United States v. Laster
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
258 F.3d 525 (6th Cir. 2001), cert. denied, 534 U.S. 1151 (2002)
A tip led a drug-task-force detective to learn that James Laster (defendant) had ordered a methamphetamine-precursor chemical from Wilson Oil Company without authorization. Laster and Jerry Lear (defendant) were later stopped for reckless driving with methamphetamine in the car and charged with narcotics offenses. At trial, the prosecution offered Wilson Oil Company invoices showing Laster's orders, but Wilson himself had died before trial, and the detective called to authenticate the records was not familiar with the company's bookkeeping practices, so the invoices could not qualify as ordinary business records. The district court admitted them anyway, either as business records or under the residual hearsay exception, and Lear and Laster were convicted and appealed.
Whether a trustworthy statement not admissible under the hearsay exceptions of Federal Rules of Evidence 803 and 804 can be admitted under the residual exception of Rule 807.