United States v. Emilio Buonsignore

131 F. App'x 252
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMay 13, 2005
Docket04-13098; D.C. Docket 03-00719-CR-1-1
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 131 F. App'x 252 (United States v. Emilio Buonsignore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Emilio Buonsignore, 131 F. App'x 252 (11th Cir. 2005).

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

Appellant Emilio Buonsignore appeals his conviction and 151-month sentence for possession with intent to distribute heroin and importation of heroin, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(A)®, 952(a), 960(a)(1), 960(b)(1)(A). On appeal, he asserts that (1) the district court abused its discretion by admitting expert testimony regarding the value of the heroin, (2) the district court erred by admitting his statements to Bureau of Customs and Immigration Enforcement (“BICE”) officials, and (3) the district court erred, in light of Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S.-, 124 S.Ct. 2531, 159 L.Ed.2d 403 (2004), and United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. -, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005), by imposing a two-level enhancement for obstruction of justice, and, in the alternative, the district court erred by imposing the enhancement because the evidence did not support such an enhancement.

[255]*255I.

Buonsignore argues that the expert testimony regarding the heroin’s value did not meet the requirements of Fed.R.Evid. 702 because the agent who testified did not conduct an independent analysis of the value of heroin and merely restated figures given to him by someone in Washington, DC. He contends that the agent did not have personal knowledge of the value and could not identify any of the underlying data on which his expert opinion was based, making his opinion insufficiently reliable. Buonsignore next submits that the agent’s testimony as to the heroin’s value violated the Confrontation Clause under Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, -, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 1374, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004), which allows prior testimonial statements to be admitted only if both (1) the declarant is unavailable and (2) the defendant had an opportunity to cross-examine the witness. He claims that the evidence regarding the value of the heroin was testimonial in nature, and the government made no showing that the declarant was unavailable. Buonsignore further argues that the valuation testimony was irrelevant and extremely prejudicial.

‘We review for abuse of discretion the district court’s decisions regarding the admissibility of expert testimony and the reliability of an expert opinion.” United States v. Frazier, 387 F.3d 1244, 1258 (11th Cir.2004) (en banc), petition for cert. filed, No. 04-8324 (Jan. 13, 2005). Rule 702 provides

If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise, if (1) the testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data, (2) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods, and (3) the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case.

Fed.R.Evid. 702. District courts play a “gatekeeping” function regarding the admission of scientific and technical expert evidence. Frazier, 387 F.3d at 1260. “This function inherently require[s] the trial court to conduct an exacting analysis of the foundations of expert opinions to ensure they meet the standards for admissibility under Rule 702.” Id. (quotation omitted) (emphasis in original).

To determine whether expert evidence is admissible,

Trial courts must consider whether: (1) the expert is qualified to testify competently regarding the matters he intends to address; (2) the methodology by which the expert reaches his conclusions is sufficiently rehable as determined by the sort of inquiry mandated in Daubert; and (3) the testimony assists the trier of fact, through the application of scientific, technical, or specialized expertise, to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue.

Id. Training and experience in the field can confer expert status. Id. at 1260-61. Regarding the reliability of the expert testimony and the second factor, the trial judge must evaluate the reliability of the testimony before admitting it, but has significant leeway in how he conducts the evaluation. Id. at 1262. As to the third factor, “expert testimony is admissible if it concerns matters that are beyond the understanding of the average lay person,” and must pass the Rule 403 balancing test: its probative value must not be substantially outweighed by its prejudicial effect. Id. at 1263. “Testimony about the weight, purity, dosages, and prices of cocaine clearly relates to knowledge beyond the ken of the average juror.” United States [256]*256v. Tapia-Ortiz, 23 F.3d 738, 741 (2d Cir. 1994).

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to be confronted with the witnesses against him.” U.S. Const, amend. VI. “The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the Federal Constitution forbids the introduction of hearsay evidence against criminal defendants unless the offered hearsay falls into a firmly rooted hearsay exception or the hearsay statement at issue carries a particularized guarantee of trustworthiness.” United States v. Brown, 299 F.3d 1252, 1258 (11th Cir.2002), vacated, 538 U.S. 1010, 123 S.Ct. 1928, 155 L.Ed.2d 847 (2003) , opinion reinstated by 342 F.3d 1245, 1246 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 125 S.Ct. 37, 160 L.Ed.2d 34 (2004) (quotations omitted). Rule 703 allows experts to rely upon data which itself would not have been admissible if this data is “of a type reasonably relied upon by experts in the particular field in forming opinions.” ' Fed.R.Evid. 703. We have held that

Rule 703 encompasses hearsay statements in a context such as the instant one, where the government expert specifically testified that his opinion was based on his experience and expertise, in conjunction with the information he received from a DEA intelligence agent and Bermudan authorities, and that such sources of information were regularly relied upon in valuating narcotics.

Brown, 299 F.3d at 1257. We held in Brown that

hearsay evidence relied upon by an expert in forming his opinion, as long as it is of a time regularly relied upon by experts in that field, is a ‘firmly rooted’ exception to the general rule of exclusion of hearsay statements, and therefore is not violative of a criminal defendant’s confrontation rights.

Id. at 1258.

We noted that to the extent Brown’s counsel desired to question the testifying DEA agent’s sources and value determination, he did so effectively through cross-examination of the agent expert at trial. Id.

In Crawford,

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