## Facts

- Federal prosecutors charged Boyd Gray, Isreal Wilson, and Brenda Brown with conspiracy to distribute heroin under 21 U.S.C. § 846.
- An informant testified that defendants operated a heroin distribution business from an apartment and that the group recorded narcotics transactions in a notebook.
- The informant described a hole cut into the apartment door used to exchange heroin and money without opening the door.
- Police searched the apartment, observed the described hole in the door, and found an unindicted participant inside.
- Officers found two notebooks in a bedroom of the apartment.
- The notebooks contained entries consistent with heroin sales and referenced members of the conspiracy by name.
- At trial, the court admitted the notebooks and allowed their contents to be read to the jury over defense objections that the notebooks were not properly authenticated because the author was unidentified.
- The defendants were convicted and appealed, challenging (among other matters) admission of the notebooks.

## Issues

1. Whether notebooks seized from an apartment tied to a heroin conspiracy were properly authenticated under Federal Rule of Evidence 901 when the government did not identify the author.
2. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by admitting the notebooks based on circumstantial evidence linking them to the charged conspiracy.

## Decision

- The Eighth Circuit affirmed the convictions.
- The court held the notebooks were sufficiently authenticated under Rule 901.
- The court ruled that definitive proof of authorship was not required for admissibility; the unknown author went primarily to evidentiary weight.
- The court concluded the district court did not err in admitting the notebooks.

## Legal Principles

- Under Fed. R. Evid. 901(a), authentication is satisfied by evidence sufficient to support a finding that the item is what its proponent claims.
- A document may be authenticated through circumstantial evidence, including its appearance, contents, internal patterns, and other distinctive characteristics considered with surrounding circumstances.
- The contents of a writing may contribute to authentication when corroborated by contextual facts that reduce the risk of forgery or substitution.
- Lack of proof identifying the author does not automatically bar admission if the proponent establishes a reasonable basis for the jury to find the document is connected to the relevant events and actors.

## Conclusion

The court upheld admission of drug-transaction notebooks found in an apartment used for heroin sales, reasoning that corroborating circumstances and the notebooks’ detailed contents provided sufficient authentication under Rule 901 even though the author was unknown, and it affirmed the conspiracy convictions.


United States v. Wilson, 532 F.2d 641 (8th Cir. 1976)