Opinion ID: 199997
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Risk of Unfair Prejudice

Text: 43 We recognize that illicit drug dealing is an emotionally charged public issue. 2 Jack B. Weinstein & Margaret A. Berger, Weinstein's Federal Evidence § 403.04[2], at 403-46 (2d ed.2002). Thus, the trial courts must exercise care in deciding to what extent, if at all, evidence of drug-related activities should be admitted in a firearms possession case. Here, the district court exercised appropriate care in monitoring the introduction of such evidence. 44 The district court carefully parsed the evidence at the pre-trial hearing and circumscribed the scope of the evidence the government could offer at trial. Although the government sought to admit evidence of Smith's drug dealing stretching back over a ten-month period, the court excluded evidence of Smith's drug dealing going back more than ten days before Moore saw the firearm in the Wales Street apartment. The court also barred Moore from testifying as to instructions by Smith to keep the sink area clean to enable ready access to the drain to flush down drugs in case of a police raid. 45 Smith argues, however, that this evidence of drug dealing was not necessary to show Smith's control over the apartment because it was duplicative of other uncontested evidence in the record, such as testimony that Smith had the keys to the apartment and mailbox, slept in the only bedroom where he kept his prescription medication, and paid the utility bills. We disagree. While this other evidence may have been probative on the issue of control over the apartment, it had no bearing on motive to possess the gun. The strongest evidence of motive (and therefore knowing possession) — matters which Smith himself put into issue — was the drug dealing from that apartment around the time the gun was discovered. 46 Finally, we note the careful limiting instruction given by the trial court — first when the challenged testimony was admitted and again in the jury charge — as to the limited purposes for which Moore's testimony about Smith's drug-related activities was to be considered. We have noted on many occasions the salutary effect of such instructions. See, e.g., United States v. Morla-Trinidad, 100 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir.1996) (taking note of limiting instruction in assessing extent of unfair prejudice); Devin, 918 F.2d at 288 (noting clarity of the court's charge limiting jury's use of Rule 404(b) evidence in finding no abuse in trial court's Rule 403 balancing); United States v. Currier, 836 F.2d 11, 18-19 (1st Cir.1987) (finding no abuse in court's Rule 403 calculus where district court alleviated impact of unfair prejudice by means of cogent limiting instructions). We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the drug-related evidence at Smith's trial on the firearm possession charge.