Opinion ID: 479235
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: evidence used in other trials

Text: 150 Defendant argues that the government was collaterally estopped from producing evidence tending to prove his possession of the Impala, and responsibility for items found in the trunk. Although possession of the Impala was not an element of the offenses charged in Counts 1 to 22, the materials found in it were highly significant in the circumstantial case. 151 At the 1980 trial of all counts, defendant was acquitted of Count 25. There it was charged that he, having been convicted of perjury, knowingly transported two boxes of .223 caliber Remington ammunition from Ohio to Indiana. 152 The government's proof was that this ammunition was found in the Impala in the search on September 21 in Indianapolis; that like ammunition had been sold a few days earlier to a person, not identified, by a store in Dayton, Ohio; that defendant was observed driving the Impala in Dayton September 17, and in Indianapolis September 21. The government also proved that a person using the name Eaton purchased the Impala in Dayton on September 13 from a dealer named Wiltheiss. The government expected Wiltheiss to identify defendant as the purchaser, but he identified someone else at the first trial. There was other evidence, however, of defendant's driving the car in Ohio. 153 The government expected the jury to infer from defendant's possession of the car in Ohio and later in Indiana, the purchase of the ammunition in Ohio and its later presence in Indiana, that defendant, or someone acting for him, had driven the car from Ohio to Indiana, and that defendant knew the ammunition was in the car. 154 The jury did not oblige and acquitted on some theory. 155 The jury verdict established that defendant was not guilty of knowingly transporting the ammunition from Ohio to Indiana on or about September 21. That broad issue is irrelevant to Counts 1 through 22. The question raised by defendant is really whether some narrower issue was necessarily determined by the verdict on Count 25 so that the government is precluded from relitigating that narrower issue in the course of its proof of Counts 1 through 22. 156 In the first trial the government had offered evidence to show defendant purchased the Impala in Ohio (the seller failed to identify defendant as the buyer), that he had driven it in Ohio and later in Indiana, and that the ammunition purchased in Ohio was in the car trunk in Indiana. In the instant trial, items appearing to be bomb components were found in the trunk, and the government offered proof that defendant had driven the car in Ohio, and later in Indiana. Defendant contended in the district court that the verdict of acquittal could only have been based on a reasonable doubt as to whether he did purchase, possess and drive that car. Accordingly, he contended, evidence that he did so must be excluded from the present case. 157 In Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1970) the Supreme Court decided that the federal rule of collateral estoppel is embodied in the Fifth Amendment guaranty against double jeopardy. The Court defined the rule as when an issue of ultimate fact has once been determined by a valid and final judgment, that issue cannot again be litigated between the same parties in any future lawsuit. Id. at 443, 90 S.Ct. at 1194. 5 158 Although the Court used the phrase issue of ultimate fact in its definition, it stated the test to be applied to the full record of the earlier case, as whether a rational jury could have grounded its verdict upon an issue other than that which the defendant seeks to foreclose from consideration. It has been phrased elsewhere as whether the particular fact was necessarily determined against the government on the first trial. United States v. Kramer, 289 F.2d 909, 916 (2d Cir.1961). See Sealfon v. United States, 332 U.S. 575, 580, 68 S.Ct. 237, 240, 92 L.Ed. 180 (1948) (necessarily adjudicated); United States v. Whitaker, 702 F.2d 901, 903 (11th Cir.1983) (necessarily established); United States v. Mock, 604 F.2d 341, 345-46 (5th Cir.1979). The Supreme Court in Yates v. United States, 354 U.S. 298, 336, 77 S.Ct. 1064, 1085-86, 1 L.Ed.2d 1356 (1957) has said that the collateral estoppel doctrine makes conclusive in subsequent proceedings only determinations of facts, and mixed fact and law, that were essential to the decision. 159 At the outset, then, the defendant must carry the burden of proving that the fact-finder acquitted him because it resolved in his favor the very issue that he seeks to foreclose from consideration in the second trial. United States v. Mespoulede, 597 F.2d 329, 333 (2d Cir.1979) (citation omitted). 160 In speaking on this subject, this court has used the term issue of ultimate fact. United States v. Castro, 629 F.2d 456, 465 (7th Cir.1980). The Eighth Circuit has noted a division of opinion whether collateral estoppel bars only the relitigation of ultimate facts or evidentiary facts as well. United States v. Riley, 684 F.2d 542, 546 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1111, 103 S.Ct. 742, 74 L.Ed.2d 962 (1982). It seems to us that however the issue be classified, the critical question is whether it can be said with assurance that the fact was necessarily established by the judgment at the earlier trial. 161 Clearly defendant's possession or use of the automobile in Ohio or Indiana was not an ultimate fact in the ordinary sense at the trial of Count 25. It cannot be said, either, that the acquittal necessarily determined that he did not have possession in Ohio, or in Indiana, or drive it from one to the other. The jury may simply have been unwilling to draw the inference that it was defendant who purchased the ammunition in Ohio, or obtained it from the buyer, or at least knew that the ammunition was in the car during the interstate trip.
162 At the 1980 trial the jury was unable to reach a verdict on Counts 1 through 22, based on the 1978 bombing, and on Counts 23 and 24. The latter two charged that defendant, having been convicted of perjury, received explosives (which had been transported in interstate commerce) on or about May 14, 1975. (Tovex in Count 23 and blasting caps in Count 24). Before retrial, Counts 23 and 24 were severed. Defendant was convicted of them at the second trial (May-June 1981). 163 At the third trial (of Counts 1 through 22) the government proved defendant's receipt of the explosives in May, 1975. Defendant argues he was denied due process, and that there was inconsistency between severance of Counts 23 and 24, and the use of the same evidence at trial of Counts 1 through 22. 164 We do not pause long with this argument. In trying Counts 23 and 24, defendant's conviction of perjury would necessarily be admitted in evidence. It would not be admissible in trial of Counts 1 through 22 unless defendant testified, and he had not done so at the first trial. In arguing for severance, defense counsel had so noted. The evidence tending to prove defendant's responsibility for the explosions would be part of the trial of Counts 1 through 22, but would be irrelevant in a trial confined to Counts 23 and 24. 165 Severance did not preclude the use of the purchase of explosives at the trial on Counts 1 through 22. We reject the argument that such proof was irrelevant on those counts, and that its probative value was outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice.
166 The government produced evidence that defendant purchased and possessed uniforms, badges, and other items related to his impersonation of Defense Department security personnel. He was engaged in this project at the time of his arrest, moments after stepping out of the Impala which he had driven to the scene. 167 Defendant objected, and argues that the evidence was irrelevant, or at least that its probative value was substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice. 168 Other evidence very clearly showed that defendant had driven the Impala in Ohio and Indiana as early as September 13 and as late as September 20. When he took the stand he so testified. A very much disputed issue was whether he had access to the trunk of the vehicle, where the incriminating evidence was found. 169 The fact that some of the impersonation items were also found in the trunk made highly relevant and probative on this issue of access the evidence that defendant purchased and possessed such materials. We are also satisfied that possible unfair prejudice did not outweigh their probative value. Defendant argues that the admission of the impersonation material forced him to offer an explanation. The explanation was that they were to be used to facilitate a marijuana smuggling operation he was carrying on, centered in Texas. Under the circumstances, we do not agree that possible prejudice from his explanation was chargeable to the government, or caused the probative value of this evidence to be outweighed. 170 Some of the arguments by both counsel have dealt with Rule 404(b), FED.R.EVID., Other crimes, wrongs, or acts. Although that Rule prohibits use of other crimes evidence to prove the character of a person in order to show that he acted in conformity therewith, the Rule permits use for other purposes. The relevance of the evidence with which we are concerned (to prove defendant's access to the trunk) does not fit into any of the matters listed as other purposes, but the list is not exclusive, and the purpose for which the evidence was used here was entirely proper. 171