Opinion ID: 1496366
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: inquiry into violent acts

Text: Stewart's final point is that the trial court erred in refusing to allow an inquiry into specific instances of violent or aggressive conduct on the part of Ragland, after the State had introduced evidence of Ragland's propensity for peacefulness. Ragland claims that the State's witnesses, Carrie Newton and Robert Nelson, testified as to Ragland's character trait for peacefulness and argues that this testimony was premature because the defense had not offered evidence that Ragland was the aggressor. At the very least, Stewart contends, this testimony opened the door for contravening testimony on Ragland's aggressiveness. Under Ark.R.Evid. 404(a)(2), evidence of a pertinent trait of a victim's character is admissible. The State, however, is limited in character evidence about the victim under 404(a)(2) to rebutting what the defense has presented. In cases where the character of the victim is an essential element of the defense, Ark.R.Evid. 405(b) permits inquiry into specific instances of the victim's conduct. The trial court concluded that it did not believe that evidence of the victim's character trait for aggressiveness was relevant under these facts. This ruling was a matter for the trial court's discretion and is supported by the facts. Here, the victim was shot in the back by Stewart. Irrespective of any penchant for violence that Ragland may have had, there was testimony that he was walking away from Stewart when he was shot. We have held that where a victim was shot in the back, a trial court did not err in refusing to permit defense counsel to delve into prior acts of aggression by the victim. Heinze v. State, 309 Ark. 162, 827 S.W.2d 658 (1992). The same rationale applies to the case at bar. The fact that the State may have first opened the door regarding the victim's character does not overcome the problem of relevancy under these circumstances. Nor do we consider the testimony of Newton and Nelson on Ragland's propensity for peacefulness to be sufficiently prejudicial under these circumstances to warrant a new trial due to its irrelevancy. There was no error in the trial court's ruling. Affirmed.