United States v. Liera-Morales

Defendant appealed his convictions stemming from his involvement in a scheme to kidnap for ransom Franklin Aguilar-Avila. The court held that the district court's admission of a government agent's testimony recounting Franklin's mother's description of a telephone call with human traffickers did not violate the Confrontation Clause because the challenged statements from the telephone call were nontestimonial and their introduction at trial did not violate defendant's Confrontation Clause rights. Further, even if the principle underlying the Rule of Completeness (Rule 106) extended to the statements at issue here, the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to admit portions of the interview. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "United States v. Liera-Morales" on Justia Law