Opinion ID: 609734
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 15

Heading: mark litterio evidence

Text: 126 Litterio argues that the court erred by permitting the government to introduce evidence of a drug transaction involving Litterio's brother, Mark Litterio, as well as a statement made by Mark Litterio to an undercover officer. Litterio was convicted under count five of the indictment for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. The primary evidence was Tulowiecki's testimony that Litterio purchased four ounces of cocaine from Innamorati in late August 1987. According to Tulowiecki, Litterio said at the time of the purchase that he was buying the cocaine for his brother Mark. To corroborate this testimony, the government offered testimony from a parade of police officers showing that Mark Litterio and an accomplice were involved in the sale of four ounces of cocaine just after James Litterio's purchase from Innamorati. 127 Although the evidence of the Mark Litterio transaction was a major detour, the evidence was relevant to the charge against Litterio in count five. The fact that Mark Litterio sold four ounces of cocaine to undercover agents just after James Litterio bought the same amount from Innamorati strongly corroborated Tulowiecki's testimony. The only prejudice was the potential for distracting the jury with details of an uncharged crime, and this judgment is largely within the discretion of the trial judge. See United States v. Bonneau, 970 F.2d 929, 935 (1st Cir.1992) (only rarely--and in extraordinarily compelling circumstances should this court reverse a district court's on-the-spot judgment concerning the relative weighing of probative value and unfair effect). 128 Litterio also challenges as hearsay the admission, through the testimony of one of the officers involved in the Mark Litterio undercover investigation, of Mark Litterio's contemporaneous statement that he was doing the four-ounce cocaine deal with his brother Mickey (James Litterio's nickname). This statement, however, was admissible against Litterio under Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(E), which excludes from the definition of hearsay a statement by a coconspirator of a party during the course of and in furtherance of the conspiracy. Litterio objects that there is nothing to show that Mark himself was a member of the Innamorati ring. But based on this single transaction James and Mark Litterio were evidently engaged in a conspiracy in which James supplied, and Mark sold, four ounces of cocaine. 12 Mark Litterio's statement to the undercover officers was in furtherance of it. Whether this was a separate conspiracy or part of the larger Innamorati conspiracy makes no difference so far as the admissibility of the statement against James Litterio is concerned. 129