Opinion ID: 763759
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Exclusion of 1995 Photographs of Robinson Murder Scene

Text: 45 Taken in the light most favorable to the government, the evidence demonstrated the following facts. In November 1992, Roman was operating a drug block on East Main Street in Bridgeport. At this time, Roman kept seeing an adolescent, Robinson, riding a bike and selling crack cocaine on his drug block. Roman asked Robinson to leave, but he refused to do so. Roman therefore decided to kill Robinson for selling drugs on his drug block. On November 30, 1992, Roman ordered three Latin King soldiers to kill Robinson, provided them with guns, and instructed them on how to kill the adolescent. As a result, the three shot and murdered Robinson as he rode his bicycle on Booth Street, near the heart of Roman's drug block. 46 As part of his defense to the Robinson murder, Roman claims that M. Soto lied when she testified that while she was living with Roman on a third floor apartment on East Main Street, she observed the flashes from the guns used to kill Robinson on Booth Street. 10 Roman attacked M. Soto's credibility by introducing a photograph showing large buildings directly across the street from Roman's apartment that would have blocked her view of the flashes. However, the owner of the largest building across the street, testified on cross-examination that his building suffered a fire prior to 1991, and that because of its gutted condition, it was possible to see right through the second and third floors of the building all the way over to Booth Street, that is, the site of Robinson's murder. 47 In addition, Roman sought to introduce two other photographs, taken by his private investigator in 1995. The first showed a view from Roman's apartment window looking toward the Robinson murder scene and the second showed a view from the crime scene looking back towards Roman's apartment. Roman also attempted to introduce a third photograph, a computer generated combination of these two photographs. The district court excluded these three photographs, but admitted a government exhibit of the same area not showing the buildings that allegedly obstructed M. Soto's view. Roman argues that the court abused its discretion by excluding his photographs while admitting the government's exhibit. We disagree. 48 First, the record reflects that the private investigator could not testify that the photographs he had taken in 1995 were fair and accurate depictions of the Robinson murder scene on November 30, 1992. Likewise, Roman was unable to offer foundation testimony for the computer generated photograph and, consequently, it also was properly excluded because it was based in part on one of the 1995 photographs that was found inadmissible. In view of the foregoing, we believe that there was a sufficient basis for the exclusion of the photographs and, therefore, conclude that the district court properly exercised its discretion in denying Roman's request to receive the photographs into evidence. 49 Moreover, we find no error in the admission of the government exhibit because it was admitted through the testimony of M. Soto, who unlike Roman's private investigator, was able to testify that this was a fair and accurate depiction of the area as it existed in November 1992. Indeed, Roman had no objection to this exhibit after he elicited testimony from M. Soto during voir dire that there were tall buildings right across the street from her apartment that were not depicted in the exhibit. Further, the government exhibit was countered by (1) Roman's admitted photograph that clearly showed the buildings he claimed blocked M. Soto's view as they existed in 1992; and (2) the testimony of Roman's private investigator, who testified that the third floor window from which M. Soto stated she saw the gun flashes was 28 feet from the ground, and that the large building that existed at the time of the Robinson murder was 36 feet high.