Opinion ID: 2321578
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Robles-Benevides's Statement Implicating Bonilla

Text: Bonilla claims that he was entitled to a separate trial because Benítez testified at trial to a conversation he had in jail with Robles-Benevides in which Robles-Benevides implicated Bonilla in the stabbing of Helm. In that conversation, Robles-Benevides told Benítez that he (Robles-Benevides) argued with Velásquez during the brief ride in the back seat of Bonilla's car over who would use the knife when they were chasing after Helm. [40] Following this testimony, the trial court instructed the jury at counsel's request that the out-of-court statement could be used as substantive evidence only against the declarant, Robles-Benevides. On appeal, Bonilla claims that the introduction of Robles-Benevides's admission to Benítez prejudiced him because by saying that the argument took place in Bonilla's car and, inferrably, within his hearing, the statement necessarily incriminated Bonilla as a coconspirator, or, at least, as an aider and abettor in the assault and murder of Helm. [41] The disposition of a motion for severance is within the sound discretion of the trial court, and its ruling either way will be reversed only on a showing of an abuse of discretion. Scott v. United States, 619 A.2d 917, 930 (D.C.1993). [42] In a joint trial, if the government seeks to admit against a defendant his own out-of-court statement that incriminates not only the declarant, but also a codefendant, the trial court must ordinarily either sever the trials or exclude the statement. See Akins v. United States, 679 A.2d 1017, 1031 (D.C. 1996) ([I]n a conspiracy trial, the trial judge has a special obligation to guard against the potential misuse of evidence where defendants are joined[,] and must monitor the prejudice that develops when otherwise inadmissible evidence is introduced by a codefendant or the government and [must] sever the trials where appropriate); cf. McCoy v. United States, 890 A.2d 204, 215 (D.C.2006) (noting two crucial measures undertaken by trial judge that compensated for any possible prejudice that might have resulted from codefendant's confession: (1) the confession was redacted to eliminate any reference to defendant; and (2) the judge instructed the jury several times that codefendant's confession could be used only against codefendant). Neither severance nor exclusion is required, however, if the evidence would be admissible against the defendant in a separate trial. See Coleman v. United States, 948 A.2d 534, 545 (D.C.2008) (citing Davis v. Washington, 547 U.S. 813, 823-24, 126 S.Ct. 2266, 165 L.Ed.2d 224 (2006)). Robles-Benevides's statement to Benítez, could have been introduced in a separate trial of Bonilla as a statement against Robles-Benevides's penal interest. [43] The statement directly implicated Robles-Benevides and the circumstances surrounding the statement had indicia of reliability. See Laumer, 409 A.2d at 199-200. Robles-Benevides voluntarily made the statement to his erstwhile friend and co-accomplice Benítez a few days after the assaults (before Benítez pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against appellants), while they were both in jail together. See United States v. Taylor, 328 F.Supp.2d 915, 926 (D.Ind.2004) (noting that hearsay statement was made voluntarily by [codefendant] to [the pleading accomplice], in a private setting, and with no effort by [codefendant] to mitigate his own conduct). Moreover, Robles-Benevides certainly had personal knowledge of his tussle with Velásquez in the car and it is unlikely that his recollection was faulty given that he made the statement shortly after the events. Although it could be argued that Robles-Benevides's statement that he and Velásquez had argued over the murder weapon sought to shift blame for the stabbing to Velásquez, there is nothing in Robles-Benevides's statement that incriminates Bonilla directly or implies that Bonilla overheard their argument; that fact would have to be inferred from the physical circumstances in which the statement was made, with Bonilla in the driver's seat and the passengers in the back seat of the car. But even that indirect inference was ruled out of bounds by the trial court's instruction that the statement could be used only against Robles-Benevides, as the person who made it. Most importantly, however, any incriminatory inference was cumulative to the more directly incriminating statement made by Bonilla himself, discussed supra, to the police that two of his passengers had brought knives to his car. Since Robles-Benevides's statement would have been admissible against Bonilla had he been tried separately, and did not prejudice him in this joint trial, the court did not abuse its discretion by denying the motion to sever Bonilla's trial.