Opinion ID: 606126
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Testimony of Government Informant Daniel Giron

Text: 87 Daniel Giron, a witness critical to the government's case, testified to inculpatory statements made by Rafael and Luis Sanchez while the three were incarcerated in a Puerto Rican jail. Giron had worked as an informant for the FBI until his incarceration for violation of probation. At the time Appellants made the statements at issue, they were under indictment in Puerto Rico, but not yet in the Southern District of Florida. 21 Appellants claimed at trial and now claim on appeal that Giron's testimony should have been suppressed because he acted as a government agent and elicited the statements in violation of Appellants' Sixth Amendment right to counsel. 88 At trial, the court heard the testimony of Giron's FBI supervisor, George Nabovny, that Giron was terminated as a federal informant upon his arrest for violation of probation. Giron was reactivated as an informant after he approached Nabovny with evidence of Appellants' incriminating statements. Concerned about potential Sixth Amendment implications, the trial judge conducted an in camera examination of Giron's testimony. Having weighed Agent Nabovny's testimony, the court concluded that Giron was not a government informant at the time the incriminating statements were made and that the Sixth Amendment did not require exclusion of the testimony. The court reconsidered this Sixth Amendment claim in Defendants/Appellants' post-trial motion for new trial and reached the same conclusion. We find no error in the court's conclusion that Daniel Giron was a terminated informant during the period in which the challenged conversations occurred. 89