Opinion ID: 777745
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prong Two: Helpful to the Jury

Text: 94 The second prong of Rule 701 requires that the lay witness's opinion testimony be helpful to the jury in understanding the witness's testimony or determining a fact in issue. Fed.R.Evid. 701(b). In this case, the government did not establish a foundation for Toro Balcarcel's opinion testimony. Therefore, we need not decide whether the testimony met the helpfulness requirement of Rule 701. However, we offer a brief analysis of the conversation to provide guidance to the district court in the event of a retrial. 95 The July 10 conversation between Garcia and Toro Balcarcel is relatively clear, understandable, and logical. On its face, it concerned a legitimate topic — a potential asbestos job. Both Toro Balcarcel and Garcia worked in the asbestos industry. They discussed an upcoming meeting, the licenses required to complete the job, and several of the necessary positions. Both Toro Balcarcel and Garcia speak clearly and in full sentences, and they use words that make sense contextually. On the surface, the conversation is not confusing and disjointed, Urlacher, 979 F.2d at 939, it does not involve unusually short or cryptic statements for a casual phone conversation, and it does not contain sharp and abbreviated language, unfinished sentences, or ambiguous references, United States v. Aiello, 864 F.2d 257, 265 (2d Cir.1988) (internal quotations omitted). In order to allow lay opinion testimony interpreting a facially coherent conversation such as this, the government would have to establish a foundation that called into question the apparent coherence of the conversation so that it no longer seemed clear, coherent, or legitimate. Without a foundation creating doubt about what seemed to be obvious, it is unlikely that opinion testimony would be helpful to the jury. Rather, the testimony then would serve to direct the jury what to conclude on a matter that it should decide in the first instance. See Rea, 958 F.2d at 1216 (rejecting lay opinion testimony that does not help the jury but only tells it in conclusory fashion what it should find). 96 The apparent meaning of a conversation is not devoid of context, and the foundational testimony may provide a background that makes interpretative testimony helpful. This interaction between foundation and coherence can influence whether opinion testimony is helpful. A proper foundation may provide a framework through which a seemingly clear, coherent conversation becomes unclear so that the opinion testimony interpreting the conversation would be helpful to the jury. Determining the potential helpfulness of testimony is not a science, and the clarity of a conversation is not subject to a formulaic analysis. The trial court must consider the facial clarity of the conversation, along with the foundational testimony, and determine whether the conversation would benefit from opinion testimony. As is true of the admissibility of all evidence, the trial court must act within its discretion in determining the degree of coherence of a conversation and the helpfulness of opinion testimony.