Opinion ID: 1910930
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admissibility of rifle and shell casings

Text: After a proper foundation had been laid, the Court admitted in evidence, over defense objection, the .30 calibre rifle taken from the defendant and the two spent shell casings found at the scene. The defendant renews on appeal the same objection he raised at trial, that the rifle and shell casings, although tending to show that the defendant had shot the moose, were irrelevant to the issue of possession of the moose, the crime with which Goyette was charged. Alternatively, he argues that, even if relevant, this real evidence was so highly prejudicial in its impact on the jury that it should have been excluded under Rule 403, M.R. Evid. [6] We disagree. Evidence is relevant if it tends to prove or disprove the matter at issue. Here, proof that the two shell casings found in the area of the dead moose had been fired from the defendant's gun and that it was the defendant who had dropped these moose, would suggest to a rational jury that the defendant had taken possession of these wild animals, intending to circumscribe their free lance movements in the world of the wilds to the narrow confines of his personal control. This logical link in the chain of circumstantial evidence with respect to the issue of possession made the evidence admissible within judicial discretion, unless excludable by reason of some particular rule or principle of law. State v. Brown, Me., 321 A.2d 478, 482 (1974). And, the mere fact that the proffered evidence tended to prove the commission of another crime is not per se a sufficient reason for its exclusion. It may be admissible if it is probative of some element of the crime for which the defendant is being tried. State v. Grant, Me., 394 A.2d 274, 276 (1978); State v. Heald, Me., 393 A.2d 537, 542 (1978); State v. Cugliata, Me., 372 A.2d 1019, 1029 (1977), cert. denied 434 U.S. 856, 98 S.Ct. 177, 54 L.Ed.2d 128. This Court has held on numerous occasions that rulings of the trial court in connection with relevancy of evidence will not be disturbed on appeal, unless it can be said that the presiding justice abused his discretion. State v. Morton, Me., 397 A.2d 171, 178 (1979). In making the balancing test between the impact which relevant evidence may have upon the jury and the degree of probative value of such evidence, the trial justice is allowed a broad range of discretion. State v. Doughty, Me., 399 A.2d 1319, 1323 (1979); State v. Mitchell, Me., 390 A.2d 495, 500 (1978); State v. Gagne, Me., 343 A.2d 186, 196 (1975). Rule 403, M.R.Evid., is declaratory of existing Maine law: the issue is, the risk of unfair prejudice of the relevant evidence, its tendency to confuse the jury or the need to exclude it to prevent a sheer waste of the court's time. See Advisers' Note, Maine Rules of Evidence, p. 14. We hold in the instant case that evidence of the gun and spent shell casings, which tended to prove that the defendant had killed the moose, was properly admitted on the crucial issue of possession, first, as bearing on the credibility of Ringuette's testimony that Goyette alone gutted the moose, and, secondly, in support of the State's theory that Goyette's dressing of the moose was criminally motivated, contrary to the innocent orientation placed upon his conduct by the defendant's post-factum statements. Again, the mere fact that the evidence suggested the commission of a crime different from that charged against the defendant did not raise an automatic barrier to its admissibility, and we cannot see how its presentation to the triers of fact in this case would be likely to inflame the passions of any reasonable jury. There was no violation of Rule 403, M.R.Evid.