Opinion ID: 2590105
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Failure to Give a Limiting Instruction on Other Crimes or Civil Wrongs

Text: Anthony next argues the district court erred in failing to give a limiting instruction regarding evidence admitted on the recent eviction, the restraining order, and the threat against Carrington. The district court allowed testimony about the eviction and the restraining order and admission of a copy of the restraining order on the ground that they tended to show deterioration in the relationship between Anthony and Carrington. At the time of Anthony's third trial, evidence was admissible independent of K.S.A. 60-455 for this purpose and did not require a limiting instruction. See, e.g., State v. Deal, 271 Kan. 483, 502, 23 P.3d 840 (2001); State v. Carr, 265 Kan. 608, 624, 963 P.2d 421 (1998). In State v. Gunby, ___ Kan. ___, 144 P.3d 647 (2006), decided this day, we reject the relationship of the parties as an independent basis for admission of what would otherwise be K.S.A. 60-455 evidence requiring a limiting instruction. If the evidence about Anthony's eviction and the restraining order truly were evidence of another crime or civil wrong committed by Anthony, Gunby would require us to rule that the absence of the limiting instruction needed with admission of K.S.A. 60-455 evidence was error in this case. But we do not believe either the eviction or the restraining order qualify as evidence of other crimes or civil wrongs committed by Anthony. Neither, as introduced in Anthony's third trial, involved a violation of a criminal statute. And although they were effected through civil court procedures, the wrongs giving rise to them, if any, were not the types of behavior that would demonstrate propensity to commit the crime at issue. In short, the admission of this evidence offended neither the statute nor the policy behind it. Thus K.S.A. 60-455 did not apply, and the district judge was free to admit the evidence without a limiting instruction. Anthony also challenges the district court's admission of evidence regarding a threat he made against Carrington without a limiting instruction. At Anthony's first trial, the State offered testimony from a witness who said that Anthony used the witness' phone to call Carrington after the eviction and that Anthony said he would get even. This witness did not testify in the third trial underlying this appeal, however, and the State never attempted to introduce evidence of the threat. To the extent the threat was mentioned, it came up during defense counsel's cross-examination of Kennedy about his reasons for focusing on Anthony as a suspect. Anthony's lawyer inquired whether, in addition to the eviction and the restraining order, the detective had information about Anthony making threats against Carrington. Kennedy responded in the affirmative. Rather than abandon the point, defense counsel pressed it, mentioning the name of the earlier witness and describing the threat about which the witness had testified in the first trial. To the extent the admission of this evidence without a limiting instruction could be considered error, it would constitute invited error, and Anthony cannot complain about it on appeal. See State v. Hebert, 277 Kan. 61, 78, 82 P.3d 470 (2004).