Excerpt from United States v. Gianakos

[facts omitted]

*1076 D. Evidentiary Issues

Michael [the defendant] raises several evidentiary issues and argues that each is of sufficient merit to warrant reversal. Specifically, he first alleges that the district court erred in excluding a portion of a recorded telephone conversation with his mother offered by the defense when other portions of the recording had been admitted during the government's case.

While incarcerated, Michael called his mother after receiving a letter from Stacye Parisi, an inmate who met Jamie during her incarceration. [Jaymie committed the crime with Michael and then testified against Michael at the first trial.] He made his mother aware that law enforcement could monitor the call. During the call, Michael described Parisi's letter as stating that Jamie had admitted to lying about Michael's involvement in the crime during her testimony in the state trial. Michael argues that the excluded material would have corroborated his theory that Jamie intended to frame him for the murder. The government made hearsay objections to the admission of Michael's statements to his mother about Parisi's letters. Michael argued that the statements fit the state of mind exception to the hearsay rule. The district court excluded the taped statements as irrelevant. We review a district court's evidentiary decisions under an abuse of discretion standard; however, we will not reverse if an evidentiary error was harmless. United States v. Walker, 393 F.3d 842, 848 (8th Cir.2005) (additionally noting that “[w]e review de novo the district court's interpretation and application of the rules of evidence, and review for an abuse of discretion the factual findings supporting its evidentiary ruling.”).

Evidence is relevant if it has “any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.” Fed.R.Evid. 401. Relevant evidence is generally admissible, while irrelevant evidence is not. See Fed.R.Evid. 402. Our Court will reverse on the basis of an evidentiary ruling only when it “affects the substantial rights of the defendant or when we believe that the error has had more than a slight influence on the verdict.” United States v. White Horse, 316 F.3d 769, 775–76 (8th Cir.2003) (quoting United States v. Ballew, 40 F.3d 936, 941 (8th Cir.1994) (citations omitted)). Arguably, the statement had some relevance and we find the trial court erred in excluding the tape excerpt on the basis of relevance.

Nonetheless, we can affirm the district court's decision for different reasons. United States v. Oligmueller, 198 F.3d 669, 671 (8th Cir.1999); Sheets v. Salt Lake County, 45 F.3d 1383, 1390 (10th Cir.1995) (“We may affirm the district court's evidentiary ruling, despite the fact its conclusion was based on incorrect grounds.”). In this case, the district court could have excluded the evidence as hearsay under Fed.R.Evid. 802. The statement at issue in this case is triple hearsay: Michael's statement, Parisi's statement, and Jamie's statement.7 Accordingly, in order for the statement to be admissible, *1077 each part of the combined statement must conform with an exception to the hearsay rule. See Fed.R.Evid. 805.

Michael contends that his statement to his mother was properly admissible hearsay as demonstrating his “then existing state of mind.” See Fed.R.Evid. 803(3). Michael fails, however, to explain what exception applies to either Parisi's or Jamie's statement. Because each part of the combined statement did not conform to the hearsay rule, it was properly excluded. See Fed.R.Evid. 805; United States v. Ortiz, 125 F.3d 630 (8th Cir.1997).