Opinion ID: 547526
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: admission of the gun and the ski mask

Text: 53 During the course of the trial the district judge admitted into evidence the ski mask and the .44 caliber semi-automatic pistol that were found after the robbery at the Dunes Motel and allowed the government to argue that both items had been used in the bank robbery. Towns argues that this evidence was more prejudicial than probative and should therefore have been excluded under FED.R.EVID. 403. 54 We will not reverse a trial court's evidentiary ruling unless a defendant shows that the ruling was a clear abuse of discretion. United States v. Sababu, 891 F.2d 1308, 1330 (7th Cir.1989); Davis v. Lane, 814 F.2d 397, 399 (7th Cir.1987). This court has noted that the trial court's assessment of relative probative value and unfair influence is generally accorded great deference because of his firsthand exposure to the evidence and his familiarity with the course of the trial proceeding. United States v. Levy, 741 F.2d 915, 924 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1021, 105 S.Ct. 440, 83 L.Ed.2d 366 (1984); see also Sababu, 891 F.2d at 1330. 55 Although it is indisputable that this evidence incriminated defendant Crane, who had stayed in the hotel room where the items were found, more than defendant Towns, this does not denote that the items did not incriminate and were not admissible against Towns. Greg Brown, a bank employee, testified that defendant Crane was carrying a large, black automatic pistol, and that the gun recovered at the Dunes Motel was the type of weapon that Crane was carrying. The security guard at the bank testified that during the course of the robbery Crane wore a ski mask, which the surveillance camera photographs substantiated. The owners of the Dunes Motel testified that Crane stayed in room 123 on the night of the robbery and the following night. The gun and the ski mask were found between the mattress and box spring of the bed in room 123 shortly after Crane checked out. Witnesses at Towns's trial identified both Crane and Towns as participants in the bank robbery, and the Lincoln automobile that Crane had with him at the Dunes Motel was found one block from the apartment where Towns stayed on the night of the robbery. Moreover, Towns was seen with Crane both before and immediately after the robbery. 56 We find that the gun and the ski mask were relevant, admissible evidence against Towns. Both were alleged instrumentalities in the bank robbery and tended to make the government's allegation that Towns and Crane conspired to rob the bank and succeeded in doing so more probable. Nor are we convinced that the disputed evidence's probative value was outweighed by unfair prejudice contrary to Rule 403 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. The district judge reduced any unfairness that might have devolved upon Towns by explicitly instructing the jury that as to the bank robbery, the gun and the ski mask were admitted into evidence for the limited demonstrative purpose of providing examples of the gun and ski mask that were actually used in the robbery. While the gun was admitted as substantive evidence of what was found during the search at the Dunes Motel, the judge refused to allow the gun or the ski mask to go back to the jury during their deliberations. Because both the ski mask and the gun were admitted into evidence, appeared in the bank surveillance photographs, and were identified by eyewitnesses as being similar to those possessed by the robbers, the government could argue, and the jury could infer, that both had been used during the robbery. In sum, we find that the trial judge did not abuse his broad discretion regarding the admission of the gun and the ski mask into evidence. 57