232211P.pdf   03/01/2024  United States  v.  Ledra Craig
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  23-2211
   U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri - St. Louis   
   [PUBLISHED] [Shepherd, Author, with Smith, Chief Judge, and Gruender, 
   Circuit Judge] 
   Criminal case - Criminal law. The district court properly admitted text 
   messages between defendant and an unidentified coconspirator in which 
   defendant sought to procure drugs, where overwhelming evidence of the 
   conspiracy existed and the texts were made in furtherance of the 
   conspiracy; coconspirator statements are nontestimonial, and their 
   admission did not violate defendant's Confrontation Clause rights; the 
   district court's decision not to allow defendant to ask a DA agent whether 
   he violated agency policy by making a cellphone recording of a statement 
   did not prejudice defendant as he was allowed to ask the witness numerous 
   questions about the circumstances of the recording; the district court did 
   not err in admitting 404(b) evidence of defendant's 2015 conviction for 
   distribution of a controlled substance as the evidence was relevant to his 
   intent, and any possible prejudice was lessened by the district court's 
   cautionary instruction.