Opinion ID: 445460
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Fuel Ticket.

Text: 107 Murphy complains that the trial court erred by receiving in evidence various copies of a receipt from Rockport Aviation in Fulton, Texas, for the sale of 448 gallons of jet fuel on February 11, 1983. At least three copies of the receipt were admitted at trial: Government Exhibits 123 and 139 and Defendant's Exhibit 5. The parties dispute whether another copy, Government Exhibit 88, was actually received in evidence. Murphy complains that all copies of the fuel receipt should have been excluded because they all contain unexplained mark-outs and alterations. 108 Receipt of the fuel ticket was damaging to Murphy's defense. As noted, the Government maintained at trial that Murphy and Wells flew the King Air from Ozark, Arkansas, to Mexico and back to Mississippi on February 11, 1983. Wells, who provided much of the Government's case against the appellants, testified that Murphy landed the King Air somewhere in south Texas to refuel during the trip to Mexico. It is undisputed that at the time of Murphy's arrest officers discovered a fuel ticket in his possession. The Government claimed that that fuel ticket was a carbon copy of a receipt prepared by employees of Rockport Aviation and given to Murphy during the refueling stop described by Wells. If so, the fuel ticket would both connect Murphy with the plane and corroborate Wells' testimony. 109 The Government ran into problems below, however, because it does not have the fuel ticket that was discovered in Murphy's possession on the night of his arrest. The Government claimed that agents photocopied the fuel ticket and inadvertently returned it to Murphy and that Murphy then destroyed it. According to the Government, Exhibits 88 and 123 are photocopies made shortly after Murphy's arrest of the fuel ticket discovered in his possession. Exhibits 88 and 123 appear identical, except for extraneous markings apparently made by agents for purposes of identification, and clearly reflect that on February 11, 448 gallons of jet fuel were pumped into a plane bearing registration number N487OP. 14 Defendant's Exhibit 5 is also a photocopy and, again except for extraneous identification markings, appears identical to Government Exhibits 88 and 123 with two significant exceptions: (1) the date on Exhibit 5 is blotted out and (2) the registration number appears to have been marked over to read N4876B. Government Exhibit 139, which was introduced through the testimony of the owner of Rockport Aviation, is an original which, according to the Government, was filled out simultaneously with Murphy's carbon copy. It is identical in material respects to the Government Exhibits 88 and 123. 110 Murphy claims in a conclusory fashion that [t]he alteration of the Rockport documents which were not properly explained by the person making the alterations rendered them inadmissible. We reject this argument. Murphy points to the discrepancy between Defendant's Exhibit 5 and the Government exhibits and also to the fact that the Government exhibits, although consistent with each other, also show signs of an altered registration number. See note 14, supra. The Government claims that the alterations on the Government exhibits were adequately explained and that Defendant's Exhibit 5 was deliberately altered by Murphy to reduce its evidentiary value after it was produced during pretrial discovery. 111 We note that the first of these exhibits to be introduced in evidence was Defendant's Exhibit 5. Murphy initially objected to introduction of Government Exhibit 123 on the ground that the Government had not adequately accounted for the absence of the original possessed by Murphy on the night of his arrest. After unavailability of the original was established, Government Exhibit 123 was received in evidence without objection. Government Exhibit 139 was likewise received as evidence without objection. Murphy's objection that the exhibits reveal unexplained alterations, therefore, is made for the first time on appeal. Moreover, Murphy himself introduced a copy of the fuel receipt with the very alterations about which he now complains. We find no plain error in the court's handling of these exhibits. In fact, we think the exhibits were handled in strict accordance with the Rules of Evidence. See Fed.R.Evid. 1003 (A duplicate is admissible to the same extent as an original unless (1) a genuine question is raised as to the authenticity of the original....); Weinstein & Berger, Weinstein's Evidence p 1003 (where there is a dispute about changes on duplicates, both the claimed unaltered version and the corrected counterpart should be admitted). 112