Opinion ID: 853512
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The deposition testimony of an absent witness

Text: Jerry Dillehay is an acquaintance of Kernal and apparently was unavailable to testify at trial. [3] During pre-trial discovery, Albrecht took Dillehay's deposition in which Dillehay discussed specific instances of misconduct on the part of Kernal as well as Kernal's reputation for violence. The trial court found evidence of specific acts of misconduct on the part of Kernal to be inadmissible under the Indiana Evidence Rules. Also, the trial court excluded evidence of Kernal's reputation for violence in part because Dillehay admitted he had a limited knowledge of Kernal and thus he had an insufficient basis to form an opinion regarding Kernal's reputation. When Albrecht offered the deposition at trial, he provided no argument for its admissibility, stating Can we just enter the transcript as the record, Your Honor?... Because Dillehay's not here so there's no proffer we can really do. R. at 4172-73. Furthermore, Albrecht even anticipated that the court would exclude the deposition. Before the court ruled he stated, I don't think [the judge] is going to let any of it in. R. at 4151. Albrecht has similarly failed to present us with a cogent argument demonstrating that the trial court's ruling was incorrect. Instead of challenging the trial court's basis for excluding the evidence, he simply argues the evidence was relevant to show that Kernal had acted violently toward his girlfriends in the past, and therefore he likely killed Cynthia. Albrecht's failure to present us with a cogent argument supporting his allegation of trial court error results in waiver of the issue. See Marshall v. State, 621 N.E.2d 308, 318 (Ind.1993). Waiver notwithstanding, the trial court's decision to exclude the deposition was correct. The record supports the conclusion that Albrecht was attempting to use evidence of Kernal's character solely for the forbidden purpose of showing action in conformity therewith. See Ind. Evidence Rule 404(a) (Evidence of a person's character or a trait of character is not admissible for the purpose of proving action in conformity therewith on a particular occasion ....); see also Evid. R. 608 (providing that evidence of a witness's character may be attacked by opinion evidence only in regards to the witness's character for truthfulness and may not be shown by extrinsic evidence of specific acts of misconduct not reduced to a conviction). There was no error here. The trial court did not improperly exclude evidence related to Albrecht's defense.