United States v. Barry Kendall Hogan, and Mark Bradford Hogan

CLARK, Chief Judge:

I

Barry Kendall Hogan and Mark Bradford (Brad) Hogan appeal their conviction of importing marijuana and conspiracy to import and possess with the intent to distribute the drug. Because the government called a witness for the primary purpose of impeaching him with otherwise inadmissible hearsay evidence, we reverse.

II

At a jury trial, the government asserted that the Hogan brothers were implicated in an operation that smuggled marijuana from Mexico into Texas. The fulcrum of the government’s proof was the testimony of Mark Carpenter, the pilot of Barry Hogan’s airplane,…