Opinion ID: 2085790
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Gun Related Evidence

Text: Next, Williams raises a number of evidence issues related to weapons. At trial the court admitted as State's evidence for demonstrative purposes, a MAK-90 assault rifle (an AK-47 clone), a Terry Carbine assault rifle, and an ammunition clip. [18] All defendants except Marbley objected to their use for demonstrative purposes. Also introduced was documentation of and testimony by James Smith, a Fishers, Indiana gun dealer, about Morrow's purchase of three MAK-90s, ammunition, and clips on the day of the shooting. Similar evidence was introduced of Morrow's purchase of a MAK-90 from the same dealer four months before the shooting. All defendants objected to the evidence of both purchases on relevance grounds. The manufacturer of the Terry Carbine gun testified to the limited number of these weapons that were ever produced. Williams and others also objected to this testimony on relevance grounds. The owner of Don's Guns, another gun dealership, testified to the 1991 purchase of an AK-47 and a Terry Carbine by Donald Woods, a gang member not involved in the shooting. This evidence was admitted subject to a showing of further relevance. The State then introduced testimony by a police officer that this AK-47 was seized from Marbley, pursuant to a traffic stop, about two months after the shooting. The AK-47 was admitted without objection. In addition, Woods testified that he gave the Terry Carbine he purchased in 1991 to Williams that same year. Next, one Jeffrey Greene testified without objection that an AK-47 seized from him in a traffic stop a month after the incident had been given to him by Ridley's father a couple of days after the shooting with the request that he keep it for a little while. Photographs of the AK-47 and the clip that were seized from Greene were also admitted into evidence over objections by all defendants as irrelevant. Finally, an FBI agent testified without objection to the seizure of a Terry Carbine barrel and MAK-90 from Morrow's sister's residence about a year after the shooting. A ballistics expert testified that the Terry Carbine barrel seized from Morrow's sister had produced at least one of the bullets recovered from the crime scene. The MAK-90 was one of those Morrow purchased the day of the shooting. On appeal, Williams argues that all of this weapons related evidence was inadmissible under Rule 404(b). It is by no means clear that weapons possession, evidence of gun sales, and the like, are necessarily prior bad acts for 404(b) purposes. In any event, the 404(b) question is waived because not preserved by objection at trial. Marshall, 621 N.E.2d at 316. Similarly, those issues not objected to are also waived. Mullins, 646 N.E.2d at 44. At trial, however, Williams did preserve relevance objections to the gun related evidence. And on appeal Williams cites Rule 403 as an alternative to the 404(b) argument. [19] He claims that because the State did not connect the weapons introduced and referred to at trial to any of the weapons actually used in the shooting, they were irrelevant and highly prejudicial. The State responds, we think correctly, that the evidence was of high probative value and so was properly admitted. Evidence of Morrow's purchase of three MAK-90s only hours before the shooting gives rise to the inference that one or more of these weapons was used in the shooting. At a minimum it proves access to weapons of the type used in the shooting. For the same reason, the AK-47s seized from Marbley and from Woods, the MAK-90 and Terry Carbine barrel seized from Morrow's sister, and Morrow's purchases of MAK-90s were all admissible. In addition, this evidence corroborates Childs' and Cornelious' testimony that they saw AK-47 type weapons on the porch of the house when they joined the group. Further, the State proved that the barrel of this Terry Carbine fired a bullet at the crime scene. Accordingly, the evidence about the rarity of the weapon, the purchase of a Terry Carbine by Woods, and Woods' testimony that he gave it to Williams links a weapon proved to be used in the shooting to the group.