Opinion ID: 2756999
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Authentication of the Video Clip

Text: The “admission of evidence is committed to the sound discretion of the trial court.” United States v. Cole, 755 F.2d 748, 766 (11th Cir. 1985). Accordingly, we review the district court’s decision to admit evidence for abuse of discretion. Id. We will not overturn a district court’s determination that a piece of evidence has been properly authenticated unless “there is no competent evidence in the record to support it.” United States v. Caldwell, 776 F.2d 989, 1001 (11th Cir. 1985) (internal quotation marks omitted). Broomfield contends that the district court abused its discretion by admitting the YouTube video into evidence. We disagree and explain why. 9 Case: 13-15827 Date Filed: 12/03/2014 Page: 10 of 18 Before an item of evidence may be admitted, Federal Rule of Evidence 901(a) requires it to be authenticated with evidence “sufficient to support a finding that the item is what the proponent claims it is.” Fed. R. Evid. 901(a). Proper authentication requires only that the proponent of the evidence make out a prima facie case that the proffered evidence is what it purports to be. United States v. Belfast, 611 F.3d 783, 819 (11th Cir. 2010). Evidence may be authenticated by its “appearance, contents, substance, internal patterns, or other distinctive characteristics . . . taken together with all the circumstances.” Fed. R. Evid. 901(b)(4). Authentication may be established “solely through the use of circumstantial evidence.” United States v. Smith, 918 F.2d 1501, 1510 (11th Cir. 1990). Once such a showing has been made, the court may admit the evidence, and the ultimate question of its reliability is reserved for the fact finder. Belfast, 611 F.3d at 819. Thus, the question before us is whether there is any competent evidence to support the district court’s determination that the government made out a prima facie case that this YouTube video is what the government purports it to be—a video of Broomfield in possession of a firearm. We conclude that there is ample evidence in the record that the video depicted Broomfield in possession of a firearm. The government’s evidence identified the individual in the video as Broomfield, established where and approximately when the video was recorded, 10 Case: 13-15827 Date Filed: 12/03/2014 Page: 11 of 18 and then identified the specific rifle and ammunition depicted in the video. Because authentication may occur solely through the use of circumstantial evidence, the government met its burden of presenting a prima facie case that the video depicted Broomfield in possession of a firearm. Relying on United States v. Biggins, 551 F.2d 64 (5th Cir. 1977), 3 Broomfield argues that the video was not adequately authenticated because there was no testimony establishing that the recording equipment was reliable or that the video was not altered or staged. Broomfield’s reliance on Biggins is misplaced. The Court in Biggins stated that to authenticate a sound recording made by investigators during the government’s electronic surveillance, the prosecution had to establish: the competence of the government’s recording operator; “the fidelity of the recording equipment”; “the absence of material deletions, additions, or alterations” in the recording; and “the identification of the relevant speakers.” Biggins, 551 F.2d at 66. The Court applied these factors to a recording that the government created, and this was critical to the Court’s analysis. Id. The Court stated that this “burden properly falls to the government because it has access to such information in a way the criminal defendant does not.” Id. Here, where the government did not make the video, but merely found it on YouTube, that particular reasoning does not apply. Indeed, if the Biggins factors 3 This Court adopted as binding precedent all Fifth Circuit decisions prior to October 1, 1981. Bonner v. City of Prichard, 661 F.2d 1206, 1209 (11th Cir. 1981) (en banc). 11 Case: 13-15827 Date Filed: 12/03/2014 Page: 12 of 18 were to apply under these circumstances, as Broomfield suggests it should, the prosecution could seldom, if ever, authenticate a video that it did not create. Because the government did not record the video in question, the Biggins factors are inapposite. In any event, as the Biggins Court recognized, even if one or more of the factors are not satisfied, we are “extremely reluctant to disturb” the district court’s decision to admit the recording if other trial evidence establishes it is authentic. See id. at 67. Given the other substantial evidence establishing where and when the video was made and who and what appeared in the video, the district court’s decision to admit the video clip was not an abuse of discretion even if the government did not satisfy all of the Biggins factors. Accordingly, there is competent evidence in the record to support the district court’s determination that the video was properly authenticated.