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This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

Ds, Nelson Polk, and John Scott, in concert with Trayvees Duncan-Bush, became involved in an armored car robbery at a bank automated teller machine (ATM) scheme masterminded by Redrick Batiste. On August 29, 2016, Batiste, assisted by Hill and Polk, shot and killed an armored car driver as he was delivering approximately $120,000 to a Wells Fargo ATM. The following month, the Houston Police Department (HPD) received an anonymous tip that Batiste had been involved in the Wells Fargo murder-robbery. HPD and the FBI's Violent Crime Task Force (the Task Force) investigated the tip. Special Agent Jeffrey Coughlin headed the Task Force's investigation. Batiste's cell phone records and cell-site locational data showed that Batiste's phone regularly contacted the numbers associated with Hill (D) and Polk on the day of the incident. It also revealed that all three phones were in the bank's area on the day of the Wells-Fargo murder-robbery and in the days leading up to the murder-robbery. Batiste was targeting an Amegy Bank ATM. Phillips (D) and Duncan-Bush met with Batiste and agreed that Duncan-Bush would 'grab the black bag,' containing the cash from the armored truck, and that Phillips (D) and Duncan-Bush would split half of the cash, while Batiste would take the other half. In March 2018, a grand jury returned a four-count indictment against Ds, Polk, Scott, and Duncan-Bush. The first attempt at trial ended abruptly after voir dire when Hill (D) fired his counsel and requested a continuance to obtain new counsel. At trial, the Government's case-in-chief began with Agent Coughlin, whose testimony focused in part on cell phone evidence from the wiretapping of Batiste's phone. Agent Coughlin testified that the investigation had occupied '75 to 80 percent of [his] time,' and that he had spent 'a massive amount of time' reviewing all the evidence. Agent Coughlin frequently provided interpretations of any coded language. He explained that Batiste's reference to 'savage mode' meant executing the robbery while armored car guards moved the money from a broken armored truck to a second truck. After a one-week trial, the jury in the second consolidated case returned guilty verdicts on all counts. Ds now appeal their convictions and sentences to this court. Phillips (D) argues that the district court erred by allowing Agent Coughlin to provide lay-opinion testimony regarding his interpretation of coded language in the wiretapped phone calls. P argues that the district court did not err, much less commit reversible plain error, by allowing Agent Coughlin's lay testimony about the wiretapped phone calls.

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