Opinion ID: 2441011
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Testimony of Agent McOmber

Text: Skillicorn challenges the admission of certain testimony by FBI Agent Arthur McOmber. The prosecutor asked Do you have an opinion whether suspects accused of criminal activity, sir, downplay their involvement in that particular offense. McOmber answered: Yes. That's quite often the case. We call it minimizing. They minimize their involvement. Skillicorn advances a two-pronged attack on this testimony. He claims that 1) it was improper testimony on issues of witness credibility, and 2) the expert testimony was on a matter within the general realm of common experience of the members of the jury. McOmber's testimony was a statement of how suspects generally respond. It was generic. As such, it was not testimony directly impugning Skillicorn's credibility. It was not error on that basis. Nor did the trial court commit error by admitting the statement because it was within the realm of the jury's common experience. Skillicorn's authority for this proposition purportedly found in State v. Lawhorn, 762 S.W.2d 820 (Mo. banc 1988), is inapposite. That case merely states that a defendant does not have a right to expert testimony when such testimony reiterates what the jury would know by general experience. Certainly, evidence should be excluded if it unnecessarily diverts the attention of the jury from the question to be decided. But it is within the trial court's sound discretion whether to admit an expert's testimony. State v. Taylor, 663 S.W.2d 235, 239 (Mo. banc 1984) (citing State v. White, 621 S.W.2d 287, 292 (Mo.1981)). The testimony given by FBI Agent McOmber came from his special knowledge as a career law enforcement officer, not from the realm of common experience shared by the members of the jury. Moreover, even if admission of the testimony had been error, Skillicorn fails to demonstrate how such testimony was so prejudicial that it deprived [him] of a fair trial. State v. Tokar, 918 S.W.2d 753, 761 (Mo. banc 1996) (quoting State v. McMillin, 783 S.W.2d 82, 98 (Mo. banc 1990), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 881, 111 S.Ct. 225, 112 L.Ed.2d 179 (1990)). Point Sixteen is denied.