Opinion ID: 411878
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: FMBC President's Statement

Text: 59 Lloyd contends that the trial judge committed reversible error in allowing a government witness to testify to a statement made to him by the FMBC president prior to the meeting at the Sheraton Motor Inn. 60 The witness stated that when he was driving the president from the Jackson Airport to the Sheraton Motor Inn, the president mentioned that the meeting concerned the application for the branch and that it was going to cost $25,000. He mentioned Lloyd by name, saying that he was going to talk to some people with influence to where they could get the charter. 61 The trial court admitted the testimony under the coconspirator non-hearsay rule, Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(E). Under our holding in United States v. James, 590 F.2d 575, 582 (5th Cir.1979), conspiratorial declarations are admissible when it has been shown by a preponderance of the evidence independent of the statement itself (1) that a conspiracy existed, (2) that the coconspirator and the defendant against whom the coconspirator's statement is offered were members of the conspiracy and (3) that the statement was made during the course and in furtherance of the conspiracy. 62 We think the statement should have been excluded. Aside from the question of whether the FMBC president qualifies as a coconspirator, nothing exists in the record to indicate that he somehow intended to further the scheme by announcing it to the witness. This was mere idle conversation, was not in furtherance of the conspiracy, and should not have been admitted under the hearsay exception. United States v. Phillips, 664 F.2d 971, 1027 (5th Cir.1981). 63 Reading the record as a whole, however, it is apparent that the testimony was merely cumulative. Numerous witnesses testified as to the meeting, and the error was harmless. Id.