United States v. Ortiz, No. 13-30361 (9th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseDefendant, convicted of drug-related charges, argued that the district court erred in admitting the opinion testimony of his United States probation officer identifying defendant's voice speaking primarily Spanish on wiretapped calls because the officer does not speak Spanish and had only heard defendant speak English. The court concluded that in this case, the officer's familiarity with defendant's voice was substantially more than the minimal familiarity Federal Rule of Evidence 901(b)(5) requires for admission of lay voice identification testimony. Defendant's challenges go to the weight rather than the admissibility of defendant's testimony. Accordingly, the court concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion in ruling on the authentication of his voice on the recordings.
Court Description: Criminal Law. Affirming a conviction, the panel held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the opinion testimony of the defendant’s probation officer, identifying the defendant’s voice speaking primarily Spanish on wiretapped calls, notwithstanding that the probation officer was not fluent in Spanish and had only heard the defendant speak English. The panel held that the probation officer’s familiarity with the defendant’s voice was substantially more than the minimal familiarity required by Fed. R. Evid. 901(b)(5) for admission of lay voice identification testimony. The panel explained that the defendant’s challenges ultimately go to the weight rather than the admissibility of the testimony.
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