United States v. Lian Kun Zhu

MEMORANDUM **

Defendant-Appellant Lian Kun Zhu appeals his jury conviction for selling methamphetamine hydrochloride, commonly referred to as “ice.” The issue Zhu presents is whether, pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b), the district court abused its discretion when it refused to allow Zhu to present extrinsic evidence that government witness Jiang Li Xia (“Jiang”) had access to ice in 2004. Zhu claims that the excluded evidence shows that Jiang had the “opportunity and capacity” to frame Zhu, and that the relevant evidence should have been admitted under Rule 404(b). We hold that the district court abused its discretion when it excluded the evidence at issue. We further hold, however, that such error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Accordingly, we affirm Zhu’s conviction.

I. Exclusion of the Evidence

A. Rule 404(b) Analysis

Rule 404(b) provides:

Fed.R.Evid. 404(b). This court uses a four-part test when considering the application of Rule 404(b):

United States v. Mayans, 17 F.3d 1174, 1181 (9th Cir.1994).

First, the disputed evidence would have “tended to prove [the] material point” that Jiang had access to ice even during her boyfriend Yang Wang’s…