Opinion ID: 763759
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Preclusion of Mike Soto's Testimony

Text: 39 M. Soto began to cooperate with the government two days after her brother Angel Soto (A. Soto) was murdered, a crime she suspected Roman had committed. During the Millet trial, M. Soto was a key witness against Roman. She testified that he participated in the murder of Charles Robinson, a young drug dealer, and conspired to murder Victor Mojica, a drug dealer who had threatened Latin King Gregg Cyr, Jr.'s drug operations in Bridgeport. Roman attempted to refute M. Soto's testimony by calling a cooperating government witness, Mike Soto, as a defense witness, but the district court precluded Mike Soto from testifying on Roman's behalf. 40 On appeal, Roman contends that Mike Soto would have testified that his brother, A. Soto, told him that he and Luis Rodriguez (L.Rodriguez) murdered Javier LeBron, a crime not charged in this case. From this testimony, Roman asserts that M. Soto, as sister of A. Soto, must also have known that A. Soto or L. Rodriguez killed LeBron and, therefore, she lied when she testified that she did not know who killed LeBron. Roman asserts that M. Soto lied about the LeBron murder because she was trying to protect her then-boyfriend, L. Rodriguez, from prosecution for the Robinson murder and for the conspiracy to murder Mojica. Roman claims that Mike Soto's testimony would have exculpated him by permitting the jury to draw the inference that L. Rodriguez killed Robinson and attempted to kill Mojica. Roman therefore argues that the district court erred by not permitting him to call Mike Soto. We disagree. 41 The district court decided to exclude Mike Soto's testimony because it found it was irrelevant under Fed.R.Evid. 401 and 402. The court determined that testimony that L. Rodriguez killed LeBron did not make it more or less probable that L. Rodriguez, not Roman, murdered Robinson and conspired to kill Mojica. 42 We will not reverse the district court's determinations of admissibility of evidence unless it abused its discretion, see United States v. Malpeso, 115 F.3d 155, 162 (2d Cir.1997) (citing Rioux, 97 F.3d at 660), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 2366, 141 L.Ed.2d 735 (1998), and [w]e will not overturn a trial judge's evidentiary rulings unless the judge acted arbitrarily or irrationally. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). Here, we find no abuse of discretion. 43 First, the fact that Mike Soto may have known who killed LeBron does not support the claim that M. Soto knew and lied about it at trial. Moreover, another witness testified that he heard that L. Rodriguez and A. Soto killed Lebron. Finally, Roman's defense counsel on summation had the opportunity to argue that M. Soto was allegedly covering up for L. Rodriguez, and the district court gave careful instructions to the jury on examining a witness' credibility where there is a grant of immunity. Accordingly, we find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding Mike Soto's testimony. 44