Opinion ID: 702508
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Did the court err by admitting tape recorded conversations?

Text: 51 For two reasons, Garza contends that the district court should have excluded four tape recorded conversations between himself and a co-conspirator, Daniel Bordayo. Bordayo had been arrested in the February 1992 raid on Garza's operations and had pled guilty to several drug-related charges. Bordayo got word that Garza was trying to contact him from Mexico, in hopes of raising cash and revitalizing his decimated drug enterprise. Bordayo volunteered this information to the government and consented to having the phone calls with Garza recorded. The record reveals that the government's primary objective was to learn Garza's whereabouts by tracing these calls. At trial, the government introduced four of these tape recorded conversations, in which Garza proposes a sale of commodities and discusses the details with Bordayo. 52 First, Garza contends that the government violated his Sixth Amendment right to counsel by using Bordayo to elicit incriminating statements following his February 1992 indictment. However, Garza did not raise this objection below. The record reveals that Garza instead objected on grounds that the conspiracy had ended when the statements were made. Thus, we apply the plain error standard. United States v. Calverley, 37 F.3d 160 (5th Cir.1994). 53 The district court's decision to admit these tapes was not plain error. Assuming without deciding that Bordayo was acting as a government agent, Garza has not met his burden of showing either that the admission of the tapes affected the outcome of his proceedings or that it seriously affected the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings. Calverley, 37 F.3d at 164. These tapes were conceivably relevant only to Counts One and Two (conspiracy to import marijuana and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute). The government offered overwhelming evidence on these charges, including testimony from numerous cooperating conspirators and law enforcement agents, supported by many items of seized physical evidence and photographs. Given the many legs upon which the guilty verdicts stood, Garza's general assertion that the tapes prejudiced the jury against him is insufficient. 54 Garza next argues that both his and Bordayo's statements were inadmissible hearsay because they were not made in furtherance of the conspiracy. This argument is entirely meritless, because Garza's statements were admissible not as co-conspirator statements but as the admissions of a party-opponent. Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(A); United States v. Clemons, 676 F.2d 122, 123 (5th Cir.1982). Bordayo's statements were reciprocal and integrated utterances and were admissible to put Garza's own statements in context. United States v. Gutierrez-Chavez, 842 F.2d 77, 81 (5th Cir.1988). Even if Garza could no longer conspire with Bordayo, because Bordayo had been arrested, Garza's statements were also relevant and admissible to confirm the earlier conspiracy. 18 United States v. Goff, 847 F.2d 149, 168 n. 27 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 932, 109 S.Ct. 324, 102 L.Ed.2d 341 (1988). 55 2. Did the district court err by allowing non-expert witnesses to testify as to certain tape recordings? 56 Garza maintains that the court erred by allowing three members of the conspiracy, Angel Berndt Garcia, Jesus Flores and Daniel Bordayo, to testify about the parties to and meanings of tape recorded conversations between other conspirators. 57 Garza first complains that the district court allowed Berndt Garcia to testify about several conversations even though he could only identify one of the speakers. Garza's characterization is not quite accurate. While Berndt Garcia could only identify one of the speakers (Garza) with absolute certainty, he did identify the other speaker, although with less certainty. In such cases, the district court is given broad discretion to admit the tape and let the jury decide what value to place on the identification. United States v. Singh, 922 F.2d 1169, 1174 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 500 U.S. 938, 111 S.Ct. 2066, 114 L.Ed.2d 471 (1991) (conclusive proof of authenticity not required to admit disputed evidence); United States v. Lance, 853 F.2d 1177, 1181 (5th Cir.1988) (once minimally authenticated, issue becomes weight of evidence, not admissibility). The district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting this tape. 58 Garza next argues that these co-conspirators should not have been allowed to explain the secret meanings of the conversations both because they are not experts and because the meaning was already clear. Fed.R.Evid. 701 allows lay witnesses to testify about conversations consisting of unfinished sentences and punctuated with ambiguous references to events that are clear only to [the participants]. United States v. De Peri, 778 F.2d 963, 977 (3d Cir.1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1110, 106 S.Ct. 1518, 89 L.Ed.2d 916 (1986). The district court may admit such opinions if they are (a) rationally based on first hand knowledge and (b) helpful to a clear understanding of the witness' testimony or the determination of a fact in issue. United States v. Garcia, 994 F.2d 1499, 1506-07 (10th Cir.1993) (agent who tapped phone conversation between conspirators could testify about hidden meanings); United States v. Simas, 937 F.2d 459, 462 (9th Cir.1991). In Garza's case, the witnesses met these criteria. 59 By listening to the tapes, the conspirators gained first hand knowledge of these conversations, which were admissible as co-conspirator statements in furtherance of the conspiracy. Garcia, 994 F.2d at 1507 (in-court perception of admissible out of court statements constitutes first hand knowledge). Their opinions had a rational connection to this factual basis because they were members of the conspiracy and familiar with the events being discussed. The district court ensured this rational connection by repeatedly instructing the witnesses to testify only to what they actually knew, thus preventing speculation and inference. 60 The co-conspirators' testimony was also helpful to the jury because, contrary to Garza's assertion, these tapes did not always speak for themselves. Hoping to disguise the topic of discussion, the conspirators peppered their discourse with code phrases and oblique references. 19 The witnesses' testimony on the true meaning of these phrases was helpful, if not essential, to the jury's understanding of this evidence. The district court policed this testimony and, for the most part, kept the government from asking about segments of the conversations that were easily understood. See De Peri, 778 F.2d at 978. In such circumstances, the district court did not abuse its discretion by allowing the co-conspirators to testify about the meaning of the tapes for the jury. Garcia, 994 F.2d at 1507.