Opinion ID: 424761
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Admission of Codefendant's Testimony

Text: 54 Daly objects to the admission of testimony by Shelly Ginger, a codefendant, but not a party to this appeal. Ginger testified that she and Criswell went to Daly's car lot, where she received a car known by Criswell and Ginger to be stolen. Daly challenged the relevancy of this testimony, arguing that it referred to Ginger's acquisition of a stolen vehicle that had not been named in the conspiracy count, and that knowledge of the stolen nature of the cars named in the substantive counts was not an element of the offenses charged therein. 55 Fed.R.Evid. 404(b) provides that evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is admissible to show proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity or absence of mistake or accident. Such testimony is inadmissible only when it proves nothing but the defendant's criminal propensities. United States v. Diggs, 649 F.2d 731, 737 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 970, 102 S.Ct. 516, 70 L.Ed.2d 387 (1981) (noting that [t]his circuit has adopted the position that Rule 404(b) is an inclusionary rule); see also United States v. Herrell, 588 F.2d 711, 714 (9th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 964, 99 S.Ct. 1511, 59 L.Ed.2d 778 (1979). Following this rule, we find the testimony admissible as circumstantial evidence that Daly knew the cars he sold for Criswell were stolen and (in reference to the substantive counts) that their title certificates were false. We note, moreover, that the district judge's carefully worded limiting instruction, which warned the jury that they were to use the testimony only to determine whether Criswell and Daly knew they were dealing in stolen cars, demonstrates that he considered the effect of the testimony before admitting it. We agree that the testimony's probative value was not outweighed by its prejudicial effect, and conclude that the judge did not abuse his wide discretion in ruling that it was admissible. See Diggs, 649 F.2d at 737.