Opinion ID: 1859555
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Evidence of An Order Of Protection

Text: Mr. Gaines also challenges the trial court's admission of an ex parte order of protection entered against Mr. Gaines on May 15, 1996. Specifically, he contends that the protection order should have been excluded under Rule 404(b). As previously stated, Mr. Gaines's intent toward Ms. Davis was relevant to the premeditation element of the State's alternative capital murder charge. Intent or state of mind is seldom capable of proof by direct evidence and must usually be inferred from the circumstances surrounding the killing. Starling v. State, 301 Ark. 603, 786 S.W.2d 114 (1990); Parker v. State, 290 Ark. 158, 717 S.W.2d 800 (1986). Threats made by a defendant prior to the time a homicide occurred are admissible to establish motive and ill will, even where they are never communicated to the victim. Starling, supra ; Pitts v. State, 273 Ark. 220, 617 S.W.2d 849 (1981); Lang v. State, 258 Ark. 504, 527 S.W.2d 900 (1975). The State argued below that Mr. Gaines was attempting to kill Brenda Davis when he accidentally killed the children. She testified that she sought a protection order because Mr. Gaines had threatened to kill her and had beaten her. In Starling v. State, supra , we upheld the admission of testimony that the defendant had previously used physical force against the victim, and had recently threatened to kill her. We held that such evidence clearly tended to show appellant's motive, intent or plan to kill his wife. Id. Likewise, Ms. Davis's testimony in this case about earlier threats and beatings by Mr. Gaines was certainly probative of his motive, intent, or plan to harm her. This evidence was admissible regardless of whether she had sought or obtained a protection order. Evidence of the order itself was merely cumulative because the protection order was based upon admissible evidence of prior threats and beatings. With regard to Mr. Gaines's complaint that the protection order was issued in an ex parte proceeding, we note that he failed to request a curative instruction that would have explained the difference between ex parte and adversarial proceedings. Under these circumstances, we conclude that the admission of an ex parte order of protection was not an abuse of the trial court's discretion.