Opinion ID: 1059740
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Admission of Evidence of Cartridge

Text: During the guilt phase, Detective Curtis R. Mullins testified that he received a cartridge from Steve Martin, who was the property manager of the University Terrace Apartments where the Beale murder occurred. Walker lived in an apartment there with Karen Beech until some time after Beale's death. Martin found the cartridge in the apartment following Walker and Beech's departure and prior to the arrival of a new tenant. A certificate of analysis introduced at trial indicated that the cartridge came from the same firearm as seven cartridge cases recovered at the scene of the Beale murder. At trial, Walker sought to exclude evidence regarding the cartridge on the basis that it was found three to four months after the murder. Walker argues on appeal that the trial court erred in admitting Martin's testimony and the certificate of analysis into evidence because it was neither relevant nor material, and its prejudicial effect far outweighed any possible probative value it may have had. Walker bases his relevancy argument on his view that the trial court stated from the bench that the cartridge was not relevant. He concludes, therefore, that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting the cartridge into evidence. Viewed in context, however, the trial court's statement reveals that what it found irrelevant was the effect of the time gap between the murder and Martin's discovery of the cartridge on the admissibility of the evidence concerning the cartridge. Every fact, however remote or insignificant, that tends to establish the probability or improbability of a fact in issue, is factually relevant and admissible. Epperly v. Commonwealth, 224 Va. 214, 230, 294 S.E.2d 882, 891 (1982). The fact that a cartridge matching those in the Beale murder was found in an apartment once occupied by the defendant tends to implicate the defendant in that murder and is thus relevant. As the trial court indicated, the four-month time period between the murder and discovery of the cartridge may affect the weight to be attached to the evidence, but it does not render the cartridge irrelevant and thus inadmissible. Evidence that is factually relevant must nevertheless be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice. See Coe v. Commonwealth, 231 Va. 83, 87, 340 S.E.2d 820, 823 (1986). The responsibility for balancing the competing considerations of probative value and prejudice rests in the sound discretion of the trial court and will not be disturbed on appeal in the absence of a clear abuse. Spencer, 240 Va. at 90, 393 S.E.2d at 617. Walker does not identify any prejudice that arose from the admission of the cartridge other than its tendency to show that Walker killed Beale. Accordingly, we find that the trial court did not err by admitting evidence related to the cartridge into evidence.