Opinion ID: 754758
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Evidence of Violent and Fraudulent Acts

Text: 39 Defendant Kincaide argues on appeal that the District Court erroneously admitted evidence concerning violent and deceptive conduct by himself and other members of his drug distribution organization. He argues that this evidence was not relevant to his role in the conspiracy and should have been excluded under Rule 403 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. Because Kincaide did not voice these objections at trial, we review the admission of this evidence for plain error. See, e.g., United States v. Leal, 75 F.3d 219, 224 (6th Cir.1996). 40 The contested evidence of violent conduct consisted of testimony by co-conspirator Orlando Mathis that Kincaide directed him to participate in the fire bombing of a house and that defendant Kincaide became enraged when his brother Sam Kincaide shot at someone during a squabble in a crack house. As a result of the second incident, the organization lost control of that crack house and defendant Kincaide assigned Mathis to keep an eye on his brother. The challenged evidence of fraudulent conduct consisted of Agent Lintner's interpretation of an intercepted telephone conversation during which defendant Kincaide was audibly upset because he had been stopped in an automobile that he obtained with false papers and had to provide the state trooper with false identification in order to avoid arrest. 41 Under Rule 401 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, evidence is relevant if it has any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more or less probable than it would be without the evidence. Courts have regularly upheld the relevancy of evidence of violent acts that exemplify the conspiracy's pattern of conduct. See, e.g., United States v. Baker, 10 F.3d 1374, 1413 (9th Cir.1993); United States v. Patterson, 819 F.2d 1495, 1505 (9th Cir.1987); United States v. Meester, 762 F.2d 867, 874-75 (11th Cir.1985). The use of fraudulent identification also is relevant evidence of a conspiracy's methods of operations. See United States v. Wilson, 11 F.3d 346, 353 (2d Cir.1993) (finding false identification relevant and admissible as evidence of means used to conduct conspiracy). In the instant case, the evidence of violent and fraudulent conduct was relevant the Government's proof of count one of the indictment, which alleged that Kincaide and other members of the conspiracy would and did obtain false and identification and fraudulent vehicle registrations to avoid detection by law enforcement, and that various members of this conspiracy ... would enforce the goals of the conspiracy through threats of violence and intimidation. 42 This evidence was admissible under Rule 403, which allows relevant evidence to be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence. The contested evidence had great probative value; it showed the means Kincaide used to manage his drug distribution organization. This evidence did portray Kincaide in a negative light, but this does not make it impermissibly prejudicial. Unfair prejudice does not mean the damage to a defendant's case that results from the legitimate probative force of the evidence; rather it refers to evidence which tends to suggest decision on an improper basis. United States v. Bonds, 12 F.3d 540, 567 (6th Cir.1993) (internal quotation marks omitted). In this case, this evidence tended to prove Kincaide's guilt of conspiracy as it was charged in the indictment but did not suggest an improper basis for conviction. Therefore, we find no error in the admission of this evidence.