Opinion ID: 386112
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Severance from Turner

Text: 39 Before Turner was arrested in front of Hackett's residence, he stated in response to questioning that he had never been to Hackett's house and did not even know who lived there. He also said he had just returned from the phone booth down the road at the yacht club. Agents who had been staked out at the yacht club knew this to be false. 40 Hackett charges Bruton error in the admission of testimony about these false exculpatory statements, or in the district court's failure to sever trials so that Turner could be cross-examined. 41 Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968), held that the admission in a joint trial of extrajudicial statements made by one codefendant that inculpate another codefendant could violate the confrontation clause when the declarant elects not to take the stand and is therefore unavailable for cross-examination. See Dutton v. Evans, 400 U.S. 74, 88, 91 S.Ct. 210, 219, 27 L.Ed.2d 213 (1970); United States v. Snow, 521 F.2d 730, 734 (9th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1090, 96 S.Ct. 883, 47 L.Ed.2d 101 (1976). The test, as restated by this court, is whether, 'under the circumstances, the unavailability of the declarant for cross-examination deprived the jury of a satisfactory basis for evaluating the truth of the extrajudicial declarations.'  United States v. Snow, 521 F.2d at 734, quoting United States v. Adams, 446 F.2d 681, 683 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 943, 92 S.Ct. 294, 30 L.Ed.2d 257 (1971). 42 Here, however, Turner's statements were admitted not for their truth, but merely for the fact that the statements were made. See United States v. Fried, 576 F.2d 787, 792-93 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 895, 99 S.Ct. 255, 58 L.Ed.2d 241 (1978). Combined with other evidence showing Turner's statements to be false, the mere fact that Turner made them implied his consciousness of guilt. The agent who recounted Turner's statements was available for cross-examination on whether Turner in fact made them. Thus, cross-examination of Turner was not necessary to protect Hackett's confrontation right on the question whether Turner in fact made the statements. See Anderson v. United States, 417 U.S. 211, 220-21, 94 S.Ct. 2253, 2260-61, 41 L.Ed.2d 20 (1974); Dutton v. Evans, 400 U.S. at 88, 91 S.Ct. at 219. 43 Furthermore, we do not agree that Turner's attempt to disassociate himself from Hackett implied an assertion by Turner of Hackett's guilt. Whatever tangential effect Turner's statements may have had on Hackett in the eyes of the jury, we deem the connection between the statements and (Hackett's) culpability to be too remote to require reversal under Bruton. United States v. Brown, 551 F.2d 639, 647 (5th Cir. 1977), rev'd on other grounds, 569 F.2d 236 (5th Cir. 1978) (en banc). 44 Finally, the district court was correct in refusing to limit the admission of Turner's statements to Turner alone. As we have already held, Turner's statements were not hearsay. See United States v. Fried, 586 F.2d at 793. Thus it was not necessary that they were in furtherance of the conspiracy in order to be admissible against the other defendants. See Anderson v. United States, 417 U.S. 211, 221, 94 S.Ct. 2253, 2261, 41 L.Ed.2d 20 (1974). (Turner's statements were) accordingly admissible simply if relevant in some way to prove the conspiracy charged. Id.; see Lutwak v. United States, 344 U.S. 604, 617, 73 S.Ct. 481, 489, 97 L.Ed. 593 (1953). 45 By showing Turner's consciousness of guilt of his participation in the conspiracy, obviously these statements tend to establish the existence of the conspiracy. Thus, the statements were relevant and admissible against Hackett.