Opinion ID: 1684614
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: probative value of remark

Text: I first address the majority's conclusion that the remark was relevant to show that Smith was the shooter. Normally, collateral-crime evidence bearing on the issue of identity must demonstrate a distinctive modus operandi, which is obviously absent here. See generally Drake v. State, 400 So.2d 1217, 1219 (Fla.1981). In this case, however, the majority posits that the remark tends to establish that Smith was the shooter because it was made immediately after the shooting of Crawford. Viewed in the context of the other evidence, its probative value for this purpose was marginal. Independent of this remark, both Butterfield and the other key eyewitness, Brittingham, testified to actions and remarks by Smith that more directly identified him as the shooter without also implicating him in other crimes. Both witnesses testified that Smith exchanged guns with codefendant Pearce before the shootings because his gun was jammed, leaving Smith with the .40-caliber gun. According to Butterfield, Smith got out of the car first with Tuttle and then Crawford, fired shots, then returned to the car alone. Although Butterfield said he did not see either victim fall, Brittingham testified that he actually observed Smith shoot both victims. According to Brittingham, when Pearce suggested that Smith pop Tuttle in the jaw, Smith responded, Fuck that, then spun and fired. Brittingham also testified that when Pearce asked if Tuttle was dead, Smith stated, Yeah, he's dead. I shot him in the head with a f___ing .40. Brittingham testified that Crawford begged for his life, then Smith shot him twice, including once after Crawford fell to the ground. According to Brittingham, on the ride back after the shootings, Smith threatened to kill both men if they told what they had witnessed. Butterfield quoted Smith as stating, while pointing the gun at him, that snitches are bitches, and bitches deserve to die. Asked if he believed Smith would kill him for snitching, Brittingham answered in the affirmative, adding, There was no doubt in my mind. Not after what I had seen. Further, in addition to the testimony of Butterfield and Brittingham, Tuttle, the surviving victim, testified that before he was shot, Smith got out of the car and stood in the doorway, forcing Tuttle to crawl under him to get out. Tuttle said he then put on his hat, and everything went black until he regained consciousness some time later. In light of this testimony from two eyewitnesses and the surviving victim as to Smith's actions and statements at the time of the shootings that more clearly identified him as the shooter, the remark that prompted the motion for mistrial had negligible probative value in establishing identity through an admission of guilt. The majority also asserts that the remark has relevance because the defense put the issue of identity into question by claiming that Butterfield and Brittingham pinned the killing on Smith to protect their friend Pearce. See majority op. at 16. However, the jurors' conclusion that Smith and not Pearce was the shooter rose or fell on their determination of the credibility of Butterfield and Brittingham. If the jurors did not believe Butterfield's identification of Smith based on the rest of his testimony, as well as that of Brittingham, they were no more likely to believe him because of this remark unless it was based on the impermissible reason that Smith had a propensity for shooting people. Cf. Dennis v. State, 817 So.2d 741, 758 (Fla.) (finding low probative value in objectionable evidence admitted to show bias, in part because bias was established through other means), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 1051, 123 S.Ct. 604, 154 L.Ed.2d 527 (2002). In my view, this case is analogous to Jackson v. State, 451 So.2d 458 (Fla.1984), in which we reversed a conviction because of improper admission of collateral crime evidence. In Jackson, we determined that reversible error occurred because the admission of the defendant's statement, in circumstances unrelated to the alleged killing, that he was a `thoroughbred killer'... may have suggested Jackson had killed in the past, but the boast neither proved that fact, nor was that fact relevant to the case sub judice. Id. at 461. We concluded that the testimony is precisely the kind forbidden by the Williams rule and section 90.404(2). Id. The negligible probative value of the purported remark distinguishes this case from precedent in which we have found no error in the admission of comparable statements showing a defendant's state of mind. The State claims that in this case, the statement was relevant to show that because Smith bragged about having shot many persons immediately after shooting Crawford, the shooting was intentional. However, as noted above, the State presented substantial additional testimony by two eyewitnesses to the shooting that Smith shot both victims, and did so intentionally. Thus, as to the question of Smith's intent in shooting Crawford, the probative value of the additional statement attributed by Butterfield to Smith that Crawford was the thirteenth or fourteenth person that Smith had shot was negligible at best. In contrast to this case, in Coolen v. State, 696 So.2d 738 (Fla.1997), the defendant's references to his prior offenses and having been in prison were relevant to his state of mind, in that the statements provided context for his remarks that he had learned to react very quickly while in prison and therefore stabbed the victim upon seeing him with something silver in his hand. Id. at 742. Unlike Coolen, in this case the boast of prior killings did not explain the reason for the shooting that Butterfield testified Smith had just committed. The majority also concludes that the remark is inextricably intertwined or inseparable from the crime, relying on Griffin v. State, 639 So.2d 966 (Fla.1994), and a statement by Professor Ehrhardt taken from a Fourth District decision later approved by this Court. See Tumulty v. State, 489 So.2d 150 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986). In Griffin, this Court explained the reasoning for approving admission of the theft of the car keys from a hotel room despite the fact that the evidence suggested an uncharged burglary. This Court stated that [t]he manner in which the car keys were taken was inextricably intertwined with the theft of the automobile, one of the charges before the jury. The testimony was necessary to establish the entire context out of which the crime arose. Griffin, 639 So.2d at 969. In Tumulty, the court adopted Professor Ehrhardt's formulation that such evidence is admissible because it is necessary to admit the evidence to adequately describe the deed. 489 So.2d at 153. In this case, Smith's purported remark was not necessary to adequately describe the deed. By comparison, in Griffin, but for the testimony as to the theft of the keys, the jury would naturally have asked how (and whether) the defendant actually stole the car.