Opinion ID: 672854
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Allegedly prejudicial evidence

Text: 25 Vegas contends that certain evidence was wrongly admitted against him. He argues both that his counsel's failure to object to this evidence demonstrated ineffective assistance, and that the district court's decision to admit the evidence was reversible error. Because the evidence was properly admitted, we find no merit in either contention. 26 Vegas contends the following evidence was irrelevant to the case before the jury and was admitted only for the impermissible goal of showing he is a bad person: (1) ammunition found in his apartment; (2) an offer to obtain cocaine for informant Almonte; (3) a thirteen-year-old narcotics conviction. As to the ammunition, this Court has repeatedly approved the admission of firearms as evidence of narcotics conspiracies, because drug dealers commonly keep firearms on their premises as tools of the trade. United States v. Wiener, 534 F.2d 15, 18 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 820, 97 S.Ct. 66, 50 L.Ed.2d 80 (1976); see United States v. Fernandez, 829 F.2d 363, 367 (2d Cir.1987); United States v. Mourad, 729 F.2d 195, 201 (2d Cir.1984), cert. denied, 472 U.S. 1007, 105 S.Ct. 2700, 86 L.Ed.2d 717 (1985). This reasoning applies with extra force to the bullets in question because they were found in a bag together with a small digital scale that Vegas acknowledged was used to weigh heroin. See Wiener, 534 F.2d at 18 (emphasizing that gun, admitted as evidence of drug conspiracy, was in same bag as drug paraphernalia). 27 As to Vegas's offer to introduce Almonte to a supplier who had thirty kilograms of cocaine, this was properly admitted as evidence of Vegas's willingness to deal in drugs, rebutting his entrapment theory. The same is true of Vegas's 1980 conviction for participating in a cocaine conspiracy. Vegas attacks his trial counsel for failure to object to admission of the conviction. In fact it was Vegas's counsel, not the Government, who introduced it. This was not an act of incompetence on counsel's part but a strategic taking of the initiative. Recognizing that the conviction would be admissible on the Government's offer to show Vegas's willingness to deal in drugs, Vegas's counsel seized the opportunity to be first to mention it, so as to blunt its force. He argued in his opening statement that Vegas had his one taste of jail, [and] was only looking forward to remaining with his family and son. There was nothing incompetent about this strategic decision. See Nersesian, 824 F.2d at 1321. 28