Opinion ID: 763759
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Morales

Text: 66 Morales challenges the admission of a recorded telephone conversation between himself and Antuna that occurred after the night of the A. Diaz and White murders in which they discussed the double homicide and the ensuing police investigation. Prior to trial, Morales moved to dismiss count 24 of the first superseding indictment, a VICAR conspiracy count that alleged that he conspired to murder A. Diaz in violation of Conn. Gen.Stat. Ann. §§ 53a-48, 53a-54a, and 18 U.S.C. § 1959(a)(5). One of the overt acts in count 24 11 that the government alleged in furtherance of Morales' conspiracy to murder A. Diaz is the challenged, recorded telephone conversation between himself and Antuna. Morales argued that this overt act was legally insufficient because, under Connecticut law, once a conspiracy to commit murder culminates with the murder of the victim, the conspiracy ends, and thus, subsequent declarations are not in furtherance of the conspiracy and may be held inadmissible. Although Morales recognized that state pleading, procedural and evidentiary rules are not incorporated into § 1961 under the RICO statute, he argues that § 1959 of the VICAR statute is different and should be read to incorporate Connecticut's evidentiary rule regarding admissibility of evidence after a conspiracy to murder ends. The district court dismissed his motion, holding that § 1959 does not incorporate state substantive law. See United States v. Morales, 881 F.Supp. 769, 772 (D.Conn.1995). On appeal, Morales argues that the court erred by denying his motion, and even if Connecticut's evidentiary law is not binding, he asserts his conversation with Antuna was not in furtherance of the conspiracy to murder A. Diaz for the conspiracy ended with the murder. We disagree. 67 First, in Paone, we held that the language of 18 U.S.C. § 1961(1)(A), which defines racketeering activity as any act or threat involving murder which is chargeable under State law and punishable by imprisonment for more than one year, was not intend[ed] to incorporate the various states' procedural and evidentiary rules into the RICO statute. 782 F.2d at 393; see United States v. Friedman, 854 F.2d 535, 565 (2d Cir.1988). Rather, [t]he statute is meant to define, in a more generic sense, the wrongful conduct that constitutes the predicates for a federal racketeering charge. Paone, 782 F.2d at 393; see United States v. Coonan, 938 F.2d 1553, 1563-65 (2d Cir.1991). Similarly, in our view, the gravamen of § 1959 is a violation of federal law and, therefore, reference to violation of any laws of any State in the statute merely defines the unlawful conduct constituting the predicate offense. Thus, the statute does not incorporate the substantive requirements of state law. Consequently we conclude that the court correctly ruled that a state's evidentiary rule underlying a conspiracy to murder offense is not incorporated into a VICAR prosecution. 68 Second, Morales' and Antuna's statements are admissible under Rule 801(d)(2)(E) because the record reflects that they were made in furtherance of the racketeering conspiracy, irrespective of whether or not the conspiracy to murder A. Diaz was completed. Accordingly, we conclude that the court properly admitted the recorded telephone conversation between Morales and Antuna.