Opinion ID: 213844
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Tape Recordings Properly Admitted

Text: Because Hicks raises a Sixth Amendment challenge to the government's introduction of the recorded conversations, we review the district court's ruling de novo. See United States v. Nettles, 476 F.3d 508, 517 (7th Cir.2007) (reviewing de novo a ruling that affects a defendant's Sixth Amendment rights). Hicks argues that the tape recordings of his telephone conversations with Hurd contain hearsay. Rule 802 prohibits the admission of hearsay statements, which are defined as out-of-court statements offered into evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted. Fed.R.Evid. 801(c). We find that the recordings do not contain inadmissible hearsay. It is clear that Hicks's statements were admissible as statements of a party opponent, which do not constitute hearsay. See Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2) (providing that if a party's own statement, in either an individual or a representative capacity is offered against the party, the statement is not hearsay). Hurd's statements were admissible to contextualize Hicks's statements. When recorded evidence is admitted in the absence of testimony by an informant who recorded the conversation, the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment is not violated if the statements are nontestimonial and are not offered for the truth of the matter asserted. It is well-settled that nonhearsay statements are not testimonial if they are offered to provide context. United States v. Van Sach, 458 F.3d 694, 701 (7th Cir.2006). Hurd's statements fit squarely into the context exception because, without his part of the conversation, none of the words uttered by Hicks would make sense. Moreover, Hicks never attempted to contradict, clarify, or disavow any of Hurd's statements. We have repeatedly found that the adoption of an informant's statements is also a basis for their admission. See, e.g., United States v. Schalk, 515 F.3d 768, 775 (7th Cir.2008); United States v. Woods, 301 F.3d 556, 561 (7th Cir.2002) (finding informant's side of telephone conversations with defendant admissible because they were adopted by defendant during the course of the conversation where defendant either led or responded to each of the informant's requests and questions and at no time contradicted the informant's comments or questions regarding the purchase of drugs). Therefore, we find that the district court properly admitted Hurd's statements in the recordings to contextualize Hicks's statements.