Opinion ID: 742598
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Admissibility of Evidence of Violent Acts

Text: 185 At the Miller Trial, the government introduced evidence of numerous killings by the Supreme Team security force, including evidence that Hale had killed a person named Dre and that various others had killed several other persons who were considered to be threats to the Team's operations. Defendants contend that since these murders were not alleged in the indictment, evidence concerning them should have been excluded pursuant to Fed.R.Evid. 404(b). We disagree because the government did not offer this as evidence of other acts within the meaning of Rule 404(b) but rather offered it as proof of the existence of the RICO enterprise alleged in the indictment which used such acts of violence in furtherance of its narcotics conspiracy. Where, as here, the indictment contains a conspiracy charge, uncharged acts may be admissible as direct evidence of the conspiracy itself. United States v. Thai, 29 F.3d at 812. An act that is alleged to have been done in furtherance of the alleged conspiracy ... is not an 'other' act within the meaning of Rule 404(b); rather, it is part of the very act charged. United States v. Concepcion, 983 F.2d 369, 392 (2d Cir.1992), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 856, 114 S.Ct. 163, 126 L.Ed.2d 124 (1993). 186 The district court concluded that the proof of these murders was relevant to show the existence and nature of the enterprise and the conspiracy and that the probative value of the evidence was not substantially outweighed by its potential for unfair prejudice, see Fed.R.Evid. 403. Such an assessment is reviewable only for abuse of discretion, see, e.g., United States v. Thai, 29 F.3d at 813, and we see no abuse of discretion here. Nor could it be inferred that the jury made improper use of the evidence of the uncharged killings to convict defendants randomly of all of the violent acts alleged in the indictment, for the jury refused to find that defendants had killed the four unidentified Colombian suppliers as alleged in the indictment. The evidence of the uncharged acts of murder was properly admitted.