Opinion ID: 173201
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidence at the Sentencing Hearing

Text: Mr. Hylton first contends that the police officer’s testimony that a grocery store employee told him that the robber left in a dark-colored vehicle with a license plate of 150069 was improperly admitted as unreliable hearsay. “[S]entencing courts may consider hearsay evidence provided that the evidence has sufficient indicia of reliability.” United States v. Dazey, 403 F.3d 1147, 1177 n.7 (10th Cir. 2005). The district court correctly recognized this rule, explaining that the court was generally skeptical of hearsay testimony from witnesses with a motive to pass culpability onto the defendant. The court, however, noted that this was not such a case and deemed the officer’s testimony credible in light of the other circumstantial evidence of Mr. Hylton’s guilt. On appeal, Mr. Hylton provides no basis to question the reliability of the officer, emphasizing only that the government provided no reason why the grocery store employee could not have testified at the hearing. This is insufficient to demonstrate that the court should have disregarded the officer’s testimony. In short, the court properly adjudged the reliability of the testimony and properly considered it at the hearing. Next, Mr. Hylton argues that the court erred in admitting the video surveillance tape. He contends that its poor quality and brevity could be misleading and that he was not the only tall, African-American male at the grocery store that day. The district court, however, was clearly not misled by the tape because it did not consider the tape as conclusive evidence of Mr. Hylton’s guilt. Instead, the court simply noted that the tape -5- merely supported the government’s theory and was consistent with the other evidence provided at the hearing. There was no error in admitting the tape.