Opinion ID: 198819
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Guilty Plea Colloquy

Text: 33 Thomas Meuse next contends that the district court erred in admitting into evidence the state-court plea colloquy which took place at the time he pled guilty to charges arising out of his abortive August 1990 robbery of Lloyd's Diamond & Gold. Citing Old Chief v. United States, 519 U.S. 172 (1997), Meuse contends that his agreement to stipulate to this earlier guilty plea barred the government from adducing any further evidence about either the prior conviction or the underlying robbery. 34 Evidentiary rulings under Federal Rule of Evidence 403 are reviewed only for abuse of discretion. See United States v. Tse, 135 F.3d 200, 208 (1st Cir. 1998). In his state-court plea colloquy, Meuse admitted that he and Sean Cote had used burglary tools in an attempt to cut through the Lloyd's Jewelry Store roof, and when detected by police, had fired on the police while attempting unsuccessfully to escape in a stolen car. Meuse pled guilty to attempted breaking and entering, assault with a dangerous weapon, and unlawful possession of an electric weapon (stun gun), burglary tools, and a stolen vehicle. As this abortive robbery was also the subject matter of the Hobbs Act conspiracy count charged in the federal indictment against Meuse, the plea colloquy clearly was admissible as an admission probative of his guilt on the Hobbs Act count. See United States v. De Leon Ruiz, 47 F.3d 452, 455 (1st Cir. 1995); Fed. R. Evid. 801(d)(2). Thus, reliance on Old Chief was misplaced, since the government in that case had charged the defendant with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. See 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). The Supreme Court therefore held that the government must accept the defendant's offer to stipulate to the fact of the prior conviction, but could not adduce evidentiary details of the underlying crime. See Old Chief, 519 U.S. at 177, 190 ([T]he fact of the qualifying [prior felony] conviction is alone what matters under [18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1)].). However, the bases for the Supreme Court ruling were (i) that proof of the defendant's [felon] status goes to an element entirely outside the natural sequence of what the defendant is charged with thinking and doing to commit the current offense [viz., possessing the firearm], id. at 191, and (ii) that the defendant's proffered stipulation was fully adequate to prove his felon status, whereas a jury informed that defendant previously committed a serious assault might infer that he had a bad character, and this evidence of propensity would cause defendant unfair prejudice under Federal Rule of Evidence 403, id. at 180-86. 35 In contrast, however, the prosecutor's choice [not to accept a defendant's stipulation] will generally survive a Rule 403 analysis when a defendant seeks to force the substitution of an admission for evidence creating a coherent narrative of his thoughts and actions in perpetrating the offense for which he is being tried. Id. at 192. The Meuse plea colloquy plainly fit the latter mold, for in it he described conduct specifically charged in the federal indictment; i.e., his August 1990 armed robbery. We discern no abuse of discretion.