Opinion ID: 573126
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Testimony Regarding Suarez' Driver's License and Pager

Text: 27 Suarez next argues that the district court committed reversible error by allowing into evidence testimony that Suarez' driver's license and a pager were found wedged next to the car seat which he had been occupying just prior to his arrest. Suarez asserts, and the government does not dispute, that this evidence of attempted concealment was employed to show consciousness of guilt. Suarez contends that United States v. Silverman, 861 F.2d 571 (9th Cir.1988), prohibits the admission of consciousness-of-guilt evidence under certain circumstances, which Suarez claims are present in this case. We disagree. 28 Silverman dealt with the propriety of a consciousness of guilt instruction, not with the admission of evidence. In Silverman, the district court had instructed the jury that it might infer guilt from Silverman's concealment of his identity from government agents. Id. at 580. We reversed the case on other grounds, but for purposes of retrial informed the trial court that this instruction was improper. We gave various reasons why the instruction was unduly prejudicial, but our major concern was that Silverman's concealment of his identity to agents who called at his home was equivocal; it might have arisen from any number of causes besides a consciousness of guilt. The concealment occurred some two months after the criminal act in furtherance of the charged conspiracy. We found that, under all the circumstances, Silverman's concealment of his identity lacked sufficient connection to the criminal acts for which he was charged. Id. at 581. 29 A connection between the pager and the crime charged would be a proper inference in this case. There was testimony that telephone paging devices are frequently used by persons involved in drug trafficking. The pager itself is accordingly relevant evidence, wholly apart from the question of consciousness of guilt, and testimony as to the location where it was found simply provides the connection between the pager and Suarez. Suarez was a passenger in the car, and the fact that the pager was concealed next to his seat is important. Even more probative for purposes of connecting the pager to Suarez was the location of Suarez' driver's license with the pager. We find no error in the admission of this evidence as generally probative of the crime charged. See United States v. Crespo De Llano, 838 F.2d at 1018 (paging devices and other evidence found in house probative of narcotics conspiracy). 30 The trial court gave no consciousness of guilt instruction of the sort found detrimental to the defendant in Silverman. Suarez accordingly has no meritorious complaint about the admission of the pager, driver's license and its location. Even if the concealment of the pager and license were considered as showing consciousness of guilt, however, there was no reversible error. The act of concealing the pager and license was not fatally equivocal, as in Silverman. The concealment occurred during the period of the charged conspiracy, only ten days after Suarez' last meeting with Eliott. The connection between the concealment and the crime charged is quite direct. We have held on numerous occasions that the concealment of evidence subsequent to the commission of a crime may indicate consciousness of guilt and should be placed before the trier of fact. See e.g., United States v. Castillo, 615 F.2d 878, 885 (9th Cir.1980); United States v. Brashier, 548 F.2d 1315, 1325 (9th Cir.1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1111, 97 S.Ct. 1149, 51 L.Ed.2d 565 (1977). See also United States v. Feldman, 788 F.2d 544, 555 (9th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 1067, 107 S.Ct. 955, 93 L.Ed.2d 1003 (1987); United States v. Hernandez-Miranda, 601 F.2d 1104, 1106 (9th Cir.1979). We reject, therefore, all of Suarez' objections to the testimony regarding the pager and driver's license.