United States v. Brown

299 F.3d 1252 (11th Cir. 2002)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D, a black Jamaican national, was traveling to Bermuda via Miami when U.S. Customs officers discovered cocaine base in the metal frames of her luggage carts. D claimed to have no knowledge of the presence of the drugs. P indicted her on charges of importation of cocaine and possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute. To prove Ds knowledge of the presence of the cocaine in her luggage carts, the prosecution relied primarily on the testimony of a DEA agent, offered without objection as an expert in the field of drug valuation, that the wholesale value in Bermuda of the cocaine base with which D had been found was approximately $217,000. The government argued that an unknowing innocent would not have been entrusted with such valuable contraband. D attempted to contradict this estimated value with a copy of a written DEA price list referred to by the drug valuation expert during his cross-examination, but upon which the expert did not rely in forming his opinion as to the value of cocaine base in Bermuda. The district court excluded the written price list and disallowed cross-examination on the information contained therein. The jury convicted D on both counts of her indictment, and the court sentenced her to sixty-three months' imprisonment.