Opinion ID: 64708
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Guevara's Cell Phone

Text: Guevara challenges the pre-trial and trial handling of a cell phone confiscated by police and introduced as evidence against him. This court reviews evidentiary rulings on a heightened abuse of discretion basis. [14] Even an abuse of discretion may not merit reversal if the error was harmless. Because the challenge here is on hearsay, the alleged error is non-constitutional. Non-constitutional trial error is harmless unless it had `substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury's verdict.' [15] Guevara's challenge to the phone is not its admission but rather its use i.e., the way in which testimony relating to the phone implicated Guevara in the conspiracy by showing his familiarity with other conspirators. A police officer, Officer Cedillo, laid a foundation for the introduction of Guevara's cell phone by claiming that he found it in a bag labeled with Guevara's name in the police station. Guevara denies that he ever owned the phone and that it was taken from him. He argues, and the government now concedes, that Cedillo should not have been able to offer hearsay evidence regarding the alleged bag, or the fact that the phone may have been confiscated from Guevara. In fact, the evidence seems to have been mishandled; the government apparently cannot find any record of its having been confiscated, nor of any bag with Guevara's name on it. So this testimony should not have been permitted, as it stood. That said, the error is harmless. Cedillo offered other, legitimate testimony circumstantially connecting the phone to Guevara, sufficient to remove any taint. Cedillo testified that he got the phone from the Fort Worth jail while Guevara was being processed there; and the record further reflects that the number for the phone was listed in co-conspirator Puente-Hernandez's phone under the name James, Guevara's first name (he is the only known associate of Puente-Hernandez with this name); and that Guevara's alleged phone in turn listed Puente-Hernandez's number (under the entry Joe Boss). Even without the challenged testimony, the phone was connected to Guevara. Furthermore, even if the phone were altogether excluded, the case was firm against Guevara. The testimony of the undercover officers, the evidence from the day of the bust, and the testimony of Garcia, all also connected Guevara to the conspiracy.