Opinion ID: 202335
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Admissibility Under Fed.R.Evid. 401

Text: 38 As noted, Charles argues that the drug evidence was improperly admitted because it was not relevant to the case at hand. Relevant evidence is defined as 39 evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence. 40 Fed.R.Evid. 401. Evidence that pertains `to a chain of events forming the context . . . and set-up of the crime, helping it to complete the story of the crime on trial . . . [is admissible in appropriate cases] . . . where it possesse[s] contextual significance.' United States v. Sabetta, 373 F.3d 75, 83 (1st Cir.2004) (quoting United States v. Ladd, 885 F.2d 954, 959 (1st Cir.1989)). In Sabetta, this Court upheld the admissibility of statements by a friend of the defendant who had wanted to use the defendant's gun as relevant to the issue of whether the defendant had been in possession of a firearm. The defendant argued that the fact that his friend wanted to use the gun had no relevance to whether the defendant possessed a gun. The district court found it relevant, writing, It's all part of the whole procedure that was taking place. Sabetta, 373 F.3d at 83. Here, Barron's testimony that he saw Charles trying to tie the baggie forms a part of the agents' explanation of why they approached Charles and why they undertook to arrest him. It is, moreover, directly relevant to one element of the crime, i.e., that the officers were acting in their official capacity. The evidence of the later discovery of the crack-dusted baggie on Charles's person corroborates the officers' observations, and it also undercuts Charles's argument that during the altercation he was acting only in self-defense rather than trying to avoid arrest for possession of drugs. Thus we hold that both the earlier testimony furnished by Barron and the post-altercation discovery of the baggie on Charles's person constituted relevant evidence under Fed.R.Evid. 401. 41