Opinion ID: 687313
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Augustine's evidentiary challenges.

Text: 26 Augustine's objection to the admission of the title history for Elda Castro's car is curious. While it is true that there are any number of reasons why Ms. Castro might have used Augustine's address when she registered her car, those competing inferences were for the jury to consider. The title history was properly admitted under Fed.R.Evid. 803(8), the public records exception, and the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it admitted this evidence. 27 Augustine's objection to those portions of the transcript which relate to the discussion in the Garret Lane apartment is also mistaken. Here, Augustine argues that the entry in the transcript which designated him as the person who told Garcia that there was One forty (meaning $140,000) in the duffel bag was inadmissible hearsay. Naturally, Augustine's statement was nonhearsay because, as the district court properly found, it was the statement of a co-conspirator during the course and in furtherance of the conspiracy. Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(E). Similarly, Garcia's in-court attribution of that statement to Augustine is not hearsay; and neither is the entry in the transcript, because it merely reflected Garcia's in-court attribution of that statement to Augustine. Garcia's in-court testimony, not the transcript, was offered to prove the identity of the speaker and, therefore, the designation in the transcript was simply demonstrative evidence designed to aid the jury. See United States v. Briscoe, 896 F.2d 1476, 1490-91 (7th Cir.1990); United States v. Alvarez, 860 F.2d 801, 812 (7th Cir.1988). 1 28