Garcia

MEMORANDUM **

Defendant-Appellant Art Garcia appeals his convictions following a jury trial for the importation of cocaine and possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 , 952, and 960. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and we affirm.

Garcia first argues that the district court abused its discretion when it excluded as irrelevant Garcia’s testimony about what he thought about de Leon and de Leon’s boss who had asked him to go and pick up the car that was later determined at the border to contain cocaine. 1 Garcia’s general opinion of these individuals was not relevant to whether Garcia knew the car contained the cocaine he was charged with possessing or why Garcia lied to the law enforcement officials. Fed.R.Evid. 401. However, any testimony that Garcia feared de Leon and his boss and lied to the law enforcement officers out of fear that de Leon and his boss might harm Garcia’s family would have been relevant. Nevertheless, the jury heard testimony from Garcia about his retaliation fears, and so to the extent the excluded questions might have elicited relevant testimony, it was plainly cumulative of other admitted testimony…