Opinion ID: 2182487
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: admission of a handgun

Text: The defendant next argues that no connection was made between the gun used during the robberies and the handgun admitted into evidence and, therefore, that it should not have been admitted into evidence because it was irrelevant. The trial justice found that the gun was seized from the apartment of the two alleged coconspirators, one of whom was defendant's daughter. He felt that reasonable inferences could be drawn by the jury that this gun was the weapon used during the 1989 robbery, a finding that would be relevant to prove the aiding and abetting charge. Decisions about the admission or exclusion of evidence based on relevance are left within the trial justice's discretion. State v. Gabriau, 696 A.2d 290, 294 (R.I.1997); State v. Neri, 593 A.2d 953, 956 (R.I.1991). The trial justice's decision will be upheld unless the trial justice abused his or her discretion and the admission of irrelevant evidence was prejudicial to a defendant's rights. Gabriau, 696 A.2d at 294. The trial justice will not have abused his or her discretion as long as some grounds supporting his or her decision appear in the record. Further, the admission of irrelevant evidence will not be prejudicial if the jury would have reached the same verdict without the irrelevant evidence's admission. Id. Under Rule 401 of the Rhode Island Rules of Evidence relevant evidence is evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence. When a handgun is offered into evidence it is relevant and admissible as long as there is a probability that it was connected to the crime charged. State v. Kieon, 93 R.I. 290, 293, 175 A.2d 284, 286 (1961). The defendant cites State v. Brash, 512 A.2d 1375 (R.I.1986), and State v. Souza, 110 R.I. 261, 292 A.2d 214 (1972), for the proposition that the trial justice erred in admitting the gun. Hisreliance on these cases is misplaced because both cases are distinguishable. In Brash, the Court held that the admission of guns that the state conceded had not been physically linked to the murder at issue were irrelevant and their admission was unduly prejudicial. Brash, 512 A.2d at 1383. In Souza, the Court held that a gun admitted into evidence that the state conceded was not the actual gun used in committing the murder at issue but had been admitted for illustrative purposes was an error, although not prejudicial error. The Court said, the admission into evidence in criminal cases of weapons that are not alleged to be the weapon used in the commission of a crime is fraught with the probability of error. Souza, 110 R.I. at 269, 292 A.2d at 219. Here, defendant's case is distinguishable because the handgun admitted into evidence is alleged to be the weapon used in the 1989 robbery. As Quintanilha testified, and the security cameras from the bank indicated, one of the robbers carried a handgun during the 1989 robbery. A detective from the East Providence police department testified that eleven .380-caliber bullets were found outside the bank in the robbers' path of flight. The handgun was discovered after a warrant had been obtained to search the home of one of the alleged perpetrators and defendant's daughter. When the gun was seized it was loaded with .380-caliber bullets. The trial justice did not abuse his discretion in admitting the handgun. A reasonable inference exists that the handgun seized was the actual gun used during the 1989 robbery. Therefore, it was relevant to prove that DiLibero actually committed the crime that would make it relevant to proving the aiding and abetting count against defendant.