Opinion ID: 2433485
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 26

Heading: Photograph of Nicklasson Drinking Beer with his Father

Text: The photo in question was apparently a picture of Nicklasson, at age 5 or 6, holding a beer can next to the man he believed to be his father. Nicklasson contends that the photo was relevant to show his exposure to alcohol at an early age and the disparity in size between him and his father who allegedly physically abused him. The jury had before it ample evidence of Nicklasson's life of substance abuse. The picture indicates only that Nicklasson held a beer can and would have added but a straw to a considerable evidentiary hay stack of proof of substance abuse. Nicklasson also claims that the photo shows the disparity in size between Nicklasson and his father and that this highlighted the brutality of the abuse he suffered as a child. There was ample evidence before the jury that Nicklasson was horribly abused as a child. The jury heard that someone, likely his father or a boyfriend of this mother, had broken his knuckles with pliers when Nicklasson was a small child. The jury also heard evidence of the father's size. The trial court did not err in refusing to admit the cumulative evidence of the photo.