Opinion ID: 1169778
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Clark's Discordant Relationship with Lynette

Text: At trial, Lynette's friends testified she wanted to end the relationship and ask Clark to move out. April Dotson testified Lynette told April she still cared for Clark and intended to give him time to find a job before making him leave. Lynette also told April she was afraid Clark would kill himself if she asked him to move out. In ruling on Clark's motion in limine regarding these statements, the trial judge ruled the statements were admissible as part of the res gestae of the crime. Clark abandoned his hearsay objection on appeal and now contends Lynette's statements were irrelevant and too remote and unconnected to the issues the State sought to prove. Clark acknowledges that this court has allowed evidence of discord in a marital relationship as bearing upon motive and intent in State v. Taylor, 234 Kan. 401, 673 P.2d 1140 (1983), and extended this rule to include persons living together in State v. Young, 253 Kan. 28, 852 P.2d 510 (1993). Clark attempts to distinguish these cases on the grounds that here there is no evidence that Lynette feared Clark or that Clark had a history of physically abusing Lynette. We have addressed the issue of relevance of evidence of a discordant relationship between a defendant and a victim in numerous cases and have held thatadmission of evidence of a discordant relationship is admissible independent of K.S.A. 60-455 and relevant to show the ongoing relationship between the parties, the existence of a continuing course of conduct, or to corroborate the testimony of witnesses as to the act charged. See State v. Hedger, 248 Kan. 815, 820, 811 P.2d 1170 (1991); State v. Taylor, 234 Kan. at 407; State v. Green, 232 Kan. 116, Syl. ¶ 4, 652 P.2d 697 (1982). In Hedger, we also discussed the remoteness of such evidence and held that any lapse of time between the acts described in the trial testimony and the acts alleged does not preclude the admission of evidence relevant to motive and intent, but only goes to the weight to be given the evidence. 248 Kan. at 820 (citing State v. Green, 232 Kan. 116, Syl. ¶ 5). Contrary to Clark's assertion, this court has never required fear or physical abuse as a condition of admissibility of evidence of a discordant relationship as long as the evidence of the nature of the relationship bears upon motive and intent. For example, in State v. Phipps, 224 Kan. 158, 578 P.2d 709 (1978), Phipps was convicted of killing his father-in-law. The victim's sister was allowed to testify that the deceased had stated the defendant was running his family life. The Phipps court noted that the statements were not hearsay because they were not offered to prove the truth of the statements but were introduced solely to show the deceased's state of mind before his death and to demonstrate to the jury the rift between defendant and the deceased. 224 Kan. at 160. Though often confused with the hearsay rules, res gestae is a broader concept than an exception to the hearsay rule. The term res gestae, a Latin term meaning things done, includes circumstances, facts, and declarations incidental to the main fact or transaction. 29A Am. Jur.2d, Evidence § 860. Those acts done or declarations made before, during, or after the happening of the principal occurrence may be admitted as part of the res gestae where those acts or declarations are so closely connected with the principal occurrence as to form in reality a part of the occurrence. State v. Gadelkarim, 256 Kan. 671, 688, 887 P.2d 88 (1994) (citing State v. Sherry, 233 Kan. 920, 667 P.2d 367 [1983]). The acts done or declarations made as part of the res gestae are not admitted into evidence without limitation but are governed by the procedural rules and rules of evidence set out in Article 4, chapter 60 of the Kansas Statutes Annotated. Res gestae includes those circumstances which are automatic and undesigned incidents of the particular litigated act, which may be separated from the act by lapse of time but are illustrative of such act. It is the whole of the transaction under investigation or being litigated and every part of it. Acts done or declarations made before, during, or after the principal occurrence may be admissible as part of the res gestae to show motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake. State v. Peterson, 236 Kan. 821, 829, 696 P.2d 387 (1985). An example of admissible res gestae evidence is found in State v. Redford, 242 Kan. 658, 750 P.2d 1013 (1988), where evidence of the defendant's drug dealing and his belief that the victim had stolen from him was admitted as part of the res gestae because it was logically connected to the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and sexual assault. 242 Kan. at 666. Res gestae evidence is also analogous to the admission of K.S.A. 60-455 evidence of other crimes and civil wrongs. Under K.S.A. 60-455, evidence that a person committed a crime or civil wrong on a specified occasion is inadmissible to prove a defendant's disposition to commit crime or civil wrong as the basis for an inference that the person committed another crime or civil wrong on another specified occasion but, subject to K.S.A. 60-445 and K.S.A. 60-448, such evidence is admissible when relevant to prove some other material fact including motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident. Here, the statements concerning the nature of the parties' relationship are relevant because of their connection to the discordant relationship of Clark and Lynette and not because they are statements illustrative of the crime. The statements were relevant to the State's allegations that prior to shooting Lynette, Clark was angry because Lynette wanted to end the relationship. Under such circumstances, the prior statements concerning the relationship of Clark and Lynette were relevant to motive, intent, and absence of mistake and are admissible.