Opinion ID: 1096608
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Admission of Testimony Regarding G.M.

Text: The first of three subparts to Conde's fifth claim involves the admission of testimony regarding a woman, referred to as G.M., who was discovered imprisoned in Conde's apartment in June 1995. That incident led police to investigate Conde as a suspect in the series of murders. During pretrial, the State proffered the G.M. evidence as inextricably intertwined with the crime charged and stated its intent to limit testimony to the following facts: (1) a call from neighbors regarding a strange noise from Conde's apartment summoned fire rescuers, who broke in and found G.M. wrapped in duct tape; (2) rescuers removed the tape, and G.M. identified herself as a prostitute and Conde as her attacker; (3) thereafter, DNA evidence from the G.M. investigation was matched to DNA evidence from the serial murder investigation, and search warrants for Conde's apartment were obtained. Conde objected to the proffered evidence, arguing that it was a collateral crime inadmissible under section 90.404(b), Florida Statutes, and lacking in the necessary relevancy to the context of the charged crime to justify admission as inextricably intertwined. The trial court concluded that it would allow the evidence, but limited it, instructing: You will be able to introduce information about a call from the neighbors. Fire rescue appeared. They broke in. They found a woman whom they removed the tape from. That there was an identification of this defendant from a photograph. And then you spring forward into what the police did as far as the investigation. There will be no other information about her being a prostitute, about DNA linkage, whatever may have been with her.... That identification alone gives you enough to paint a picture of why the police went forward. At trial, a fire rescue employee testified as to this sequence of events, and Conde renewed his objection. In this appeal, Conde asserts that the trial court abused its discretion and committed reversible error by admitting this evidence of his collateral crime, arguing that any marginal probative value was outweighed by substantial unfair prejudice. He asserts that the circumstances of his arrest could have been explained by police witnesses through general terms of leads and a follow-up visit to Conde's apartment. The State, on the other hand, argues that the G.M. evidence was properly admitted as inextricably intertwined with the crime charged because it was necessary to complete the story of the crime by presenting an orderly and intelligible case. The State urges that its limited account of the G.M. incident was necessary to describe the investigation leading to Conde's arrest and subsequent confession, which was admitted at trial. We find that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the limited account of the G.M. incident in order to, as the trial court stated, allow the jury to understand the full sequence of events. In Consalvo v. State, 697 So.2d 805 (Fla.1996), evidence of a collateral burglary committed approximately six days after the charged offense was admissible to establish the entire context out of which the criminal action occurred. Id. at 813. Specifically, we noted that the police discovered evidence of the charged offense on Consalvo's person at the time of his arrest for the collateral crime and overheard Consalvo place a phone call while in custody for the collateral crime that incriminated him in the charged offense. Id. Similarly, in Long v. State, 610 So.2d 1276 (Fla.1992), evidence regarding a collateral crime but not the details of that crime was admissible where the defendant's arrest for that crime and the subsequent examination of his vehicle supplied hair and fiber samples connecting him to the charged crime. Id. at 1281; see also Henry v. State, 574 So.2d 73, 75 (Fla. 1991) (some reference to, but not the full details of, a subsequent crime may have been necessary to place the events in context, to describe adequately the investigation). Here, as in Consalvo, Long, and Henry, the G.M. incident was relevant to explain the context in which evidence connecting Conde to the murders was discovered. The G.M. incident led to Conde becoming a suspect, his arrest, the interrogation, and the giving of his consent to searches of his apartment and car, which in turn led to his confession and produced other vital evidence, such as prior victim Charity Nava's missing green beeper, Dunn's blood on a baseboard in Conde's bedroom, fibers from his carpeting that matched those on the victims, and the tire tread from his car tires that matched tire prints near the victims' bodies. We note that while evidence, such as the G.M. incident, that is inextricably intertwined with the charged crime is admissible to establish the entire context of the crime, care should be taken to exclude unnecessary details. There is, of course, no bright line between the admissible and inadmissible facts of inextricably intertwined collateral crimes. The drawing of that line is within the discretion of the trial court. Here, the trial court limited testimony regarding the G.M. incident to a quick recital of the basic facts. We therefore conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion.