Opinion ID: 2756999
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The YouTube Video

Text: The government’s evidence of Broomfield’s possession of the AR-15 rifle and PMC .223 ammunition included a copy of a video of Broomfield discharging the weapon at a firearms store and shooting range called Fowler Firearms. 2 Case: 13-15827 Date Filed: 12/03/2014 Page: 3 of 18 Prior to the trial, the government moved in limine for the district court to rule on the admissibility of this video. The government detailed the circumstantial evidence that it believed authenticated the video. The district court declined ruling on the motion, finding that “testimony from various witnesses will be necessary and the issue cannot be determined without a trial of the general issues.” At trial, Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent Ryan Davis testified that while investigating the defendant for suspected violations of federal firearms laws, he saw a YouTube video of Broomfield, whom Agent Davis recognized from a previous traffic stop. Agent Davis stated that he made an exact copy of the video, which the government presented as its Exhibit 1. When Agent Davis began testifying to the content of the video, Broomfield objected. After viewing the video outside the presence of the jury, the district court did not allow Agent Davis to testify to the content of the video because it was not properly authenticated. Agent Davis was permitted only to testify that he observed Broomfield in the video. Following Agent Davis, Fowler Firearms’s manager, Jon Dezendorf, testified that Broomfield was a Fowler Firearms member, that on January 21, 2011, Broomfield purchased two boxes of PMC .223 ammunition, and that he had not purchased that ammunition at any other time. Dezendorf stated that the only firearm Fowler Firearms rented to customers at the time that used PMC .223 3 Case: 13-15827 Date Filed: 12/03/2014 Page: 4 of 18 ammunition was the AR-15 rifle. 1 Dezendorf also testified that he saw Agent Davis’s copy of the YouTube video and that Dezendorf knew that the video was filmed at Fowler Firearms’s gun range. The district court did not allow Dezendorf to testify to the contents of the video beyond his identification in the video of Fowler Firearms, a box of PMC .223 ammunition, a Fowler Firearms gun box, and targets sold by Fowler Firearms. The video was still not allowed into evidence. Joshua Hackman, who had worked at Fowler Firearms for ten years, also testified to establish the authenticity of the YouTube video. Hackman testified that he recognized Fowler Firearms as the location of the video from numerous distinguishing features. He also stated that the video showed one of Fowler Firearms’s rifle rental bags, and he identified the rifle in the video as an AR-15 rifle, specifically, a Bushmaster. Additionally, Hackman testified that he could discern the approximate date the video was taken. Hackman explained that the video showed side deflectors and lights on the gun range, which Fowler Firearms had installed in late 2010 or early 2011. Hackman also testified that Fowler Firearms paints its floors and walls at the beginning of the season, and the freshlypainted floor and walls seen in the video indicated that the footage was filmed close to the start of 2011. The district court, again, did not allow the video into 1 Fowler Firearms did not have a receipt of the AR-15 rifle rental because on Fridays it allows men to rent firearms for free and does not document those rentals; January 21, 2011 was a Friday. 4 Case: 13-15827 Date Filed: 12/03/2014 Page: 5 of 18 evidence because it did not think the government had adequately established its authenticity. The government then called Larry Jais to establish the approximate date the video was filmed. Jais operated a maintenance business that provided repair and maintenance to Fowler Firearms. Jais testified that he installed the lighted baffles shown in the video, in late September or early October of 2010. Following this testimony, outside the presence of the jury, the government sought to admit the video of Broomfield shooting the AR-15 rifle, contending that video was now sufficiently authenticated by the circumstantial evidence summarized above. The government, with further testimony of Agent Davis, sought to admit Google records to establish the date the video was uploaded; the district court stated it would consider the Google records only for the hearing to determine whether to admit the video, and ultimately did not admit the records. The district court echoed Broomfield’s concern that the government had not presented evidence that the video had not been altered or manipulated. After recessing to review relevant case law, the district court admitted the video into evidence, stating it was “satisfied, without considering the Google records, that the government has established circumstantially”: (1) the date the video was taken; (2) that Broomfield appears in the video; and (3) that the video is authentic—“that is, that [the video] is what they claim it is, and that is a videotape 5 Case: 13-15827 Date Filed: 12/03/2014 Page: 6 of 18 of the defendant in the possession of the firearm on or about January 21, 2011.” The government then published the copy of the YouTube video to the jury, over Broomfield’s objection.2 The government recalled Agent Davis to the stand and he testified that the video showed Broomfield discharging the AR-15 rifle, with two boxes of PMC .233 ammunition nearby.