Opinion ID: 173127
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Post-Arrest Videotape

Text: At trial, Mr. Minners informed the court he had no objection to playing the entire post-arrest video to the jury. R. Vol. II, at 214. Therefore, the standard of review on - 12 - appeal is for plain error. United States v. Winder, 557 F.3d 1129, 1136 (10th Cir. 2009). Consequently, to obtain relief, Mr. Garza must show “(1) [an] error, (2) that is plain, and (3) that affects substantial rights. If all three conditions are met, [this] court may then exercise its discretion to notice [the] forfeited error, but only if (4) the error seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings.” United States v. Garza, 566 F.3d 1194, 1200 (10th Cir. 2009) (quoting United States v. Johnson, 228 F.3d 920, 924 (8th Cir. 2000)). On appeal, Mr. Minners now asserts that the District Court committed plain error because (1) the majority of the video was irrelevant and (2) the irrelevant, uncharged prior bad acts Mr. Minners admitted committing prejudiced his right to a fair trial and were improper character evidence. Although most of the twenty-three minute video was irrelevant and should have been redacted, due to the overwhelming evidence of Mr. Minners’s guilt, the error did not seriously affect the proceeding and does not require reversal. Federal Rule of Evidence 801(d)(2)(A) exempts from the definition of hearsay any statement made by a party that is offered against that party. All of Mr. Minners’s statements captured on the video were offered against him in court and would therefore have been exempted from the definition of hearsay as an admission by a party opponent. Although the statements passed the hearsay hurdle, in order to be admitted at trial, Federal Rule of Evidence 402 would nonetheless apply: the statements must be relevant and make the existence of a fact of consequence to the action more or less probable than it would have been otherwise. Whether Mr. Minners was intending to get a job, go to - 13 - church, or was homeless did not make it more or less likely that he possessed a gun. Therefore, many of Mr. Minners’s statements were irrelevant and should not have been presented to the jury. Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b) prevents the admission of character evidence against a defendant unless it is offered to prove some independent fact such as motive or intent. This presents an additional issue for the admissibility of portions of the tape. United States v. Oberle, 136 F.3d 1414, 1418 (10th Cir. 1998) (“Although the statements are party admissions under Rule 801(d) and thus not hearsay, they must nevertheless also be analyzed for admissibility under Rule 404(b) because they reveal or suggest prior criminal conduct.”) While the discussion of why Mr. Minners had the weapon may have been relevant, the facts that he had just been released from prison for possession of a gun and had been unfaithful to his girlfriend were not. The District Court erred by not redacting the video to play only the relevant portions. The error of not redacting the irrelevant and prejudicial parts of the post-arrest videotape was not of substantial effect. The testimony of several officers seeing Mr. Minners’s possession of the gun and throwing it out the window, and Mr. Minners’s admission he had had the gun for some three days amounted to serious proof against Mr. Minners. His rights were not substantially affected and this claim of error is rejected.