Opinion ID: 3216831
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The “Chiguiro” Photograph

Text: Six weeks before trial, the Government turned over a document obtained from Colombian Military Intelligence. The document is a printout of a PowerPoint-type slide containing photographs of four men. Three of the men are labeled FARC commanders in the 16th Front. The fourth photograph shows a person (not Martinez Vega) in full military uniform and is labeled “Angel Leopoldo Lopez, aka Chiguiro.” J.A. 1786. At trial, the Government called Major Guillermo Rios, Colombian Military Intelligence’s “chief of analysis” for the 16th Front, who testified that the only names associated with “Chiguiro” that the Colombian military had in “the files [he] looked [at]” and “in the files that [he] received” were “Juan Jose Martinez Vega” and “Gentil Alvis Patiño.” J.A. 1149. 8 On cross-examination, the defense showed the printout with the “Chiguiro” photo to Rios, but he denied ever having seen it before. Martinez Vega then filed a motion seeking all exculpatory evidence pertaining to the printout. A few days later, the Government advised Martinez Vega by letter that the slide from which the printout came had been found in an electronic storage file of the DEA Bogotá Country Office, but that none of the current agents of that office could identify its origin. However, agents who had previously worked in the office stated that the slide was given to them by Colombian intelligence around 2001 in the context of large transmissions 8 The indictment charged Martinez Vega under the aliases of “Gentil Alvis Patiño” and “Chiguiro,” but the defense demonstrated that Patiño was another individual with ties to other alleged FARC leaders, and the Government eventually stipulated that Colombian identification documents existed for a different individual named Patiño. 29 of information on FARC members. The letter further explained that the Government’s contacts with the Colombian military and intelligence were also unaware of the origin of the “Chiguiro” photograph, the slide, or the information on the slide. Martinez Vega argued that it was misleading for the Government to ask Rios about his “files” and elicit that no other person had been identified as “Chiguiro” when the Government “knew that, at some point in time, an agency of Colombian Military Intelligence which reported to the office occupied by Rios, had reached the opposite conclusion.” J.A. 1381. Martinez Vega therefore proposed that the following stipulation be provided to the jury: The parties stipulate that Defendant Martinez [sic] Exhibit 3 is a document which was found in an electronic storage file of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Bogota Country Office. It is believed that it was transmitted, as part of a larger transmission of information, by Colombian Military Intelligence in or around 2001. The DEA has no further information about the origin of the document, the photographs contained on it, or accuracy of the captions to the photographs. Id. The Government refused to so stipulate. The court also declined to admit the printout from the slide into evidence since it had not been identified by any witness and had not been verified or authenticated in any way. Id. at 1688–89. In his motion for a new trial, Martinez Vega argued that the Government’s delayed disclosure of the printout “at a time and under circumstances when Defendant could not ascertain the factual basis for the document” violated Brady. J.A. 1780. He also argued that the Government compounded the breach 30 by questioning Major Rios in a misleading way, and that the district court failed to remedy those infractions. The court denied the motion, finding that the printout and the soughtafter information were not material. We review the district court’s denial of a motion for a new trial for abuse of discretion, but evaluate de novo the court’s assessment of whether the Government breached its obligations under Brady. See United States v. Oruche, 484 F.3d 590, 595 (D.C. Cir. 2007). The district court did not err in denying a new trial because there is no reasonable prospect that earlier disclosure of the printout or any additional information about it would have affected the trial’s outcome. Brady requires the Government to disclose, upon request, “evidence favorable to an accused . . . where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment.” 373 U.S. at 87. The “touchstone of materiality” is “‘a reasonable probability’ of a different result.” Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 434 (1995) (quoting Bagley, 473 U.S. at 678). The bottom-line question “is not whether the defendant would more likely than not have received a different verdict with the evidence, but whether in its absence he received a fair trial, understood as a trial resulting in a verdict worthy of confidence.” Kyles, 514 U.S. at 434. “A ‘reasonable probability’ of a different result” turns on whether the Government’s suppression of evidence “‘undermines confidence in the outcome of the trial.’” Id. (quoting Bagley, 473 U.S. at 678). In this case, for evidence that there was another “Chiguiro” affiliated with the FARC to have made any difference, the Government’s case would have to be heavily reliant on Martinez Vega’s use of the nickname. But the record evidence bucks that notion. Multiple witnesses who 31 knew Martinez Vega—either as “Chiguiro” or not—identified him repeatedly in person and testified to seeing him transporting weapons or cocaine and interacting with leaders of the 16th Front. The district court found that those witnesses “did not have fleeting glimpses of the defendant.” J.A. 2145. Rather, “they worked with him, ate meals with him, and even lived with him,” leaving “little room for doubt about the reliability of their identifications of him as the person they observed engaging in conspiratorial acts.” Id. Those witnesses personally knew Martinez Vega and observed him in the relevant circumstances. For those witnesses, the name that Martinez Vega went by was largely beside the point. Thus, any revelation that another individual affiliated with the FARC was also referred to as “Chiguiro” would not plausibly have had any effect on the outcome of the trial.