Opinion ID: 398632
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admission of a Conversation by Howard Concerning the Importation of Cocaine

Text: 20 The district court allowed the government to question DEA informant Rece during rebuttal concerning a conversation with Howard about smuggling cocaine into the country. As with the district court's limitation of the cross-examination of Rece, our standard of review is abuse of discretion. United States v. Beechum, 582 F.2d 898, 915 (5th Cir. 1978) (en banc), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 920, 99 S.Ct. 1244, 59 L.Ed.2d 472 (1979). 21 The government may introduce evidence of extrinsic offenses if relevant to an issue other than the defendant's character 10 and if its probative value is not substantially outweighed by its prejudice. Id. at 909-15. The government contends that the extrinsic offenses were relevant to proving Howard's intent to enter and participate in the conspiracy. 11 Howard asserts, however, that the evidence was not admissible as proof of intent because he never contended or inferred that he did not intend to enter into a conspiracy. Rather, he only contended that his conspiracy was solely with DEA informant Rece which, he asserts, would not be a crime. We disagree with Howard's assertion that the judge could not admit the evidence as proof of intent. The former Fifth Circuit held in United States v. Roberts, 619 F.2d 379, 382-83 (5th Cir. 1980), that, because of the unique nature of conspiracy charges, id. at 383, and the difficulty of proving the necessary elements of intent to join and knowledge of a conspiracy, a not guilty plea alone renders defendant's intent a material issue unless the defense affirmatively takes intent out of the case. In this case the trial court initially ruled, on Howard's motion in limine, that the prejudice of the evidence outweighed its probative value and excluded it, though stating that it would reconsider its holding if the government so moved later during trial after the court had had the opportunity to evaluate the other evidence on intent. The government later did move to introduce the testimony on the cocaine importation conversation. The court stated that it would allow the testimony to be introduced only if Howard refused to stipulate that he was not contesting his intent to join a conspiracy. Howard explicitly stated that he would not take the issue of intent out of the case. The trial court did not err in then ruling that the testimony was admissible. 12 22