Opinion ID: 487133
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hearsay evidence admitted against Delvecchio

Text: 23 Appellant Delvecchio argues that the admission of certain evidence against him was improper and claims that he was thereby denied a fair trial. The evidence he challenges is the out-of-court statement of the informant, DiChiara, that DiChiara intended to meet with Amen and Delvecchio on May 11, 1983. This statement was admitted against Delvecchio on the theory that it tended to prove his attendance at the May 11 meeting. When agent Franciosa testified about his surveillance of that meeting, however, he admitted that although he saw another person in the car with Amen, he could not tell if that person was Delvecchio. 24 A declarant's out-of-court statement of intent may be introduced to prove that the declarant acted in accordance with that intent. See Mutual Life Insurance Co. v. Hillmon, 145 U.S. 285, 12 S.Ct. 909, 36 L.Ed. 706 (1892); Fed.R.Evid. 803(3). A declarant's statement of intent may also be admitted against a non-declarant when there is independent evidence which connects the declarant's statement with the non-declarant's activities. See United States v. Badalamenti, 794 F.2d 821, 825-26 (2d Cir.1986); United States v. Sperling, 726 F.2d 69, 73-74 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1243, 104 S.Ct. 3516, 82 L.Ed.2d 824 (1984); United States v. Cicale, 691 F.2d 95, 103-04 (2d Cir.1982), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1082, 103 S.Ct. 1771, 76 L.Ed.2d 344 (1983). For example, an informant's out-of-court statement of intent to meet with a defendant may be admitted against the defendant when there is independent evidence that the meeting took place. 25 The government argues that informant DiChiara's statement of intent to meet with Delvecchio was admissible against Delvecchio under the Cicale doctrine. The government's argument fails, however, because in this case there was no independent evidence of Delvecchio's presence at the May 11 meeting. Indeed, Agent Franciosa specifically testified that he did not see Delvecchio at the meeting site. The government offered no other evidence of Delvecchio's movements on that day. By contrast, in both Sperling and Cicale, the declarant's statement of intent to meet with the defendant was confirmed by later eyewitness testimony that the meeting actually took place. DiChiara's statement should not, therefore, have been admitted against Delvecchio.