Opinion ID: 1676759
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: whether the trial court erred in admitting evidence of an alleged incident between dokken and the decendent's girlfriend?

Text: Over defense counsel's objection, the trial court permitted the State to introduce evidence of Dokken's altercation with Dee Peterson two nights before the shooting. Her testimony amounted to an allegation that Dokken attempted to run her over with his pickup truck in the parking lot of the Westport Lounge. We hold that this was error on the part of the trial court. In State v. Reddington, 80 S.D. 390, 396, 125 N.W.2d 58, 62 (1963), we said that [p]rejudicial error is such error as in all probability must have produced some effect upon the final result of the trial, namely, the verdict of the jury. Here, Peterson's testimony bore no relevancy to any of the issues in the case. Furthermore, although the delicate balancing process set forth in SDCL 19-12-3, is within the trial court's sound discretion, Means, supra, this evidence was highly prejudicial and served no other purpose than to characterize Dokken as a bad man, which is precisely what SDCL 19-12-5 prohibits. Therefore, we hold that evidence of Dokken's alleged altercation with Peterson should be excluded upon retrial.