Opinion ID: 200397
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Caraballo's Alternative Arguments

Text: 17 Martinez arrived at the scene of Caraballo's arrest within minutes of its occurrence and, without a request from the arresting officers, identified him as one of the three men about whom he had telephoned the police. Torres identified Caraballo in a photo spread of six photographs held on April 4, 1996, one and one-half weeks after the carjacking. Prior to trial, Caraballo moved both to suppress these out-of-court identifications (usually admissible under Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(1)(C)) and to prohibit Torres and Martinez from identifying him in court. Caraballo argued that the procedures by which the identifications were procured were impermissibly suggestive, and that the suggestiveness was such that there was a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. See Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 384, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968) (setting forth the two-part standard under which the appropriateness of suppression is to be judged). In support of his motion, Caraballo pointed out that Martinez saw Caraballo handcuffed and sitting in a police cruiser prior to identifying him. Caraballo also introduced evidence tending to show that Torres saw Caraballo in a holding cell when she was brought to the same police station at which he was being detained a few hours after the carjacking (a sighting which Torres denied). 18 Following a five-day hearing, the district court issued a written order denying Caraballo's motion. Applying the inquiry mandated by Simmons, the court first held that the procedures that the police employed were not impermissibly suggestive. With respect to Martinez, the court found that the police did not use suggestive procedures because [Martinez's identification of Caraballo] was contemporaneous with the events that the witness had seen only a few minutes before and because it was precisely the information that he provided to the police that led to [Caraballo's] arrest. As to Torres, the court implicitly credited Torres's testimony and found that she did not see Caraballo in a holding cell prior to identifying him in the photo spread. 19 On appeal, Caraballo asserts that there can be no question that the district court erred in concluding that the circumstances under which Martinez identified Caraballo were unduly suggestive. But this ipse dixit is neither elaborated nor bolstered by citation to applicable authority. Mindful that a court is to withhold identification evidence from the jury only in extraordinary circumstances, United States v. de Jesus-Rios, 990 F.2d 672, 677 (1st Cir. 1993) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted); see also United States v. Maguire, 918 F.2d 254, 263-64 (1st Cir. 1990) (emphasizing that the suggestiveness of an identification procedure is a proper subject of cross examination and that the jury is usually competent to weigh intelligently questionable identification testimony) (citing Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 116, 97 S.Ct. 2243, 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977)), this assertion is inadequate to put the court's conclusion into issue, see United States v. Zannino, 895 F.2d 1, 17 (1st Cir.1990) ([I]ssues adverted to in a perfunctory manner, unaccompanied by some effort at developed argumentation, are deemed waived.). At any rate, our independent review of the matter satisfies us that the court permissibly allowed the jury to hear about Martinez's identification of Caraballo. 20 With respect to Torres, Caraballo essentially contends that the evidence that Torres saw Caraballo in a holding cell a few hours after the carjacking was so powerful that the district court erred in crediting the accuracy of Torres's contrary testimony. We uphold a denial of a motion to suppress if any reasonable view of the evidence supports the denial. See United States v. Watson, 76 F.3d 4, 6 (1st Cir. 1996). As an appellate court, we lack the competence and authority to second-guess the court's decision to credit Torres. See, e.g., United States v. Laine, 270 F.3d 71, 75 (1st Cir.2001). And in any event, as with Martinez, our independent review of the issue leads us to conclude that the court reasonably allowed Torres's identification of Caraballo to go the jury. 21
22 As set forth above, the jury heard several witnesses recount the details of admissions Lebrón made to them about his role in the carjacking. Caraballo did not seek a severance of his trial or a limiting instruction informing the jury that these admissions were not to be considered against him. Caraballo now contends that the admissions described facts so similar to those for which he was on trial that the district court's failure to sever his trial from Lebrón's or to give the jury a limiting instruction amounted to plain error within the meaning of Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b). Caraballo analogizes his plight to that of the accused in United States v. Sauza-Martinez, 217 F.3d 754 (9th Cir.2000), which found plain error in a trial court's failure to give a limiting instruction at the time it admitted evidence regarding an extra-judicial statement by the accused's co-defendant that directly implicated both the co-defendant and the accused. See id. at 759-61. Caraballo also complains that the court erred in denying his motion for a mistrial when one of these witnesses testified that Lebrón told him that Caraballo (and not Lebrón) had shot Fontánez. 23 While it would be most unusual for us to find that a district court erred in failing to give a limiting instruction that was never requested, we shall assume solely for the sake of argument that the court should have instructed the jury sua sponte that Lebrón's admissions were not to be considered against Caraballo. Even so, the hurdle set by Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b) is high. See Olano, 507 U.S. at 732-37, 113 S.Ct. 1770. And here, Caraballo has fallen far short of demonstrating that any error was of a type subject to correction under Rule 52(b). 24 There never was any doubt that three men participated in the carjacking and killing at the heart of this case. The case against Caraballo thus did not turn on what happened; it largely turned on whether the government had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Caraballo was one of the three men who committed these crimes. In the end, the jury almost certainly credited Torres's testimony that Caraballo was one of the three men, and Martinez's testimony that Caraballo was one of the three men whom he saw exit Fontánez's Hyundai shortly after the carjacking. Lebrón's admissions — which with the exception discussed below never identified Caraballo as one of Lebrón's co-perpetrators (which distinguishes Caraballo's situation from that of the defendant in Sauza-Martinez, see 217 F.3d at 761) — almost certainly had no bearing on the jury's decision to credit this testimony. The absence of a limiting instruction thus did not affect Caraballo's substantial rights. See Olano, 507 U.S. at 735, 113 S.Ct. 1770. 25 By contrast, the testimony that spurred Caraballo's motion for a mistrial did identify Caraballo as one of Lebrón's co-perpetrators. But as we have recently explained: When a witness strays into forbidden territory, the usual remedy is to strike the wayward remark and instruct the jury to disregard it.... In all but the rare case, that remedy, if properly executed, will suffice to safeguard the aggrieved party's rights. United States v. Lee, 317 F.3d 26, 35 (1st Cir.2003). Here, as in Lee, the district court promptly struck the testimony and instructed the jury to ignore it. And here, as in Lee, the court's refusal to order a mistrial was within its discretion. See id. Factors similar to those mentioned by the Lee panel in support of its ruling guide our analysis. 26 First, the witness's reference to Caraballo was largely cumulative of Torres's far more direct and damning testimony that Caraballo was one of the carjackers and Martinez's testimony that Caraballo was one of the men who exited Fontánez's Hyundai. See id. True, Torres did not identify Caraballo as a shooter, as did the witness. But from the jury's perspective, the identities of the shooters were immaterial to whether they were guilty of the carjacking and weapons charges for which they were indicted. Second, the remark appears to have been entirely accidental and was in no way invited by improper government questioning. See id. Third, the district court quickly struck the remark and told the jury to disregard it in language with which Caraballo has never taken issue. See id. Finally, the record provides no reason for us to disregard the presumption that jurors follow their instructions. See id. In sum, here (as in Lee ), the errant comment, while unfortunate, was not a difference maker.