United States v. Stewart-Carrasquillo

James Stewart-Carrasquillo and Harold Esquilin-Montañez (defendants) were arrested off the coast of Puerto Rico on a fishing boat that had 25 bales of cocaine on the deck in plain view. At trial, James and Harold claimed that James’s uncle, Juan Carrasquillo-Soto, had invited them on a fishing trip and that they came upon the packages while out at sea. They further claimed that Juan had picked the packages out of the water and loaded them onto the boat by himself because they refused to help. To challenge James’s and Harold’s version of events, the government questioned Juan’s physical ability to bring the bales onboard given his age. In response, James and Harold offered a homemade reenactment video that showed a woman of Juan’s age bringing 25 bales aboard a vessel by herself. The defense counsel argued that the video would help the jury understand James’s and Harold’s testimony. The government objected to the video, arguing that it should be excluded because the differences between the video and the actual events rendered the video prejudicial. For example, the boat and the sea conditions were different, and the boat was just off a pier during the daytime rather than out at sea at dawn. Additionally, a captain was clearly visible while the woman loaded the bales, although James’s and Harold’s testimony suggested the boat was drifting without a captain for the approximately 40 minutes Juan was busy loading bales. The district judge concluded that the video’s risk of prejudice substantially outweighed its probative value and thus excluded the video under Federal Rule of Evidence 403. After James and Harold were subsequently convicted, they appealed, arguing that the video should have been admitted.