Opinion ID: 290058
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: luna

Text: 3 Luna admitted selling heroin but claimed that he was entrapped. His showing of inducement was that one Ernest Ochoa, who was a friend of Luna and a special employee of the Bureau of Narcotics, repeatedly implored him to obtain heroin for sale. Ochoa introduced Luna to agent Maria who was the prospective buyer. Several months passed before Luna finally obtained a supply of heroin and sold it to agent Maria. 4 Luna's first contention is that the evidence showed entrapment as a matter of law. He relies on Sherman v. United States, 356 U.S. 369, 78 S.Ct. 819, 2 L.Ed.2d 848, where the Court as a matter of law decided that entrapment had occurred because the government informant coerced the addict-defendant by repeated meetings and constant entreaties emphasizing the informant's physical need for narcotics. Unlike the situation in Sherman, Luna was not an addict and was not coerced by an emotional appeal based on need for the narcotic to alleviate pain and suffering. On this record we decline to decide that the district judge should have found entrapment as a matter of law. 5 Appellant suggests that entrapment should be an issue for the judge rather than the jury because of the prejudice which results from introducing evidence of reputation to establish predisposition. In Sorrells v. United States, 287 U.S. 435, 53 S.Ct. 210, 77 L. Ed. 413, the Supreme Court held that the issue of entrapment was for the jury rather than the court. A five-to-four majority in Sherman v. United States, 356 U.S. 369, 78 S.Ct. 819, 2 L.Ed.2d 848, declined to disturb the Sorrells' position that entrapment should be an issue for the jury. Change in this regard must await direction from the Supreme Court. See Erwing v. United States, 9th Cir., 394 F.2d 829, 830; Robison v. United States, 9th Cir., 379 F.2d 338, 346. 6 Once the defendant established that entrapment was a legitimate issue in the case, it became the prosecutor's burden to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused was not entrapped into the commission of the offense. Notaro v. United States, 9th Cir., 363 F.2d 169. The prosecutor may meet his burden by showing through inquiry into the defendant's record of conduct and reputation that he was predisposed to commit the crime and was not an otherwise innocent person who would not have committed the crime but for the inducement. In attempting to show predisposition, the government introduced evidence of twelve year old arrests for narcotics violations and evidence of Luna's past and current reputation in the community for involvement in the narcotics trade. Informer Ochoa had known Luna for more than ten years and testified that he had a reputation as being involved in narcotics. Luna asserts that Ochoa's reputation testimony concerning him was inadmissible because it related to a period before he (Luna) served a prison term and returned to the community. However, nowhere does it appear that Ochoa's testimony concerning Luna's reputation was based entirely on his acquaintance with Luna before Luna was incarcerated. In any event, on these facts we decline to enter the morass of what is past and what is current reputation. Here the jury must be assumed able to determine the probative weight to be assigned to the reputation testimony. 7 Evidence was admitted showing that twelve years previously Luna had been arrested on California state narcotics charges. No conviction resulted. Luna argues that evidence of these arrests (admitted over objection) was inadmissible because old arrests could not show readiness of the appellant to sell narcotics at the time he was approached by Ochoa. The question is whether evidence of arrests is a permissible part of subjecting the accused to an `appropriate and searching inquiry into his own conduct and predisposition' as bearing on his claim of innocence. Sherman v. United States, 356 U.S. 369, 373, 78 S.Ct. 819, 821, 2 L.Ed.2d 848. The Ninth Circuit position on the scope of permissible rebuttal evidence after the defendant has introduced a question of entrapment is stated in Carlton v. United States, 9th Cir., 198 F.2d 795. Carlton approved rebuttal evidence of a three year old conviction for a misdemeanor narcotics violation. By way of dictum the court in Carlton approved admission of evidence of previous related offenses for which the accused had neither been convicted nor arrested. 198 F.2d at 798-799. Arrest records for related offenses should be treated as one species of hearsay evidence of predisposition. Several circuits have recognized that hearsay evidence of acts showing predisposition may be admissible. Trice v. United States, 9th Cir., 211 F.2d 513, cert. denied, 348 U.S. 900, 75 S.Ct. 222, 99 L.Ed. 707; Rocha v. United States, 5th Cir., 401 F.2d 529, cert. denied, 393 U.S. 1103, 89 S.Ct. 905, 21 L.Ed.2d 796; Washington v. United States, 5th Cir., 275 F.2d 687. Here the jury had more than evidence of arrest records from which to find predisposition. It also had reputation testimony from a government agent and a government informer. The record is sufficient to allow a finding that Luna was a known narcotics dealer who was wary but predisposed to make a sale. We cannot say as a matter of law that the jury was wrong in its determination. 8 Luna assigns error to the entrapment instructions. Since he did not object to the instructions at trial, he is precluded from raising the issue unless plain error is shown. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure 30, 52(b). Jury instructions will be held defective if they are so vague and ambiguous as to permit the jury to misinterpret the allocation of the burden and quantum of proof on the entrapment issue. Notaro v. United States, 9th Cir., 363 F.2d 169. However, the instant instructions do not contain the defects found in Notaro. Substantially similar instructions have recently been upheld in this circuit. Nordeste v. United States, 9th Cir., 393 F.2d 335; Robison v. United States, 9th Cir., 379 F.2d 338. Thus there is no defect in the instructions which assumes the proportions of plain error. 9 Luna's conviction is affirmed.