U.S. v. Vretta, 84-2991

• Decision Date: 20 May 1986
• Docket Number: No. 84-2991,84-2991
• Citation: 790 F.2d 651
• Parties: 20 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 829 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Samuel VRETTA, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 651

790 F.2d 651

20 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 829

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Samuel VRETTA, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 84-2991.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued Jan. 9, 1986.

Decided May 13, 1986.

As Amended May 20, 1986.

Glenn C. Reynolds, Madison, Wis., for defendant-appellant.

Stephen J. Liccione, Asst. U.S. Atty., Joseph P. Stadtmueller, U.S. Atty., Milwaukee, Wis., for plaintiff-appellee.

Before CUDAHY and COFFEY, Circuit Judges, and ESCHBACH, Senior Circuit Judge.

COFFEY, Circuit Judge.

The defendant, Samuel Vretta, was indicted by a grand jury for kidnaping Allen Hauser, in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1201. Vretta was found guilty after a seven day jury trial and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Vretta appeals his conviction. We affirm.

I

The evidence reveals that Vretta met Allen Hauser in 1978 in Dearborn, Michigan where Hauser sold Vretta on investing his life savings of $25,000 to help underwrite Hauser's development of an alleged light sensitive photographic process. Vretta subsequently demanded the return of his money, pursuant to the terms of the investment agreement that allowed Vretta to request a refund by "June 1, 1979." Hauser failed to return Vretta's investment. Vretta became aggravated about not having his money returned and retained a lawyer to sue Hauser for the return of his investment. Vretta's lawyer obtained a default judgment against Hauser in a Wisconsin state trial court in 1981, but was unable to satisfy the court judgment. Vretta's next step was to hire a private investigator named Paul DeSalvo to determine if Hauser had any collectible assets. DeSalvo stated that Vretta became increasingly frustrated with his inability to uncover any collectible assets and/or recoup his investment. The record reveals that thereafter Vretta took matters into his own hands and began making threats and performing an act of vandalism toward Vretta and his family in an attempt to force Hauser to return his money. In support of its contention concerning Vretta's actions, the government introduced telephone records at trial demonstrating that Vretta called Hauser on numerous occasions between late 1981 and September 20, 1983, the day Allen Hauser disappeared from his Elm Grove, Wisconsin home. As detailed later in this opinion, several witnesses were allowed to testify at trial that Allen Hauser had told them that Vretta had made verbal telephone threats against Hauser's life and his family. At trial, the government also established that Vretta threw a smoke bomb into the Hauser home in July of 1983, two months before the kidnaping.

The evidence demonstrates that on September 20, 1983, at approximately 10:00 a.m., Vretta registered at the White Court Motel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Shortly thereafter, at approximately 10:15 a.m. he rented a rusted, green Buick Skylark from a nearby car rental agency licensed as "Rent-A-Heap" and after renting the Skylark, Vretta parked his own white and orange Volkswagen van at a gas station across the street from the "Rent-A-Heap" agency. Sometime thereafter, on September 20, 1983, between 11:30 a.m. and 12:00 noon, a neighbor of the Hausers spotted a rusted, drab green car pulling into the Hauser driveway in Elm Grove, Wisconsin. Mark Hauser, one of Hauser's sons, who was employed on the second shift at a local restaurant, was home on that particular day as he had a scheduled doctor's appointment for 1:10 p.m. that afternoon. The government's investigation revealed that he failed to keep that appointment and at approximately 3:00 p.m. on that day his sister, Michelle, arrived home and found her brother's lifeless body lying face down in the Hauser's family room, his hands and ankles bearing ligature marks from being tied together, indicating that restraints had been used and later removed. The government investigators also discovered blood stains on the Hauser's living room carpeting, consistent with the blood of Allen and Mark Hauser. ¹

Allen Hauser's wife recounted that on that same day, September 20, 1983, Allen Hauser arrived at his home about 7:30 a.m. after returning from the County Jail where he was serving a one-year sentence for fraud under a work release program. After Allen Hauser dropped his wife off at work at 9:30 a.m., he arrived at the business of a Kathryn Stowe, a family friend, at 9:45 a.m. He took her car to a service station and left the service station some time between 12:30 and 1:00 p.m., which was the last time Allen Hauser was seen alive. Later that day, Mrs. Stowe's car was found parked in the Hauser driveway and Stowe's car keys were found on the floor of the Hauser living room.

The next day, September 21, 1983, at approximately 6:00 a.m., the person residing in the room next to Vretta's room at the White Court Motel observed Vretta outside of his motel room. Vretta returned the rented green Buick Skylark to Rent-A-Heap at 8:00 a.m. and returned to the motel where he checked out. On the day following, September 22, 1983, Allen Hauser's badly beaten and bruised body was found in rural Bedford County, Tennessee. He had been strangled to death by "a narrow band-like object placed around his neck." Tr. at 584. Circumstantial evidence introduced at trial revealed that a piece of fiber found on Hauser's pants was identical to the carpet fibers found in the green Buick Skylark that Vretta had rented in Milwaukee; also, a piece of cloth fiber matching Allen Hauser's pant fibers was found on the rear seat of the rented green Buick Skylark. Further, the Skylark's backseat contained bloodstains consistent with Allen Hauser's blood. Results of the criminal investigation into the kidnaping and murders also revealed that fibers from the Vretta's white and orange Volkswagen van were also found on Allen Hauser's shirt and pants; and a hair strand found on Hauser's sock was determined to be "microscopically matched" to that of the hair of Vretta. At trial, a forensic pathologist, who examined Allen Hauser's body, testified to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that Hauser probably expired some time after he left the State of Wisconsin. Further, an FBI agent testified that when he interviewed Vretta at his Florida retirement residence on September 24, 1983, Vretta stated he was glad that Hauser had been killed even though the FBI agent had no knowledge as of that time that Hauser was deceased. The agent also testified that Vretta denied ever having been in Elm Grove, Wisconsin.

Vretta raises the following issues on appeal: (1) whether the court erred in allowing evidence of Mark Hauser's death to be received during his trial for kidnaping; (2) whether the court erred in allowing into evidence the threats to Hauser supposedly attributable to Vretta; and (3) whether the court erred in allowing into evidence the fact that Allen Hauser had been "tortured" prior to his death.

II Mark Hauser's Death

Prior to trial, the defense submitted a motion in limine, seeking to exclude from the evidence to be presented at trial, the facts and circumstances of Mark Hauser's death. Defense counsel argued to the district court judge that the issue the government was obligated to prove was whether Allen Hauser was taken from his house voluntarily. Although defense counsel acknowledged the fact that Mark Hauser was strangled was probative for the question of whether Allen Hauser left his home voluntarily, he believed that the prejudicial effect of introducing the facts and circumstances of Mark Hauser's death outweighed its probative value. The attorney concluded that introducing evidence concerning Mark Hauser's death "attempt[s] to make a kidnaping case into a murder case and a kidnaping and would create such a diversion in the jury's mind that their focus is really going to be on the, on the terrible circumstances of what is apparently a very unfortunate and unnecessary death rather than specific elements of kidnaping." Defense counsel stated that "to ... attempt to cooperate with the government and to avoid the prejudicial impact of Mark's death, I would be willing to stipulate that if Allen Hauser was abducted, that he went along involuntarily."

The government responded to the motion in limine arguing that its case was largely circumstantial and that "there is an awful lot of the circumstantial evidence that the government wishes to offer during the course of this trial that has to do with the identity of Mr. Vretta as being the perpetrator of these acts." Additionally, the government contended that introducing evidence with regard to activities at the residence was necessary to establish motive; in the government's view, the crime may have begun "as a simple house burglary to acquire whatever one could with no one home" but "catapulted itself by the course of events" into a double murder. Moreover, the government argued that it was entitled to introduce the details of Mark Hauser's death because both Mark and Allen Hauser were killed in the same manner; that is, they were both strangled by "a cord around the neck and pulled from behind." Further, the government argued that the evidence "assists the government with respect to defense counsel's anticipated argument that there were no ransom notes with respect to the events that occurred, particularly with respect to Allen Hauser." Finally, the United States Attorney concluded that the evidence from Mark Hauser's death must be admitted "so that the jury has an understanding of what the totality and the interrelationship of the parties are here."

The court rejected the motion in limine because the probative value of the evidence of Mark Hauser's death outweighed its prejudicial effect. Additionally, the district court judge reassured defense counsel that he would exclude evidence that was gruesome and likely to influence the jury.

Under Fed.R.Evid. 403, ² "[i]t is well settled that evidence is unfairly prejudicial only if it 'will induce the jury to...