Court Opinion

ID: 9465456
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:47:08.520939+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:11.622625
License: Public Domain

PER CURIAM:
Appellants and three others were indicted on charges of conspiracy to distribute heroin and to possess heroin with intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846. Appellants were jointly tried and convicted by a jury. On appeal, they raise numerous claims of error, the most serious of which is founded on the alleged bias of one of the trial jurors. It is unnecessary for us to discuss all the issues raised by appellants, because we hold that the district court erred in denying appellant’s motion for a new trial based on juror bias. We do consider appellants’ claims of error based on the refusal of certain jury instructions and the admission of hearsay testimony, because they are likely to arise again on retrial.
I
Appellants argue that the district court erred by denying their motion for a new trial because of the alleged bias of juror Collins. After the conclusion of the trial, appellants’ counsel learned that juror Collins had two sons who were serving long prison terms for murder and robbery. Both of the juror’s sons were heroin users and their crimes had been committed in an effort to acquire additional heroin.
Defense counsel had been unaware of Collins’ background at the time of jury selection. Collins had indicated on one of his juror qualification forms that he was married and had no children. The trial judge, who conducted the voir dire, had asked prospective jurors: “have any of you or members of your immediate families ever been personally interested in the defense of a criminal case or a witness for the defense in a criminal case?” Collins did not respond to the question.1 The trial judge refused defense requests to conduct additional voir dire, and Collins was selected as a juror.2
After discovering the background of Collins’ sons, defense counsel moved for a new trial on the grounds of juror bias. Appellants’ attorneys argued that Collins could not have served as an unbiased juror in a prosecution for heroin trafficking because his sons’ lives had been ruined by heroin use. The trial judge denied the motion for a new trial.
The Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury “guarantees to the criminally accused a fair trial by a panel of impartial, ‘indifferent’ jurors.” Irvin v. Dowd, 366 U.S. 717, 722, 81 S.Ct. 1639, 1642, 6 L.Ed.2d 751 (1961); Turner v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 466, 85 S.Ct. 546, 13 L.Ed.2d 424 (1965). In investigating charges of juror bias or misconduct, the trial court “will necessarily be directed by the content of the allegations, including the seriousness of the alleged misconduct or bias, and the credibility of the source.” United States v. Hendrix, 549 F.2d 1225, 1227-28 (9th Cir. 1977).3 If the *517allegations are found to be true, the court must decide whether the defendant was denied his constitutional right to an impartial jury. “The test is whether or not the misconduct has prejudiced the defendant to the extent that he has not received a fair trial.” United States v. Klee, 494 F.2d 394, 396 (9th Cir. 1974). Even if “only one juror is unduly biased or prejudiced,” the defendant is denied his constitutional right to an impartial jury. United States v. Hendrix, 549 F.2d 1225, 1227 (9th Cir. 1977).
The allegations of juror bias here were extremely serious and the facts upon which they were founded were not open to dispute. If Collins, during voir dire, had revealed that he had two sons serving prison terms for heroin-related crimes, the trial court undoubtedly would have excused him from serving on the jury. Regardless of the reason for Collins’ nondisclosure, we conclude that his sons’ tragic involvement with heroin bars the inference that Collins served as an impartial juror. United States v. Allsup, 566 F.2d 68, 71-72 (9th Cir. 1977) (bias may be presumed from the “potential for substantial emotional involvement” inherent in certain relationships).
II
Appellants’ motion for a new trial was not denied because the trial judge found Collins to have been unbiased, but rather because he presumed that Collins could not have influenced the jury’s verdict. The trial judge refused to grant appellants a new trial because he doubted that Collins’ presence on the jury could have affected the verdict. (“As I say, this Oklahoma Indian who is a laborer in his days when he is employed, who has a seventh-grade education, obvious difficulty with even filling out his questionnaires, I just can’t believe that he was a factor in precipitating a guilty verdict in this case, after four days of trial with four defendants, and he was able to persuade the other eleven jurors to agree with him in less than two hours on a verdict of guilty as to all four defendants.”) This reasoning is at odds with United States v. Hendrix, 549 F.2d 1225, 1227 (9th Cir. 1977), where we noted that: “If only one juror is unduly biased or prejudiced or improperly influenced, the criminal defendant is denied his Sixth Amendment right to an impartial panel.” Regardless of what role Collins played during jury deliberations, appellants were denied their constitutional right to an impartial jury by his presence on the panel. Thus we hold that the district court erred by denying appellants’ motion for a new trial.
Ill
Appellants also contend that the district court erred by refusing to instruct the jury on the possibility of finding multiple conspiracies. Appellants were jointly tried under an indictment charging them, and at least three other individuals, with participation in a single conspiracy to possess and to distribute heroin. The Government contended that the evidence established a “chain conspiracy” in which Yanez and Jones acted as suppliers of heroin, Martinez served as a courier and Eubanks was a buyer.
Appellants proposed two jury instructions regarding the possibility of finding multiple conspiracies. Requested Instruction No. 20 stated: “The Indictment charges a single conspiracy. If you find that the proof showed two or more other conspiracies and the defendant was not a party to these conspiracies, a material variance between the Indictment and the proof exists and you must acquit the defendant.” Requested Instruction No. 21 stated: “Further, if you find that the evidence showed, not the single alleged conspiracy in the Indictment, but a series of separate and unconnected conspiracies involving different people, a material variance exists and there cannot be a conviction of the conspiracy charged in the Indictment based upon that evidence.” The trial court refused to deliver the requested charges.
*518The requested instructions, as phrased, were not accurate statements of law. Instruction No. 20 was defective because the existence of other conspiracies would not preclude the jury from finding that defendants were involved in the overall conspiracy charged in the indictment. United States v. Perry, 550 F.2d 524, 533 (9th Cir. 1977) (“the jury could find that there were several different agreements involving the defendants, all of which would then connect the defendants to the general overall conspiracy as charged in the indictment”). Instruction No. 21 was incomplete. It is axiomatic that if the evidence did not show “the single alleged conspiracy in the Indictment,” then appellants could not be convicted of that particular conspiracy. But this does not imply that appellants could not be convicted of any conspiracy under the indictment because of a variance between the indictment’s allegations and the evidence. In United States v. Griffin, 464 F.2d 1352 (9th Cir. 1972), we held that defendants charged with participation in a single conspiracy could be convicted of separate conspiracies, if the jury was cautioned not to consider evidence admitted against members of other conspiracies in considering the guilt of individual defendants.
The trial judge properly refused appellants’ instructions, but he should not have ignored the possibility that the jury could have found multiple conspiracies. If it is possible under the evidence for the jury to find that multiple conspiracies existed, then the court should instruct the jury on the issue. United States v. Perry, 550 F.2d 524, 533 (9th Cir. 1977). When the possibility of a variance between the indictment and the trial proof appears, the jury should also be given a limiting instruction about the procedure for considering evidence of multiple conspiracies. United States v. Griffin, 464 F.2d 1352, 1357 (9th Cir. 1972); United States v. Varelli, 407 F.2d 735, 746 (7th Cir. 1969). The evidence here was sufficient to support the jury’s finding that a single conspiracy had occurred; but it was also sufficient to warrant a jury instruction on the possibility of finding multiple conspiracies.4 Based on the evidence produced at trial, the jury could have found that multiple conspiracies had taken place, rather than the single conspiracy charged in the indictment. Thus the trial judge should have instructed the jury on the multiple conspiracy issue.
IV
Appellants also argue that the trial judge admitted prejudicial hearsay testimony against them, despite their objections. At trial the defense raised numerous hearsay objections to the testimony of the prosecution’s star witness, Gloria Baca. Baca’s deceased common-law husband, Luis Gonzales, Jr., had played a key role in the alleged conspiracy to distribute heroin. The alleged conspirators had often met with Gonzales in Baca’s presence and Gonzales often contacted them over the phone in the home where Baca and Gonzales lived. Baca testified about the actions of the alleged conspirators, about statements she had heard them make to one another, and about what Gonzales told her about the alleged conspiracy. While Baca was not involved in the conspiracy at its outset, she eventually accompanied Gonzales on his trips to obtain heroin and she assumed at least a passive role in the conspiracy.
The Government correctly notes that those portions of Baca’s testimony that related what she saw or did were not hearsay. Thus Baca’s testimony that she observed appellants in possession of heroin is not inadmissible hearsay. Eubanks’ claim that Baca was incompetent to identify heroin is not a reason to exclude her testimony because it goes to the weight and not to the admissibility of the evidence.
*519Baca’s testimony about statements made by the alleged conspirators is more susceptible to hearsay objections. The Government argues that the statements related by Baca were either party admissions or declarations of co-conspirators which are excluded from the definition of hearsay by the Federal Rules of Evidence. Rule 801(d) of the Federal Rules of Evidence provides in pertinent part: “A statement is not hearsay if . (2) Admissions by party-opponent. The statement is offered against a party and is (A) his own statement, in either his individual or a representative capacity or . (E) a statement by a coconspirator of a party during the course and in furtherance of the conspiracy.” Under the provisions of Rule 801(d), inculpatory statements by appellants, which Baca related, are admissible as party admissions only against the individual declarants. Admissions by individual defendants could not be considered as evidence against the other defendants. Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968). Thus Baca’s testimony about statements made by appellants and others was admissible against all defendants only if it falls within the co-conspirator exception embodied in Rule 801(d)(2)(E).
To qualify for the hearsay exception of Rule 801(d)(2)(E), “a foundation [must be] laid to show that: (1) the declaration was in furtherance of the conspiracy, (2) it was made during the pendency of the conspiracy, and (3) there is independent proof of the existence of the conspiracy and of the connection of the declarant and the defendant to it. United States v. Snow, 521 F.2d 730, 733 (9th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1090, 96 S.Ct. 883, 47 L.Ed.2d 101 (1976).” United States v. Weiner, 578 F.2d 757, 768 (9th Cir. 1978). It is the responsibility of the judge, rather than the jury, to determine whether a sufficient foundation has been established for declarations to be admissible under the co-conspirator exception. United States v. King, 552 F.2d 833 (9th Cir. 1976); Carbo v. United States, 314 F.2d 718 (9th Cir. 1963).
At the outset of Gloria Baca’s testimony, the trial judge explained to the jury the law of conspiracy and the co-conspirator exception to the hearsay rule.5 This instruction was entirely proper, but it did not relieve the trial judge of responsibility for making the initial determination about the admissibility of Baca’s testimony. United States v. King, 552 F.2d 833 (9th Cir. 1976). In admitting, over appellants’ objections, Baca’s testimony about the statements of alleged conspirators, it was incumbent upon the trial judge to determine that a sufficient foundation existed to invoke the hearsay exception of Rule 801(d)(2)(E).6 Sufficient evidence had to exist to support an inference that the statements were made in furtherance of the conspiracy, while the conspiracy was in existence, and independent proof had to establish the existence of a conspiracy in which the declarant and defendants participated. A review of the trial transcript convinces us that, while some of the conversations related by Baca fell within the ambit of the co-conspirator exception, other statements were inadmissible hearsay because they were not made in furtherance of the alleged conspiracy.
Hearsay declarations of co-conspirators cannot be received into evidence *520under the co-conspirator exception of Rule 801(d)(2)(E) unless the declarations were made in furtherance of the conspiracy. United States v. Weiner, 578 F.2d 757, 768 (9th Cir. 1978). Not all statements made by co-conspirators can be considered to have been made in furtherance of the conspiracy. Fiswick v. United States, 329 U.S. 211, 217, 67 S.Ct. 224, 227, 91 L.Ed. 196 (1946) (“confession or admission by one co-conspirator after he has been apprehended is not in any sense a furtherance of the criminal enterprise”). “Mere conversation between conspirators” or “merely narrative declarations” are not admissible as declarations in furtherance of the conspiracy. United States v. James, 510 F.2d 546, 549 (5th Cir. 1975); United States v. Birnbaum, 337 F.2d 490, 495 (2d Cir. 1964); United States v. Goodman, 129 F.2d 1009, 1013 (2d Cir. 1942). For declarations to be admissible under the co-conspirator exception, they must further the common objectives of the conspiracy.
Baca’s testimony about some of the conversations between alleged conspirators that occurred wholly within her presence did relate declarations in furtherance of the conspiracy. Baca testified that she was present when Yanez told Gonzales to stop using heroin so that he could distribute the drug for Yanez. Later, Baca overheard Yanez and Gonzales discuss whether Gonzales had “cleaned up” enough to begin distribution of the drug. Baca also testified that Eubanks and Gonzales met at the house she shared with Gonzales. Eubanks told Gonzales that he wanted to purchase a large amount of heroin. After making a phone call, Gonzales told Eubanks that Yanez was interested in making the transaction, but that he wanted to see the money first. These declarations all furthered the objectives of the alleged conspiracy because they set in motion transactions that were an integral part of the heroin distribution scheme.
In contrast, most of the statements made by Gonzales to Baca that incriminated appellants cannot reasonably be considered to have been in furtherance of the conspiracy. Gonzales and Baca had been living together in a common-law marriage relationship. Gonzales often discussed his activities with Baca, who did not participate in the alleged conspiracy until long after its inception. Baca testified that Gonzales told her that he was going to Tucson to obtain narcotics from Yanez. There is no evidence that Gonzales’ statement was a declaration in furtherance of the conspiracy. Gonzales was not seeking to induce Baca to join the conspiracy and his statement did not assist the conspirators in achieving their objectives. Gonzales’ “statement was, at best, nothing more than [a] casual admission of culpability to someone he had individually decided to trust.” United States v. Moore, 522 F.2d 1068, 1077 (9th Cir. 1975).
Similarly, when Gonzales informed Baca about the persons to whom he had spoken over the telephone, he was not making a declaration in furtherance of the conspiracy. Instead, he was merely informing his common-law wife about his activities. When Baca phoned Yanez’ home in Tucson to speak with Gonzales, she was told by Yanez’ wife, Eloise, that Gonzales was with Yanez. This statement also was not made in furtherance of the conspiracy, and thus it should not have been admitted under the co-conspirator exception to the hearsay rules.
After Baca began travelling to Tucson with Gonzales and assisted him with the arrangements for obtaining heroin, she assumed a role in the alleged conspiracy. Yet Baca’s participation in the conspiracy did not convert Gonzales’ statements to her into declarations in furtherance of the conspiracy. Most of Gonzales’ statements to Baca that were included in her testimony did nothing to advance the aims of the alleged conspiracy. At one point, Gonzales told Baca that Yanez had arranged their trip to Tucson. On another occasion, Gonzales told Baca that they were going to Phoenix together to pick up some heroin from Leroy. At another time, Baca was informed by Gonzales that Fred and Mel had been unable to pick up any heroin. While eating at a Denny’s in Arizona, Baca heard Yanez say that he was going to meet *521with Leroy. There is no indication in the record that these statements were any more than conversations between conspirators that did nothing to advance the aims of the alleged conspiracy. The incriminating references to absent persons were not designed to induce Baca’s continued participation in the conspiracy or to allay her fears, unlike the statements at issue in United States v. Eaglin, 571 F.2d 1069 (9th Cir. 1977) and Salazar v. United States, 405 F.2d 74 (9th Cir. 1968). Cf. United States v. Crockett, 514 F.2d 64 (5th Cir. 1975); United States v. Knippenberg, 502 F.2d 1056 (7th Cir. 1974).7
Because there was nothing in the record to support the inference that the various statements made by Gonzales to Baca were made in furtherance of the conspiracy, the trial court should not have admitted them over objection under the co-conspirator exception to the hearsay rules. On retrial, the prosecution is not precluded from introducing additional evidence that would permit the inference that Gonzales’ statements were made in furtherance of the conspiracy.8
Because we reverse appellants’ convictions, it is unnecessary for us to reach appellants’ other claims of errors that are unlikely to recur upon retrial.
REVERSED.

. It is ironic that the only question juror Collins responded to during voir dire was the following: “Have any members of the panel during their current jury service or during any prior service had occasion to serve in any case involving drug or narcotic offenses?” Collins responded, “I was on a case here a couple of months ago for narcotics, but it wouldn’t affect me.” The judge replied, “Thank you, sir,” and did not pursue the inquiry.

. The problems with juror Collins might have been avoided had the trial judge permitted a more extensive voir dire. Among the additional voir dire questions proposed by the defense was Question 22: “Does any member of the panel have any friends or relatives who have been involved with heroin? If so, would this fact prevent anyone from rendering a fair and impartial verdict?” The trial judge refused to ask prospective jurors this question.
The hazards of the trial court’s reluctance to permit additional voir dire became apparent at trial. On the second day of the trial, the Government moved to strike juror Edward Sharrar, Jr. from the jury panel, after it was learned that he had a son awaiting trial on a federal criminal charge. Sharrar, who had not revealed this information during voir dire, was replaced by one of the alternate jurors.

. It is within the trial court’s discretion to determine whether to hold an evidentiary hearing on allegations of juror bias or misconduct. *517United States v. Hendrix, 549 F.2d 1225 (9th Cir. 1977). This discretion is not unbounded, and other Circuits have imposed stringent requirements for its exercise. See United States v. Doe, 513 F.2d 709 (1st Cir. 1975).

. The jury could have found that separate conspiracies had occurred involving different appellants. For example, the jury could have found that Jones was “an independent peddler of narcotics . . . selected as the most immediately available source of supply,” rather than a member of the overall conspiracy. United States v. Reina, 242 F.2d 302, 306 (2d Cir. 1957).

. The trial judge told the jury: “If and when it appears from the evidence in a case that such a common plan or arrangement did exist and that a defendant was one of the parties to or a member of the plan or arrangement, then the acts thereafter knowingly done and the statements thereafter knowingly made by any person likewise found to be a member may be considered by the jury as evidence in the case as to the defendant found to be a member, even though the ae^s or statements may have occurred in the absence of and without the knowledge of the defendant, provided those acts and statements were knowingly done and made during the continuance of a common plan or arrangement and in furtherance of some intended object or purpose of the plan or arrangement.”

. Of course, the trial judge could have conditionally admitted the challenged statements, subject to a motion to strike if the prosecution failed to establish the existence of the foundational facts.

. For example, in United States v. Crockett, 514 F.2d 64, 71 (5th Cir. 1975) “the testimony of Penny Fennell that Crockett, during the course of the conspiracy, referred to Sheriff Futch as ‘his man’ and told her, ‘that he [Futch] would take care of him,’ was admissible because Crockett was then acting in the interest of the conspiracy by allaying Ms. Fennell’s fears of being caught participating in gambling activities.” In United States v. Knippenberg, 502 F.2d 1056, 1061 (7th Cir. 1974) the co-conspirator exception was held applicable because “[t]he record very reasonably bears the interpretation that Walsh told Mrs. Post the checks were from Knippenberg so as to reassure her and help induce her to deposit them.” Here, there is no indication that Gonzales’ statements about appellants were made to induce any action or to allay any fears of Baca.

. In holding Gonzales’ statements inadmissible under Rule 801(d)(2)(E), we are mindful of the fact that a contrary holding would raise serious questions about whether appellants were denied their Sixth Amendment confrontation rights by the introduction of the Gonzales’ statements. This court has recognized that “[a]dmissibility under the co-conspirator exception to the hearsay rule does not . . . automatically demonstrate compliance with the confrontation clause.” United States v. Eaglin, 571 F.2d 1069, 1083 (9th Cir. 1977); Dutton v. Evans, 400 U.S. 74, 91 S.Ct. 210, 27 L.Ed.2d 213 (1970).