Opinion ID: 201890
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The January Conversations

Text: 7 Tavares contends that the district court should have excluded the taped January conversations under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b), which deems evidence of a defendant's past acts inadmissible to prove the defendant acted in conformity with a certain character trait in the charged case. See Fed.R.Evid. 404(b). We review a district court's decision to admit disputed evidence for abuse of discretion. See United States v. Flemmi, 402 F.3d 79, 86 (1st Cir.2005). 8 Although Rule 404(b) prohibits the use of past-acts evidence for propensity purposes, it does permit a party to introduce such evidence for other purposes; commonly cited acceptable purposes include proof of knowledge, intent, motive, and opportunity. Fed.R.Evid. 404(b). Here, the government argues that it introduced the January telephone conversations to show Tavares' knowledge about illicit firearms dealing and intent to conduct an illicit gun deal, rather than to show propensity. Tavares counters that because the January conversations concerned a potential sale of a gun to Baptiste, whereas the actual sale some months later was made to the ATF agent (with Baptiste acting as go-between), it is improper to impute Tavares' mental state on the earlier occasion to the later, consummated transaction. This characterization, however, ignores that the January conversations tend to establish that Tavares knew how to conduct a weapons sale and expressed willingness to do so, which are relevant and permissible factors regardless of the identity of the purchaser. 9 The district court's conclusion that the January conversations served the permissible purposes of proving knowledge and intent was not an abuse of discretion.