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USCA11 Case: 22-13068 Document: 40-1 Date Filed: 02/26/2024 Page: 1 of 12


[PUBLISH]
In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Eleventh Circuit
____________________
No. 22-13068
____________________
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
MAURICE ANTONIO KENT,

Defendant-Appellant.

____________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Georgia
D.C. Docket No. 4:17-cr-00039-JPB-WEJ-1
____________________
USCA11 Case: 22-13068 Document: 40-1 Date Filed: 02/26/2024 Page: 2 of 12


2 Opinion of the Court 22-13068
Before WILSON, JILL PRYOR, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges.
BRASHER,

This appeal concerns the circumstances in which a police of- ficer’s statement that recounts witness statements that implicate the defendant in a crime may be offered at a criminal trial for a non- hearsay purpose. Maurice Kent was a member of a violent gang. The govern- ment charged Kent with RICO conspiracy and five substantive crimes, including the attempted murder of Shadeed Muhammad. As an overt act of the RICO conspiracy, the government alleged that the gang murdered a former gang member, Qualeef Rhode, for cooperating with the police’s investigation into the attempted murder of Muhammad. Specifically, the government’s theory was that Kent and other gang members believed that Rhodes told the police that Kent had attempted to murder Muhammad and, then, murdered Rhodes for that reason. To support this theory, the government introduced an in- vestigator’s testimony from a preliminary hearing in a related case, which identified Rhodes as cooperating with law enforcement to implicate Kent in the attempted murder of Muhammad. By offer- ing the testimony, the government sought to establish that other gang members present at the hearing learned of Rhodes’s apparent cooperation and murdered him because of it, i.e., the government offered the out-of-court statements for the effect they had on the listener. USCA11 Case: 22-13068 Document: 40-1 Date Filed: 02/26/2024 Page: 3 of 12 22-13068 Opinion of the Court 3 Kent argues that this testimony was hearsay, and its admis- sion violated his Confrontation Clause rights. Our caselaw has in at least two instances deemed inadmissible law enforcement testi- mony about witness statements, even when offered for non-hear- say purposes. See United States v. Arbolaez, 450 F.3d 1283 , 1290 (11th Cir. 2006); United States v. Rodriguez, 524 F.2d 485 , 487 (5th Cir. 1975). But we agree with the district court that the testimony in this case was admissible. It was not hearsay because it was offered for the effect it had on the listeners and not for the truth of the matter asserted. The testimony was indisputably relevant for that purpose. And we believe the district court took sufficient steps to ensure that the jury did not consider these out-of-court statements as substantive evidence of Kent’s guilt on the charge of attempting to murder Muhammad. Accordingly, we affirm. I.

Maurice Kent was a leader in an Atlanta-area chapter of the 135 Piru gang. During a weekend when members of various chap- ters of the gang gathered in the Atlanta area, multiple gang mem- bers went to a nightclub and a fight broke out inside the club and moved into the parking lot. During the fight in the parking lot, Shadeed Muhammed, a member of a different chapter of the gang, and security guard Charles Smith were shot. Maurice Kent rode to the nightclub with his girlfriend Charne Darden. Kent’s younger brother Malique Dixon and a member of a different chapter of the gang Qualeef Rhodes were also in the car. None of them entered the club, but Kent, Dixon, USCA11 Case: 22-13068 Document: 40-1 Date Filed: 02/26/2024 Page: 4 of 12 4 Opinion of the Court 22-13068 and Rhodes exited the car and went towards the fight when it con- tinued in the parking lot. Kent returned to Darden’s car holding a firearm and with a bullet wound in his leg. As Kent entered the car, bullets struck the vehicle, and Kent

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