Opinion ID: 1172140
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Exclusion of Evidence Regarding International Gold Trade

Text: (6) Younge testified on cross-examination that he initially became interested in working with FITC because he thought that FITC needed to make gold purchases and he could assist it to purchase gold bullion from international sources at a substantial discount off the market price. Younge asserted that he could purchase gold at discounts of 40 or 50 percent from such sources as gold mines in Ghana and individuals who had fled their native countries with ill-gotten hoards of gold. Younge testified he never told McIntosh or Anthony of his plan to buy gold for FITC. During the defense case, defendant sought to present as a witness an expert in the gold bullion trade to demonstrate the falsity of Younge's statements that gold was available at a discount in the international market. The prosecutor objected that the evidence was irrelevant, was directed to a collateral matter, and its presentation would consume an undue amount of time. The trial court agreed and excluded the evidence under Evidence Code section 352. Defendant contends that the trial court erred. Defendant argues that proving that gold was not available internationally for discount sale would have shown that Younge approached McIntosh and Anthony not for any legitimate business purpose but to engage in an illegal money-laundering scheme in which Younge would launder the profits of FITC for them. In turn, defendant argues, this would have supported his defense that his agreement to murder Ewing was just a pretense designed to further Younge's money-laundering scheme by ingratiating defendant and Younge with Anthony and McIntosh; he contends it would also have shown that Younge was motivated to incriminate defendant in order to conceal Younge's money-laundering scheme. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in excluding defendant's evidence relating to the international gold market. Such evidence was collateral to the issues at trial. Whether Younge lied in stating his belief that gold was available internationally at a discount also was collateral; impeaching him on this point would not have significantly altered the jury's perception of his credibility in general, in light of the other impeachment evidence described in part II.A., ante, and in light of the fact that defendant's expert testimony would not have impeached Younge directly but only inferentially (because the expert would not have testified to whether Younge knew that gold was unavailable at a discount). Nor would showing that gold was unavailable at a discount have significantly enhanced defendant's argument that his agreement to kill Ewing was a sham intended by Younge to gain favor with Anthony and McIntosh. It is a weak chain of inferences that leads from the excluded evidence of the unavailability of gold at a discount to the inference that Younge was aware of this unavailability to the inference that Younge's true aim was to launder money for FITC. There is no support, however, for the ultimate inference  that it is more probable that Younge would feign agreement in the murder conspiracy if his goal were to launder money than if his goal were to buy gold. Defendant offers no explanation why, if Younge intended to obtain FITC's business by the pretense of appearing to further Anthony and McIntosh's plan to murder Ewing, Younge would not have had an equal motivation to do so whether the business he intended to conduct was a legitimate gold-buying operation or a money-laundering scheme. Furthermore, since Younge did not actually launder any money for FITC, he did not have a strong motive to incriminate defendant to conceal such a scheme. Accordingly, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in excluding defendant's expert evidence on the operation of the international gold market. For these same reasons, the exclusion of this evidence did not deny defendant due process under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution by rendering his trial fundamentally unfair, did not violate the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution by rendering his trial unreliable, and did not violate his right of confrontation under either the state or federal Constitutions.