Opinion ID: 370140
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Larain's messages for Ariza at the Hotel Excelsior

Text: 33 The government established that Ariza had been in Puerto Rico in November 1977 and had opened a bank account into which about $5 million was deposited eventually. 9 These facts were introduced through the testimony of a bank officer and by introducing records of the Hotel Excelsior, where Ariza stayed. In addition to the hotel bill, which fell within the business records exception to the hearsay rule, Fed.R.Evid. 803(6), the government introduced, over objection, four telephone messages and a note, all allegedly from Larain. None of these were ever received by Ariza. 34 The district court admitted the messages with an instruction that they were being introduced not to prove the truth of the matter contained therein, (but) just the fact that they were there . . . . Despite the court's limiting instruction, the likely function of this evidence was to show that Larain had tried to contact Ariza. 10 Because, practically speaking, they were irrelevant to prove anything but the truth of the matter asserted, they should have been excluded. See Fed.R.Evid. 801, 802. Their chief use was, in any event, the forbidden one, see A above, of enhancing Larain's role in the investigation, thus shoring up his ability, in absentia, to verify that Ariza was a drug dealer.