Opinion ID: 771786
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Evidence of Third-Party Culpability

Text: 53 Vallejo argues that the district court abused its discretion by excluding evidence that Jose Jaramillo, the former owner of the car Vallejo was driving, had previously been convicted of bringing the same amount of the same drugs into the country at the same port of entry using the same method of concealment in a different car. 54 The admissibility of this evidence was first raised during a motions in limine hearing when the Government sought an order preventing Vallejo from mentioning Jaramillo during opening statements. Vallejo explained that Jaramillo had purchased the car Vallejo was driving on January 22nd, been arrested in another vehicle on January 28th for importation of marijuana, and, on February 21st, an unknown person had executed a release of liability to transfer the car out of Jaramillo's name. Vallejo was stopped at the border on March 4th. He argued that there was a clear inference  that Jaramillo had gotten this car ready to go and then sold it after his arrest, fearing that he would be caught importing drugs a second time. Because, at the time of the hearing, neither Vallejo nor the Government had complete information about what evidence would be used, the court postponed any decisions until after submission of written briefs. 55 The evidence was next brought up in a motion in limine on the first day of trial before the jury was seated. Although the Government did not object to naming Jaramillo as the car's owner, it did object to the introduction of Jaramillo's previous arrest for narcotics importation and his subsequent deportation on relevance grounds. The district court agreed with the Government and concluded that, without evidence of a connection between Jaramillo and Vallejo, the fact that he's driving a car registered to somebody else could be susceptible to all kinds of inferences. Assuming that the evidence was too remote, the district court failed to ascribe importance to Vallejo's theory of disconnection as opposed to connection, nor did it allow Vallejo to fully explain why the timing of the transactions coupled with this disconnection was so critical to his theory of defense. 56 Vallejo again attempted to introduce evidence of Jaramillo's arrest during the recross-examination of Agent Pina, when the Government elicited testimony from Agent Pina that he had unsuccessfully tried to contact Jaramillo as the car's registered owner. The government having opened the door, Vallejo argued that he should be allowed to inform the jury that contact with Jaramillo was impossible because Jaramillo had been arrested and deported for drug importation. For the third time, Vallejo explained the significance of the timing of Jaramillo's purchase of the car, his arrest for importing marijuana, the subsequent sale of the car, and Vallejo's arrest. Finally given the opportunity to fully discuss the details and timing of Jaramillo's arrest, Vallejo explained that Jaramillo was arrested at the same port of entry as Vallejo, and that almost the same amount of drugs was hidden in similar compartments of the car. He also explained that shortly after Jaramillo's arrest a release of liability was signed -in someone else's handwriting -relieving Jaramillo of the car's title. Yet for the third time, the district court failed to see how the proffered evidence connected to Vallejo and excluded it as irrelevant. The court cited Rule 403 as an additional ground for its exclusion, finding the evidence more obfiscative [sic] than anything else. 57 We have held that [f]undamental standards of relevancy . . . require the admission of testimony which tends to prove that a person other than the defendant committed the crime that is charged. United States v. Crosby, 75 F.3d 1343, 1347 (9th Cir. 1996) (alteration and omission in original) (citation and quotation marks omitted). In Crosby, we held that the district court improperly excluded evidence that suggested the assault victim's husband -not the defendant -may have been responsible for her assault because such evidence supported an alternative theory of how the crime might have been committed. Id. at 1347. Here, the similarity of circumstances surrounding Jaramillo's arrest provides an alternative theory of how the drugs were secreted in Vallejo's car without his knowledge. Jaramillo was arrested one month and four days before Vallejo was arrested. Both were arrested for importing almost the same quantity of marijuana, hidden in similar car compartments, at the same port of entry. Ordinarily evidence of another person's similar arrest may be too remote, but here, the timing of the two arrests and the virtual identity of their circumstances, when combined with the fact of Jaramillo's prior ownership of the car Vallejo was driving, infuse this evidence with unique relevance to the central defense theory -that Vallejo did not know of the drugs in the car. 58 Even if the defense theory is purely speculative, as the district court characterized it, the evidence would be relevant. In the past, our decisions have been guided by the words of Professor Wigmore: 59 [I]f the evidence [that someone else committed the crime] is in truth calculated to cause the jury to doubt, the court should not attempt to decide for the jury that this doubt is purely speculative and fantas tic but should afford the accused every opportunity to create that doubt. 60 Id. at 1349 (quoting 1A John Henry Wigmore, Evidence in Trials at Common Law 139 (Tillers rev. ed. 1983)) (alterations in original). Accordingly, it is the role of the jury to consider the evidence and determine whether it presents all kinds of fantasy possibilities, as the district court concluded, or whether it presents legitimate alternative theories for how the crime occurred. 61 The Government also argues that the evidence was irrelevant because Vallejo could not establish a link between himself and Jaramillo. The Government, however, misapprehends the reason Vallejo proffered this evidence: to show disconnection. By showing that he did not know Jaramillo and that hedid not know that Jaramillo had put drugs in the car, Vallejo hoped to establish his own lack of knowledge. This evidence was relevant. 62 Evidence of Jaramillo's previous arrest was also highly probative. Again, we can draw parallels to the Crosby case. In both situations, there was little direct evidence of what actually occurred. In Crosby, both the victim and the defendant were intoxicated on the night in question and could not recall exactly how the assault occurred. See id. at 1345. In this case, no evidence was presented to suggest exactly how the drugs ended up in the car Vallejo was driving. In Crosby, the defendant claimed he did not commit the crime, but he was not permitted to provide an answer to the question the jurors would naturally ask themselves, `If the defendant didn't [commit the crime], who did?'  Id. at 1347. In this case, Vallejo claimed he did not know there were drugs in the car, but he was not allowed to provide an answer for the jurors' question: If defendant did not know there were drugs in the car and did not place them there himself, who did? On the other hand, there seems to be little danger of unfair prejudice here. The excluded evidence does not complicate the case; it simply supports Vallejo's claim that he did not know that there were drugs in the car. Because the government introduced evidence that Jaramillo was the car's registered owner, evidence of Jaramillo's previous arrest was relevant, and the danger of unfair prejudice did not substantially outweigh its probative value, the district court abused its discretion by excluding the circumstances of Jaramillo's arrest and deportation. Given the lack of direct evidence supporting Vallejo's conviction and the centrality of this evidence to Vallejo's case, the error was not harmless.