Opinion ID: 196298
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: nigro's testimony

Text: 20 Frank Nigro testified regarding several conversations he had with Michael Murray in October 1991, one of which the government recorded and played to the jury. Michael Murray argues error in the admission of the substance of both the direct examination and of the redirect examination.
21 Michael Murray's counsel objected that Nigro's testimony was gratuitous talk about marijuana, unrelated to the crimes charged or to any particular incident in the past. Before Nigro testified, the district judge stated that [t]he statements by Michael Murray ... are admissions so they're admissible as against Mr. Murray. Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(A). 22 On direct examination, the government confined its questions to the period from September 1991 to November 1991, when Nigro was cooperating with the DEA on this case. Nigro testified that he met with Michael Murray and asked if Murray had any marijuana for sale. Nigro stated that after several such meetings, Michael Murray agreed to front Nigro between 1000 and 2000 pounds of marijuana. Near the close of Nigro's direct examination, the government played a tape of one of the Nigro-Murray meetings. In that conversation, Michael Murray generally described his experience with importation of marijuana from Colombia and Mexico, from getting the marijuana across the river to weighing marijuana to piecing together loads of marijuana from different suppliers. The district court did not abuse its discretion by admitting either Nigro's testimony on direct examination or the tape-recorded conversation between Michael Murray and Nigro. Both were properly admissible against Michael Murray as admissions. 5 Michael Murray's part of the conversations constituted non-hearsay admissions of a party. Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(A); United States v. McDowell, 918 F.2d 1004, 1007 (1st Cir.1990). Nigro's part of the conversations served as  'reciprocal and integrated utterance(s),'  McDowell, at 918 F.2d at 1007 (quoting United States v. Metcalf, 430 F.2d 1197, 1199 (8th Cir.1970)), reasonably required to place [Murray's] admissions into context and make them intelligible to the jury. Id. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Because Nigro's statements were offered only for context and not for the truth of the matter asserted, those statements are not hearsay under Federal Rule of Evidence 801(c). 23
24 On cross-examination, Michael Murray's counsel attempted to discredit Nigro's testimony by insinuating that Nigro barely knew Murray. 6 On redirect examination, the government asked Nigro how he first met Michael Murray. Michael Murray's counsel objected. At a sidebar conference, the government argued that, on cross-examination, Michael Murray's counsel opened the door to the earlier relationship between Nigro and Murray. The district court ruled that [a]s to scope, I think this is all opened up because of the suggestion that this is absolutely bizarre conduct and because, without this background, the meeting between Nigro and Michael Murray seems to be such an isolated and strange event. When Michael Murray's counsel pressed for a ruling under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b), the district court stated that [the evidence] doesn't have to be admitted as 404(b) but that is an alternative ground for the admission. You have opened this up, it's admitted to him to show that this was not a bizarre picking someone out of a crowd and trying to entice them into drug trafficking. The district court then ruled that the government's line of questioning was permissible, but admitted the resulting testimony only against Michael Murray. Nigro then testified that he was introduced to Michael Murray when Murray began working for Nigro in the marijuana business in 1977 or 1978. According to Nigro, in the following year, Michael Murray and Nigro's three partners took full control of the operation, and Nigro continued to work for them in a more limited capacity. Three more marijuana shipments occurred under this arrangement. 25 At the conclusion of Nigro's testimony, the district court gave the jury the following limiting instruction: 26 THE COURT: And I will tell you that Mr. Michael Murray is not here charged with any of the events which this witness testifies took place back in the late seventies, perhaps the early eighties. That has nothing to do with this case except, if you believe his testimony, it tends to place the conversation about which he testified, the tape that was played, if you believe that, in context. That's the only reason you heard it. Mr. Michael Murray is not charged with anything back then, you're not to consider that, except that to the extent that you, yourself, determine in the manner that I've just described. 27 We review the district court's rulings on the admissibility of evidence only for abuse of discretion. United States v. McCarthy, 961 F.2d 972, 977 (1st Cir.1992). 28 The district court did not abuse its discretion in permitting the government on redirect examination to explore the past business dealings of Nigro and Michael Murray. 7 The scope of redirect examination is discretionary with the trial court and should be reversed only upon a showing of abuse of discretion. United States v. Braidlow, 806 F.2d 781, 782 (8th Cir.1986). A district court may allow testimony on redirect which clarifies an issue which the defense opened up on cross-examination even when this evidence is otherwise inadmissible. United States v. Geer, 923 F.2d 892, 896-97 n. 4 (1st Cir.1991) (citing Braidlow, 806 F.2d at 783). Otherwise, litigants could exploit the rules of evidence to create misleading impressions, secure in the knowledge that the other side was barred from disabusing the jury. On cross-examination, Michael Murray's counsel opened the door to the past relationship between Murray and Nigro by making it seem that Murray did not know Nigro well enough to conduct drug business with him. The district court did not abuse its discretion by allowing redirect testimony to clarify that issue, and exercised abundant caution in instructing the jury on the limited consideration to be given such testimony.