Opinion ID: 475296
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the out-of-court statement.

Text: 6
7 Wright's witnesses at trial included John Black, a fellow inmate at the Medical Center. When defense counsel began to ask Black about conversations he had had with informant Gatewood, the government objected that the response would be hearsay. Counsel approached the bench, and the court sustained the objection, under Fed.R.Evid. 403, holding that the prejudicial effect would far outweigh its probative value. Defense counsel explained that the purpose of the statement was to show that Wright did not know that he was holding marijuana. The court permitted defense counsel to make an offer of proof, at which time Black stated: 8 [Gatewood] explained to me that he was sorry he had Haywood Wright hold some kind of content for him. He explained that someone was supposed to offer him some kind of leniency on his case so-to-speak, setting up Mr. Wright with some kind of content that he told him to hold. 9 And he said he was sorry because they did not give him what he asked for. 10 Following the offer of proof, the court upheld its prior ruling to exclude the testimony as overly prejudicial under Fed.R.Evid. 403. 11
12 Wright argues that the district court erred in excluding Black's statement as lacking sufficient probative value because it was offered to prove his lack of knowledge and intent. 2 13 The trial court may exclude relevant evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues or misleading the jury. Fed.R.Evid. 403. An appellant bears a heavy burden under the appellant standard of review of a trial court's evidentiary rulings. This court will reverse a trial court's decision to exclude evidence only if the trial court has clearly abused its discretion. United States v. Michaels, 726 F.2d 1307, 1315 (8th Cir.1984); Federal Land Bank of St. Louis v. Wilson, 719 F.2d 1367, 1372 (8th Cir.1983); United States v. Johnson, 516 F.2d 209, 214 (8th Cir.1975). 14 The district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding Black's testimony. The statement was ambiguous in that it would have required the jury to speculate as to what type of content Gatewood allegedly gave Wright to hold. See Wright v. Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co., 580 F.2d 809, 810 (5th Cir.1978) (excluding testimony as overly ambiguous). Moreover, the statement did not directly bear on the issue of whether Wright knew what he was holding and could have misled the jury with regard to this issue. See United States v. Marvin, 720 F.2d 12, 14 (8th Cir.1983) (upholding disallowance of testimony under Rule 403 because not sufficiently related to relevant issue and potentially misleading). As Gatewood was unavailable to clarify the statement, we see no abuse of discretion by the trial court. 15