Opinion ID: 1654574
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: whether the circuit court impermissibly restricted morris' cross-examination of a prosecution witness.

Text: ¶ 19. Sixteen-year-old Latessa Randolph was Morris' girlfriend and was pregnant with his child at the time of the incident. She had previously dated Sykes. Latessa walked down the street with Morris to leave the argument with Sykes and was standing by Morris when the shots were fired. At trial, she testified that after the shots had been fired, Morris asked her to lie and claim that she had fired the shots because he had been to jail before. She did as he asked, turned herself in to the police, and signed a written confession. Later, at the urging of her mother, she recanted. ¶ 20. On cross-examination, defense counsel attempted to ask Latessa about the closeness of her mother and Sykes' mother. Defense counsel believed that the relationship between the two mothers would impeach Latessa's testimony, inferring that she had a reason to change her statement. The circuit court did not allow defense counsel to ask these questions because the relevance of such matters was too remote: the relationship of the two mothers had no bearing on Latessa's truthfulness. ¶ 21. The admissibility of evidence rests within the discretion of the trial court. Gleeton v. State, 716 So.2d 1083, 1089 (Miss.1998). We will only reverse if the trial court has abused its discretion. Id. Evidence is relevant if it has any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more or less probable than it would be without the evidence. M.R.E. 401. To be admissible, evidence of bias must have the tendency to make the facts to which the witness testified less probable than it would be without the evidence of bias. Tillis v. State, 661 So.2d 1139, 1142 (Miss.1995). The trial court is generally allowed wide discretion concerning the admission of evidence offered to suggest bias by a witness against the defendant. Id.; Miskelley v. State, 480 So.2d 1104, 1111-12 (Miss.1985). ¶ 22. Evidence of the closeness of Latessa's mother and Sykes' mother would not have made the facts to which Latessa testified less probable than it would be without the evidence of bias. Several witnesses saw the argument between Morris and Sykes and saw Morris fire the gun. As soon as Latessa confessed to the shooting, the police doubted her story. ¶ 23. To present evidence in support of Morris' theory of self defense, defense counsel also sought to elicit testimony about Sykes' alleged possession of a gun and his animosity toward Morris at a time six months prior to the incident when Sykes and Latessa were dating. The circuit court ruled that Morris could not put on evidence of Sykes having a gun in his possession six months before the incident unless he first put on some evidence that Sykes was the aggressor or had a gun on the day of the incident. ¶ 24. Morris has not presented any substantive evidence, either to the circuit court or to this Court, to support his story that Sykes possessed a gun and fired that gun on the day of the incident. There was absolutely no proof put on at trial that Sykes was the aggressor or that Morris was justified in using deadly force to repel an attack against him. Morris neither testified nor put on any evidence in his case-in-chief that he acted in self-defense. In the absence of such evidence, Sykes' alleged possession of a gun and animosity toward Morris six months earlier was not relevant. The circuit judge did not preclude Morris from asking these questions altogether; rather Morris was asked to establish a proper predicate for the questions. See Rochell v. State, 748 So.2d 103, 112 (Miss.1999). Therefore, the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in limiting cross-examination, and this issue is without merit.