio’s dead body was in the basement does not establish that either’s testimony was deliberately false, rather than a difference in personal knowledge or perception. Vega only viewed the body for an hour from a distance during a stressful kidnapping. Rodriguez, on the other hand, denied that there ever was a dead body in the house. Perhaps there was an unconscious body or perhaps it was just a pile of clothing that resembled a body. There are countless possibilities that could explain why the two witnesses had different recollections, and there is no evidence the government “knew” one of the witnesses’ descriptions to be “false.” Even assuming—which is quite a large assumption—that the inconsistency between Rodriguez and Vega’s testimony amounts to the government’s knowing use of false testimony, the alleged perjured testimony does not relate to Defendants’ guilt or innocence. Shasteen, 252 F.3d at 933. There was no charge in this case related to Mauricio’s murder, so any “false testimony’ that may have resulted over whether his dead body was in the basement has no bearing on whether a particular Defendant was involved in Vega’s kidnapping. Defendants do not explain how the alleged “false testimony” about whether or not there was a dead body in the basement prejudiced them, and so we decline to grant a new trial on those grounds. E. Witnesses Brought to the Courtroom Window Defendants Hector, Jorge, Spark-man, and Lewellen next argue that a new trial should be granted because witnesses were brought to the courtroom window for purposes of making identifications prior to testifying in violation of Defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to counsel. During trial, Defendants learned that the government was having agents bring witnesses to the courtroom window to see if they could identify Defendants. Defendants brought the practice to the attention of the court. In response, the government said the practice had only been used for witnesses “who have had social and business relationships with these defendants for months and years.” (Trial Tr. 2325.) The government also disclosed that Salvador Hernandez, a witness who had not yet testified, was asked to look through the courtroom window and said he did not recognize anyone despite having previously identified the Uriartes in pictures. The district court ordered that the practice stop. It also permitted the defense to cross-examine Hernandez about his inability to identify any Defendant through the window. Later, the government sent a letter to the defense in which it disclosed the witnesses who were asked to make identifications through the courtroom window. Defendants did nothing further with the information. After the verdicts, Lewellen and Jorge moved for a new trial,- arguing that the identifications violated due process. U.S; Const, amend. V. The district court, after a hearing, denied the motion. Defendants did not raise the argument that the identifications violated their Sixth Amendment right to counsel until October 21, 2012. On that date, Jorge filed a post-trial “list of issues [Defendant] wishes to raise related to his trial and conviction.” (R. 1051 at 1.) The list described the identification procedure and called it “an impermissible, post-indictment show-up.... ” citing United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967), and Gilbert v. California, 388 U.S. 263, 87 S.Ct. 1951, 18 L.Ed.2d 1178 (1967). (Id. at 4.) On appeal, Defendants appear to forfeit any argument that the procedure violated due process and only pursue the distinct argument that the identification violated the Sixth Amendment. Because Defendants did not make a contemporaneous objection on Sixth Amendment grounds, we will review for plain error. See, e.g., United States v. Bell, 624 F.3d 803, 808 (7th Cir. 2010) (plain-error review where argument on appeal “rests on different grounds”). . The Sixth Amendment right to counsel requires the presence of counsel at any “critical stage of the prosecution.” Wade, 388 U.S. at. 237, 87 S.Ct. 1926. There appears to be a circuit split on the question of whether permitting a witness to identify the defendant in the courtroom prior to testifying violates the Sixth Amendment. Compare United States v. Roth, 430 F.2d 1137, 1140-41 (2d Cir. 1970) (extending Wade to courtroom walk-through of witness) and Cannon v. Alabama, 558 F.2d 1211, 1217 (5th Cir. 1977) (applying Wade where officer asked witness to look through courtroom window), with United States v. Montgomery, 150 F.3d 983, 994-95 (9th Cir. 1998) (not extending Wade to identification through courtroom window because it was a “non-adversarial” identification not requiring assistance of counsel). We decline to wade into the circuit split, however, because any error in allowing witnesses to look through the courtroom window to identify Defendants could not have prejudiced them because the witnesses had an “independent source” for their' identification. See Gilbert, 388 U.S. at 272, 87 S.Ct. 1951. The only witnesses that had testified by the time the government’s practice was disclosed were co-conspirators or business associates who had repeated interactions with Defendants. The only victim that looked through the courtroom window, Hernandez, did not make an in-court identification and was cross-examined extensively about the courtroom-window practice. Therefore Defendants have hot shown that they were prejudiced by any error the government committed by bringing witnesses to the courtroom window. It does not go unnoticed that the government’s practice of bringing witnesses to the courtroom window before testifying appears to be a subversion of the longstanding tradition that a -witness identify the defendant in the courtroom on the witness stand in front of the jury and counsel. In fact, in-court identifications are not subject to due-process concerns of suggestiveness because “the jury is in the unique position of observing the entire identification procedure, and it may weigh the accuracy of the identification accordingly.” United States v. Recendiz, 557 F.3d 511, 526 (7th Cir. 2009). The government flouted that tradition by conducting in-court identification dress rehearsals without the procedural protection of the jury’s and counsel’s gaze. Nevertheless, we. do not find that in this case the practice prejudiced Defendants or “seriously affect[ed] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings.” United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 736, 113 S.Ct. 1770, 123 L.Ed.2d 508 (1993) (internal quotation marks omitted). F. Lewellen’s Motion to Sever Before trial, Lewellen moved to sever his trial (or at least the murder-related counts) from the other Defendants, arguing that joinder was improper. Lewel-len argued that because, he did not participate or even know about the murders and did not have a relationship with the alleged murderers, he could not have “participated in the same act or transaction” with them. Fed. R. Crim. P. 8. In addition, he contended that he would be unfairly prejudiced by the government’s introduction of evidence of murder because he was not alleged to have participated in murder. Fed. R. Crim. P. 14. The district court denied Lewellen’s motion on both grounds, concluding that because the government had alleged a RICO conspiracy, there was no requirement that every Defendant know each other or have personally participated in each act alleged. At the close of evidence, Lewellen filed a motion alleging that the evidence was insufficient to sustain a conviction on the RICO counts and the narcotics conspiracy counts. Lewellen did not, however, renew his motion to sever at that time. After he was convicted of the narcotics conspiracy counts but not convicted of the RICO conspiracy, Lewellen raised the severance objection in a motion for a new trial, which the district court again denied. We review a district court’s denial of a motion to sever for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Jackson, 787 R.3d 1153, 1158 (7th Cir. 2015). A defendant, however, waives the issue if he does not renew, his severance motion at the close of evidence. Id.; see also United States v. Plato, 629 F.3d 646, 650 (7th Cir. 2010) (“Failure to renew a motion to sever at the close of evidence results in waiver.”). Lewellen argues that because he raised the issue in a post-trial motion for a new trial, our review is for abuse of discretion. That is incorrect. The severance motion must be renewed at the close of evidence, not after the verdict. That is “because the close of evidence is the moment when the district court can fully ascertain whether the joinder of multiple counts was unfairly prejudicial' to the defendant’s right to a fair trial,” while also “discouraging strategic choices by criminal defendants who would prefer to wait for a verdict before renewing their severance arguments, thus wasting valuable judicial resources.” United States v. Rollins, 301 F.3d 511, 518 (7th Cir. 2002). Importantly, Lewellen has not argued “that refiling [the motion to sever] would have been ... futile,” a situation in which waiver may be excused. United States v. Alviar, 573 F.3d 526, 538 (7th Cir. 2009) (alteration in original and internal quotation marks omitted). In fact, he offers no reason why he did not renew his severance motion at the close of evidence. Therefore, we conclude that he has waived the severance issue, precluding appellate review. See Olano, 507 U.S. at 733, 113 S.Ct. 1770. Even if Lewellen had not waived his claim for severance, the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying severance just because Lewellen did not personally participate in the alleged murders. Instead, “there is a presumption that participants in a conspiracy or other criminal schemes should be tried together, not only to economize on judicial and pros-ecutorial resources but also to give the jury a fuller picture of the scheme.” United States v. Phillips, 239 F.3d 829, 838 (7th Cir. 2001) (internal quotation marks omitted). The indictment alleged that Defendants engaged in a long-running conspiracy involving drug trafficking, kidnapping, robbery, and murder. There was testimony at trial that Lewellen participated in drug trafficking and robbery in furtherance of the conspiracy. The fact that Lewellen did not personally participate in murder does not mean that the district court abused its discretion in permitting joinder. See id. at 837 (affirming joinder of the only defendant “not charged with committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering”). Lewellen has also not shown that his trial was in any way unfair as a result of the admission of murder evidence. In fact, the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on the RICO count—the charge to which the murder evidence was relevant. The verdict reinforces that the jury did as it was instructed and considered the evidence against Lewellen separately from other Defendants, resulting in a fair trial. G. Evidence of “Unexplained Wealth” Defendants Hector and Lewellen challenge the government’s reliance on a theory of unexplained wealth to introduce financial evidence against them. 1. Hector’s Financial Evidence During trial, Hector filed a motion -in limine to prevent the government from introducing financial evidence. The government opposed the motion because it wanted to introduce evidence, of his lavish spending on jewelry and luxury cars. The government indicated that it would introduce evidence of Hector’s legitimate sources of income, including his tax returns from 2000 to 2009, a 2005 mortgage application, and a 2007 vehicle financing application. The district court, relying on United States v. Carrera, 259 F.3d 818 (7th Cir. 2001), denied Hector’s motion, ruling that evidence of his unexplained wealth was relevant and admissible, provided that the government introduce evidence “that the income was- not obtained through legitimate means,” which it noted could be shown by introduction -of his tax returns, As a result, the government introduced testimony that Hector received large amounts of cash from criminal activity, including drug sales and kidnapping ransoms. It also introduced testimony of several purchases and investments he made between 2004 and 2008, including: (1) business investments of $250,000, $50,000 of which was in cash; (2) a $280,000 mortgage with a cash down payment of $66,162; (3) vehicle purchases around $227,000; and (4) a diamond bracelet for $20,000 cash. • To comply with Carrera, the government presented the following evidence that Hector’s income was not obtained through legitimate means: (1) a 2005 mortgage application in which Hector represented that he owned Platinum Motors for three years, earning a monthly salary of $15,000 and (2) two 2008 vehicle financing applications in which he represented that he had been employed by Platinum Motors for five years, earning a monthly salary of $10,416. But the owner of Platinum Motors, Roy Corral; testified that Hector had never worked there. He explained instead that Hector would invest cash in the business, and Corral- would give him payroll checks because he “felt threatened if [he] didn’t do so.” (Trial Tr. 2834.) Coconspirator. Andres Flores testified that Hector told him he had invested in Platinum Motors as a way to “tell people he had a job, a legitimate one.” (Id. at 2092.) ■ The government did not introduce Hector’s tax returns. During closing argument, the government argued that Hector’s lavish spending was unexplained wealth and that the only explanation was his involvement in criminal activity. After trial, Hector filed a motion for a new trial, challenging the government’s use of an unexplained-wealth argument because it had not introduced an objective financial picture via tax returns. The district court denied the motion, finding that evidence that Hector was not employed at Platinum Motors was sufficient evidence that his income was illegitimate. 2. Lewellen’s Unexplained Wealth During trial, several witnesses testified that the organization would sell cocaine or get ransom money, and Lewellen would get a portion of the proceeds. The government then introduced evidence of Lewel-len’s large expenditures, emphasizing his use of large amounts of cash. Specifically, it introduced evidence that in 2006, Lewel-len purchased four' classic ears totaling $175,000, $145,000 of which was paid in cash. The witness testified that in his experience with the classic car market, he had never seen someone pay cash to make such a large car purchase. To satisfy Carrera, the government presented some evidence of Lewellen’s sources of income. Lewellen’s former business associate testified that Lewellen told him that he had a $1 million workplace-injury settlement while:at CPD. Lewellen’s CPD record, however, does not mention any such settlement. The same associate testified that Lewellen told him that his wife had received a “couple million dollars” from an injury in an accident, but no evidence at all was offered to either prove or disprove that payment. (Trial Tr. 2694.) Lewellen’s case now diverges from Hector’s because it is undisputed that he did have some legitimate income. The government presented evidence that Lewellen’s salary as a police officer was never more than $61,512 from 1996 to 2002, which is when he left CPD. Complicating matters further, however, is the fact that in 1999, Lewellen opened a homebuilding business. The government did not present evidence of the legitimate income that Lewellen earned from that venture. It did, however, introduce limited testimony with respect to Lewellen’s business, including that Lewellen Home Builders owned a $125,000 Hitachi excavator and that Lewellen provided a $1.2 million down payment to purchase land for a subdivision. ' The government also elicited testimony about Lewellen’s significant use of cash in his business, including: (1) Lewellen’s purchase and resale of 70 home lots, after which he paid a finder’s fee of $60,000 in cash; (2) Lewellen’s use of $140,000 in cash, bound with rubber bands, to pay subcontractors; and (3) payments to subcontractors between 2001 and 2005, totaling approximately $44,000 in cash. During closing argument, the government argued that Lewellen’s use of more than $388,000 in cash to buy cars and pay contractors came from criminal activity, not from his modest salary as a police officer. It only once referred to the evidence as Lewellen’s unexplained wealth. Lewellen never objected to the government’s use of the financial evidence or its characterization of the financial evidence as unexplained wealth. He did, however, argue in closing that there was no “unexplained wealth” because he made all of the money through his legitimate business venture. After the verdict, Lewellen filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that evidence of his financial situation was improperly admitted as “unexplained wealth” because the government did not offer evidence of the legitimate income he earned in his homebuilding business. The district court found that the financial evidence was improperly admitted under a theory of unexplained wealth, but concluded that because evidence of large cash expenditures was independently admissible, Lewellen was not prejudiced by any improper argument. 3. Analysis Defendants first argue that any evidence of unexplained wealth should have been excluded under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b). Rule 404(b) excludes evidence of a “crime, wrong, or other act” if used to “prove a person’s character in order to show that on a particular occasion the person acted in accordance with the character,” or in other words, if used as propensity evidence. Fed. R. Evid. 404(b)(1). But Rule 404(b) does not apply to evidence that “relates to acts concerning the chronological unfolding of events that led to an indictment, or other circumstances surrounding the crime.” United States v. Holt, 460 F.3d 934, 937 (7th Cir. 2006) (internal quotation marks omitted). In such a case, the evidence is “part of the story of the very offense for which the defendant is on trial.” Id. The financial evidence presented here is part and parcel of the circumstances surrounding the conspiracy crimes with which Defendants were charged, rendering 404(b) inapplicable. ■ Furthermore, evidence of other acts is admissible to prove motive, intent, or plan. Fed. R. Evid. 404(b)(2). The financial evidence here was not being used-to show Defendants’ propensity to spend lavishly or launder money in order to prove that they spent lavishly or laundered money on a different occasion.'-Instead, it is• being used to show their plan to conceal the proceeds of criminal activity. Next, we turn to the pertinent issue at hand: the relevance of the unexplained-wealth evidence. Evidence is “relevant” if “it has any tendency to make a fact more or less probable than it would be without the evidence.” Fed. R. Evid. 401(a). Carrera establishes that for unexplained-wealth evidence in drug cases to be “relevant” under Rule 401, the government must lay the foundation by meeting the following three requirements: (1) the evidence presented creates an inference that the defendant was involved in drug trafficking; (2) the unexplained wealth was acquired during the period in which the drug crime allegedly occurred; and (3) the government presents other evidence to support, the charge, including evidence that the income was not obtained through legitimate means. Carrera, 259 F.3d at 829. The third prong of Carrera stands for the proposition that evidence of wealth is not probative of involvement in criminal activity in the absence of evidence that the wealth could not have been earned legitimately (for when á billionaire buys a multimillion dollar home, no inference can be drawn that the money came from criminal activity). Instead, Carrera requires that to render the evidence relevant, the government must present evidence “that the income was not obtained through legitimate means.” Id. ■ That means, however, that the relevance of unexplained-wealth evidence depends on a fact—-namely, the “fact” that the income was ■ -not' obtained through legitimate means. As Federal Rule of Evidence 104(b) explains: “When the relevance of evidence depends on whether a fact exists, proof must be introduced sufficient to support a finding that the fact does exist.” This means that the district court must determine that sufficient evidence exists to find that the wealth was not derived from legitimate sources, but after that, the jury evaluates whether the fact exists. Thus, in order to introduce evidence of unexplained wealth, the government must introduce sufficient evidence upon which a reasonable fact finder could conclude that the wealth was not from a legitimate source. That does not mean that lack-of a legitimate source of income must be undisputed. A dispute as to the legitimacy of the employment goes to the weight, not the admissibility of the government’s unexplained-wealth evidence. Cf. Carrera, 259 F.3d at 829 (finding that where testimony about the defendant’s employment was ambiguous, the district court did not “abuse[ ] its discretion in finding that the government had presented at least some evidence that the unexplained wealth was not derived from legitimate means.” (emphasis added)). a.' Relevance of Unexplained Wealth in Hector’s Case Because Hector objected to the government’s use of financial evidence and its corresponding unexplained-wealth argument, our review is for an abuse of discretion. Id. at 828. The government produced sufficient evidence that Hector did not have a legitimate source of income.- The government introduced evidence that on a mortgage application and vehicle financing applications, Hector represented that he worked at Platinum Motors. But the owner of Platinum Motors testified that Hector was not an employee, and that Hector merely withdrew a fraudulent paycheck' so that it would appear that he had a legitimate job. That evidence is sufficient for a fact finder to conclude that Hector did not have legitimate income, making unexplained-wealth evidence'relevant. It is then a question for the jury whether Hector’s lavish lifestyle was the result of legitimate employment at Platinum Motors or of criminal activity. Importantly, Hector does not argue on appeal that he had other legitimate sources of. income that the government deliberately withheld. He only reasserts that he was an employee of Platinum Motors—which was disputed by the testimony at trial and properly left to the jury to evaluate. Hector argues that the government did not satisfy the third prong of Carrera because it must presérit an objective financial picture with the defendant’s tax returns and bank statements. Hector reads too much into the third prong of Carrera. We have never said that there is a particular type of proof the government must use to show lack of legitimate income. See, e.g., Carrera, 259 F.3d at 828-29 (testimony of the defendant); United States v. Harris, 536 F.3d 798, 811 (7th Cir. 2008) (testimony of the defendant’s girlfriend), overruled on other grounds by United States v. Corner, 598 F.3d 411 (7th Cir. 2010); United States v. Smith, 308 F.3d 726, 737 (7th Cir. 2002) (tax records). Rather, the type of evidence used may bear on the reliability of the evidence—a question for the jury—not its admissibility. Cf. Perry v. New Hampshire, 565 U.S. 228, 132 S.Ct. 716, 723, 181 L.Ed.2d 694 (2012) C‘[S]tatutes and rules ordinarily govern the admissibility of evidence, and juries are assigned the task of determining the reliability of the evidence presented at trial.”). As an aside, we are not even sure that introduction of Hector’s tax returns would have been probative of the legitimacy of his income. Presumably Hector’s tax returns would reflect the income he received from Platinum Motors’ payroll. Reporting his Platinum Motors’ income on a tax return does not transform his employment with that company from illegitimate to legitimate. Rather, Corral’s and Flores’s testimony was that Hector’s employment was illegitimate and that he invested in Platinum Motors to force Corral into giving him paychecks to make his income appear legitimate. That factual dispute was for the jury to resolve, not for the district court to resolve when deciding whether evidence of unexplained wealth was admissible. All this is to say that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting evidence of Hector’s unexplained wealth, nor do we find any reason to believe that it abused its discretion in weighing the evidence under Rule 403 given Hector’s extensive wealth despite his lack of legitimate income. b. Relevance of Unexplained Wealth in Lewellen’s Case Because Lewellen did not object to the. admission of his financial evidence or the government’s unexplained-wealth argument, our review is only for plain error. Carrera, 259 F.3d at 828. At issue, again, is the third prong of Carrera, which requires the government to present evidence'that the income “was not obtained through legitimate means.” Id. at 829. Lewellen’s argument, however, is distinct from that of Hector because Lewellen undisputedly had some legitimate sources of income. The error comes from the government’s failure to fully present the extent of his legitimate income. There is no requirement that to rely on an unexplained-wealth theory, the defendant must have no source of legitimate income. But where a defendant does have a legitimate source of income, it follows that in order to rely on a theory of unexplained wealth, the government must present sufficient evidence upon which a jury could conclude that the defendant’s • wealth was inconsistent with his legitimate income.' As an initial matter, the government does not have to disprove every theoretically possible source of income. In Carrera, the defendant’s testimony that he was unemployed was sufficient to argue that the $928 in cash in his wallet was “unexplained wealth.” Id. at 829. We did not require evidence that it was not the result of, say, an inheritance or settlement. For that reason, we find no error in the government not disproving Lewellen’s claim of a workplace-injury settlement or his wife’s car-accident settlement. The only evidence of the existence of these sources of funds came from Lewellen’s hearsay statements to an associate when asked where he got all of his money. Moreover, the government did present some evidence that Lewellen’s workplace injury settlement was false because his CPD file made no mention of it. The jury had enough information to evaluate the reliability of the existence of that income, and we decline to impose a requirement that the government conclusively disprove them. With respect to Lewellen’s homebuilding business, however, the government did not present sufficient evidence to support an unexplained-wealth theory. In fact, there was no evidence of the amount of legitimate income Lewellen earned.in his home-building business. Without that evidence, it is impossible to evaluate whether the money he was spending was inconsistent with the money he was earning. For that reason, the characterization of Lewellen’s wealth after 1999 as “unexplained” was improper. Any error, however, was not a plain error warranting retrial. Most of the evidence introduced was admissible on a different theory of relevance: excessive cash. Large amounts of cash may be relevant because they “show[ ] co-conspirators were involved in a large-scale [drug] conspiracy.” United States v. Duran, 407 F.3d 828, 837 (7th Cir. 2005) (alteration in original and internal quotation marks omitted); see also United States v. Chavis, 429 F.3d 662, 669-70 (7th Cir. 2005) (large amount of cash relevant evidence of drug conspiracy). Lewellen’s use of large amounts of cash was independently relevant as evidence of his involvement in a drug conspiracy, especially in light of the fact that witnesses testified that his use of the cash in the particular circumstances was unusual. See United States v. $242,484.00, 389 F.3d 1149, 1161 (11th Cir. 2004) (“A common sense reality of everyday life is that legitimate businesses do not transport large quantities of cash rubber-banded into bundles.”). Therefore, any error in admission of cash evidence on a theory of unexplained-wealth did not prejudice Lewellen. There are a few pieces of evidence the government introduced, however, that are not cash: Lewellen’s $1.2 million down payment on land to build a subdivision; his company’s ownership of a $125,000 excavator; and the value of the cars he purchased that was not in cash. Additional evidence about Lewellen’s business, namely, that he also wrote checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars, was elicited by Lewellen in support of his argument that any cash he was spending was a small portion of his company’s purchases. Any erroneous admission of the other financial evidence did not prejudice Lewel-len. In fact, it supports Lewellen’s theory that he ran a successful business venture with legitimate, high-value transactions. Lewellen argued this point in closing. Because the jury was able to evaluate the probative value of Lewellen’s wealth, we find that any improperly admitted evidence of non-cash expenditures could not have impacted the verdict. H. Out-of-Court Identification of Sparkman Sparkman argues that the district court improperly admitted Avila’s identification because the identification was impermissi-bly'suggestive. Avila, a kidnapping victim, testified at trial but did not identify Sparkman in court as his assailant. Instead, the government introduced Exhibit 376, a photo array of six African-American males that Avila was shown in December. 2009. Avila testified that he initialed the photo of the man who entered his home. Avila’s initials in Exhibit 376 appeared on a photo of Sparkman. After Avfla testified, the government recalled Officer Healy to describe the circumstances of Avila’s identification. Officer Healy testified that he interviewed Ávila in December 2009 and showed him photo spreads to “see if he could identify any of the offenders in the home invasion or the prior incidents.” (Trial Tr. 4458.) Spark-man objected to the testimony, arguing that it was hearsay and improper bolstering. The district court overruled the objections, on the condition that Officer Healy not testify that Avila identified Sparkman. Officer Healy then testified that he assembled the photo spreads using driver’s license photos and mug shots of persons that looked like Sparkman and told Avila to initial a photo if he recognized it to be the individual who entered his home. Sparkman argues both that the photo array itself should have been suppressed because it is unduly suggestive and that Officer Healy’s testimony about the photo array was inadmissible hearsay and improper bolstering. Although we review a district court’s interpretation of the law and rules of evidence de novo, its ultimate decision to admit or exclude evidence is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Rogers, 587 F.3d 816, 819 (7th Cir. 2009). 1. Admission of the Photo Array On appeal, Sparkman argues that the photo array was unduly suggestive in violation of due process. Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 113, 97 S.Ct. 2243, 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977). But Sparkman has waived (and not merely forfeited) any argument about the suggestiveness of the photo array because he did not file a “motion to suppress” the photo array prior to trial. Fed. R. Crim. P. 12(b)(3)(C); United States v. Acox, 595 F.3d 729, 733-34 (7th Cir. 2010). Sparkman attempts to distinguish Acox on the grounds that Acox involved in-court testimony about the illegal out-of-court identification, whereas here, he was objecting to the photo array itself. That is irrelevant. The operative question is whether Sparkman’s objection is in fact a “motion to suppress.” Acox, 595 F.3d at 733. As Acox makes clear, a “motion to suppress” is any objection outside the Rules of Evidence: Nothing in the Rules of Evidence allows a court to reject relevant, inculpatory evidence seized from the defendant’s home, heard during a wiretap, based on his confession, or derived from a lineup. In order to have such evidence excluded, a defendant must rely on some norm that is outside the Rules of Evidence. That’s the line between motions to suppress, which must be made before trial, and objections, which may be made during trial. Id. On appeal, Sparkman’s objection to the photo array is not an objection based on the Rules of Evidence; it is one based on due process. Therefore, it is a “motion to suppress” that had to be filed prior to trial. Fed. R. Crim. P. 12(b)(3)(C). That is not the end of the inquiry, however, because the district court may still consider an untimely motion “if the party shows good cause.” Fed. R. Crim. P. 12(c)(3). Sparkman did not make any motion to the district court about the allegedly suggestive identification, nor did he develop a record as to whether there was good cause for not making the motion before trial. Thus, we may only review “whether, if a motion for relief had been made and denied, the district court would have abused its discretion in concluding that the defense lacked good cause.” Aoox, 595 F.3d at 732. In other words, we must place ourselves in the district court’s place at the time the evidence was introduced and determine whether, at that time, good cause existed to excuse Sparkman’s untimeliness. Sparkman argues that the record below establishes good cause for not filing a pretrial motion to suppress. Specifically, he argues that “trial counsel was apparently confused about Exhibit 376 having only six people in it when Avila was shown many more photos including some of people of different races ... than Sparkman.... Trial counsel was clearly surprised by Exhibit 376 and neither the judge nor the prosecutor argued that this objection should have.been raised in a motion to suppress ;... ” (Sparkman’s Reply Br. 3-4.) But Sparkman’s argument is a mischar-acterization of the record. Sparkman’s counsel did not indicate surprise at the existence of Exhibit 376. He never said he was unaware of the exhibit or that he did not know Avila was shown a photo array of six African-American men. Rather, his objection was for a lack of foundation necessary to admit the exhibit. The objection arose from the following testimony: Q: Now, in December of 2009, did agents from the DEA come and speak to you about what happened at your house? A: Yes. Q: And at that time did they show you a series of photographs of African-American men? A: They showed me a lot of pictures of different races, I think. (Trial. Tr. 3830.) When the government sought to introduce the exhibit of only African-American males, Sparkman objected. During a .sidebar, he explained the basis for his objection: [Sparkman]: The point is that they have not established that they showed him separately some kind of an array of African-Americans. All he said is he saw a bunch of photos, over 120. (Id at 3832.) After continued discussions during sidebar, the following occurred: The Court: ... We know he was shown an array of only African-Americans. [Sparkman]: We don’t know that, The Court: Otherwise there would have been a motion to suppress. . . [Sparkman]: He was not asked that question. The Court: And you say he has to be asked that question? [Sparkman]: I think he should be. He said he saw 120 photos. ' (Id. at 3836 (emphasis added).) Sparkman was not objecting on the grounds that he was unaware of the exhibit, but rather on the ground that the witness had not testified that he was separately shown an array of six Africán-American men—a proper trial objection based on lack of foundation. An objection on other grounds does not establish good cause for not filing a motion to .suppress the photo array because of its undue suggestiveness. Because Sparkman does not direct us to any other evidence in the record to establish good cause for not filing the motion to suppress before trial, we cannot say that the district court would have abused its discretion in denying it at trial as untimely. 2. Officer’s Testimony about the Out-of-Court Identification We turn now to Sparkman’s argument that Officer Healy’s testimony about the circumstances of Avila’s identification is inadmissible hearsay and improper bolstering. Hearsay is “a statement that: (1) the declarant does not make while testifying at the current trial or hearing; and (2) a party offers in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted.” Fed. R. Evid. 801(c). Officer Healy’s testimony about assembling the photo array is not hearsay because it is not an “out-of-court statement.” Officer Healy was simply recounting his own conduct in creating the photo array, namely that he “used driver’s license. photos or mug shots ...” and “[t]ried to find pictures that were similar to the—our suspect.” (Trial Tr. 4468.) There is no “out-of-court statement” contained therein; these are statements Officer Healy made in court. There are, however, two out-of-court statements. Officer Healy testified that he “[t]old [Avila] that the person who or persons who entered his house may or may not be in this group of photos.” (Id.) Officer Healy also testified that he told Avila. “[t]o put his initials on the photo.” (Id.) Despite being out-of-court statements, these are not hearsay because they.are not being used “to prove the truth of the matter asserted.” In fact, neither of these statements can even be true .or false. That is because “an order .., is not capable of being true or false, and