On cross-examination, however, Ellisor admitted that he had previously assigned the primary blame for the show's failure to Wright.[11]
Finally, Ellisor attributed his in-room movie charges at the Doubletree Hotel to "rock and roll movies" viewed by University of Miami students who helped him work on the show, which was contradicted by the Government's evidence that they were actually charges for evening adult movies.
At the close of the Government's evidence, Ellisor renewed his motion for judgment of acquittal, which was denied. After deliberating for two hours, on February 7, 2005, the jury returned a verdict of guilty as to all eight counts of mail fraud. Ellisor was sentenced to 87 months' imprisonment for each count, to be served concurrently, three years' supervised release, an $800 assessment, and $38,509.09 ininextricably intertwined with the Government's evidence pertaining to the Christmas show. The charges on the bill were incurred in November 2003, in the weeks immediately preceding the dates advertised for the show. Ellisor used the name of the hotel on materials advertising the show and in conversations with teachers and businesses to bolster the show's legitimacy, contrary to the testimony of witnesses who denied that the Doubletree Hotel was ever a sponsor of the show in any fashion. Evidence of the unpaid bill corroborated the Government's theory that, consistent with the intent to defraud, Ellisor was spending the money on discretionary purchases for himself and not, as Ellisor maintained, on preparations for the show. Ellisor testified that although he contemporaneously paid rent to his then-girlfriend for occupying her