Opinion ID: 2323065
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Relevancy of Andrews's Prior Statements

Text: Although Lassiter may not have preserved an appropriate hearsay objection to the admission of Andrews's out-of-court statements to Wraina, his relevancy-based objection was properly raised and preserved. [4] The defendant argues on appeal that Wraina's testimony was irrelevant to establish that he engaged in a conspiracy to murder the decedent, and thus the introduction of this testimony constituted prejudicial error. Conspiracy is an agreement by two or more persons to commit an unlawful act or to perform a lawful act for an unlawful purpose. State v. Mastracchio, 612 A.2d 698, 706 (R.I.1992). Once an agreement has been made, no further action in furtherance of the conspiracy is necessary to find a defendant guilty of the crime of conspiracy. State v. Romano, 456 A.2d 746, 757 (R.I.1983). The state must prove the existence and scope of the conspiracy charged beyond a reasonable doubt. Mastracchio, 612 A.2d at 706. We previously have recognized that there seldom will be direct evidence of an explicit agreement to commit an unlawful act, and that the existence and scope of a conspiracy often must be inferentially established by proof of the relations, conduct, circumstances, and actions of the parties. Id. (quoting State v. Gordon, 508 A.2d 1339, 1349 (R.I.1986)). Here, the trial justice decided that the prior statements of the decedent were admissible to prove conspiracy. The trial justice stated the basis of his ruling as follows: [Hazard] is present in the car    if there was bad blood between Hazard [and Andrews] because of a prior incident and [Hazard] is using one of the weapons, that is some evidence that tends to prove a conspiracy. I don't think [the defendant] has to be named. He's there participating, and if there is bad blood among one of the co-conspirators, I think that's amply sufficient. We fail to see how either incident circumstantially establishes the existence of a conspiracy to murder Andrews or that defendant was part of that conspiracy. Wraina's testimony amounted to evidence of prior uncharged criminal conduct on the part of the codefendants, one of whom had been acquitted in a prior proceeding. The general rule concerning the inadmissibility in criminal prosecutions of evidence of other bad acts to prove that an individual acted in conformity therewith does not bar such evidence to prove motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, absence of mistake or accident   . R.I.R. Evid. 404(b). Contrary to the trial justice's ruling, testimony that a codefendant robbed the victim of his bicycle some indeterminate period of time  possibly years  in the past, does not prove any of the elements set forth in Rule 404(b), and therefore does nothing to support the state's contention that Lassiter engaged in conspiracy to murder Andrews. The state also fails to demonstrate the admissibility of Andrews's statements to Wraina that he was shot at by a group of men that included Hazard, but not Lassiter. It appears from Wraina's testimony that Hazard was not actually shooting at Andrews but was in fact shooting Andrews's companion, who, according to Wraina, previously had tried to run the mother of Hazard's child off the road. As noted, the trial justice ruled that this testimony was relevant on the issue of the existence of a conspiracy because there is bad blood among one of the co-conspirators. This holding overlooks the fact that Hazard was among a group of assailants who apparently were firing at someone other than the decedent, suggesting that Hazard's animus was not aimed at Andrews. Furthermore, these prior bad acts also fail to establish that the scope of the alleged conspiracy included Lassiter. Critically, neither Roberts's nor Hazard's alleged misconduct involved or implicated Lassiter in any way. The state presented no evidence that Lassiter even was aware that these acts had transpired. See People v. Harris, 892 P.2d 378, 382 (Col.Ct.App. 1994) (evidence of companion's previous offense admissible to show conspiracy because defendant's knowledge and awareness of prior crime proved whether there was an agreement to engage in the commission of the crime charged); see also State v. Porto, 591 A.2d 791, 796 (R.I.1991) (holding that `one does not become part of a conspiracy by aiding and abetting it    unless he knows of the conspiracy'). It is the state's burden to prove the existence and scope of the conspiracy agreement. Romano, 456 A.2d at 757 (citing State v. Ahmadjian, 438 A.2d 1070, 1084-85 (R.I.1981)). The state failed to demonstrate a sufficient nexus between these prior acts and Lassiter to support its contention that Wraina's testimony was probative of the conspiracy charge against him. The state also suggests on appeal an alternative ground of admissibility, arguing simply that Wraina's testimony was relevant because if Lassiter's codefendants previously had harmed Andrews, that fact had a tendency to make the veracity of Williams's identification more probable than it would be without such evidence. The state completely fails, however, to explain how this testimony corroborates Williams's identification of either the co-conspirators or, more importantly, Lassiter himself. Importantly, even if we agreed with the state's contention that Roberts's and Hazard's prior bad acts made it more likely that Williams correctly identified them as the assailants, this premise has no relevance to Williams's identification of Lassiter. As we have noted, the state failed to produce any proof that Lassiter knew of these previous crimes against the victim or was part of an unlawful conspiracy at the time they were committed. Without connecting these acts to Lassiter or showing that he was aware of them, see Porto, 591 A.2d at 796, the state's contention that they made it more likely that Lassiter was correctly identified is without merit. We are mindful that the alleged shooting and robbery by the coconspirators, as testified to by Wraina, amounted to uncharged criminal conduct that was not introduced against Lassiter to establish his vicarious liability for those crimes. We are satisfied, however, that even if this evidence was offered to prove vicarious liability, it was nonetheless inadmissible. A coconspirator is only vicariously liable for the actions of another coconspirator if those actions were committed in furtherance of an existing conspiracy. Pinkerton v. United States, 328 U.S. 640, 647, 66 S.Ct. 1180, 90 L.Ed. 1489 (1946); State v. Oliveira, 774 A.2d 893, 919 (R.I.2001). The state offered no evidence that a conspiracy existed at the time of these incidents or that Roberts or Hazard were acting in furtherance of that conspiracy. In fact, the state offered no evidence whatsoever concerning the genesis of these crimes. Accordingly, even if presented as evidence of vicarious liability, the state simply has not shown enough to warrant the admission of Wraina's testimony. See Bourjaily v. United States, 483 U.S. 171, 175, 107 S.Ct. 2775, 97 L.Ed.2d 144 (1987) (citing Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(E) for the proposition that statements of a coconspirator are admissible only if made in furtherance of an existing conspiracy) (emphasis added); State v. Patriarca, 112 R.I. 14, 40, 308 A.2d 300, 316 (1973). We, like the federal courts, tend to look with disfavor on attempts to broaden the already pervasive and wide-sweeping nets of conspiracy prosecution. Porto, 591 A.2d at 796 (quoting Patriarca, 112 R.I. at 40, 308 A.2d at 316). We are of the opinion that Wraina's testimony concerning the prior bad acts of Roberts and Hazard was not relevant. Moreover, even if the state established threshold relevancy for this evidence, its negligible probative value was substantially outweighed by its potential prejudicial effect. R.I.R. Evid. 403. Accordingly, the admission of the decedent's statements to Wraina was error.