Opinion ID: 2431351
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the prior offense

Text: The appellant contends he was tried and convicted in this case by this jury based upon his prior gross sexual imposition offense in Ohio, to which he pled guilty. Extensive evidence regarding this prior offense was introduced through testimony from the arresting officer, which was mostly hearsay, from the examining physician in the prior crime, and from the mother of the victim of the prior crime. The threshold question is whether any evidence of the prior offense was admissible. The `General Rule' is `[e]vidence of the commission of crimes other than the one that is the subject of a charge is not admissible to prove that an accused is a person of criminal disposition.' Lawson, The Kentucky Evidence Law Handbook, 2d ed., Sec. 2.20(A) (1984). Before admitting such evidence the burden is on the Commonwealth to establish a reason to apply some well-defined exception. Drumm v. Commonwealth, Ky., 783 S.W.2d 380, 381 (1990). The principle involved is thus stated in the newly enacted Kentucky Rules of Evidence, codifying our previous decisions on this subject: Rule 404(b) Other crimes, wrongs, or acts. Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible: (1) If offered for some other purpose, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident; or (2) If so inextricably intertwined with other evidence essential to the case that separation of the two (2) could not be accomplished without serious adverse effect on the offering party. Here, subparagraph (2), covering prior acts inextricably intertwined with other evidence essential to the case, does not apply. The Commonwealth has argued that evidence of the prior Ohio offense should be treated as evidence intertwined, but the key to understanding this exception is the word inextricably. The exception relates only to evidence that must come in because it is so interwoven with evidence of the crime charged that its introduction is unavoidable. Lawson, The Kentucky Evidence Law Handbook, 2d Ed., Sec. 2.20, p. 37 (1984). See examples cited therein. Patently this is not a case where it would be necessary to suppress facts and circumstances relevant to the commission of the offense charged in order to exclude evidence of the prior offense. The question then becomes whether evidence of the prior offense was of such a nature as to be relevant under one of the exceptions stated in KRE 404(b)(1), quoted above. Because common characteristics between the way the two crimes were committed and the short time interval between the two, one day apart, the prior crime was proof of identity of the appellant as the perpetrator of the second crime. Common scheme, as such, is not included in the list of exceptions in KRE 404(b)(1), stated above, but evidence of another crime, committed close in time, with a common scheme, is probative to identify the perpetrator of the offense charged. Vince Walsh, one of the jail inmate witnesses who testified against the appellant, stated the appellant told him he would never be indicted for the Kentucky crime because he had just fingered the victim like he did the small girl in Ohio. The Commonwealth's pathologist testified he deduced from his examination that the victim's vagina had been damaged consistent with having been penetrated in this manner. There was testimony about Bugler cigarette papers found at the scene of the Kentucky crime, and similar paper observed at the appellant's residence where the Ohio sexual assault occurred. Thus we conclude that evidence of the prior crime was admissible as bearing on an issue in controversy here, viz., the identity of the perpetrator. The next issue is more difficult. Even where evidence of a prior crime has some relevancy, in admitting such evidence the trial judge must use some discretion in deciding whether and to what extent evidence of the prior offense may be utilized without prejudice: [W]hen dealing with evidence of a litigant's prior misconduct, where such evidence is debatably or remotely relevant, the trial court must decide whether the probative value of the evidence outweighs its inflammatory nature. If it does, the evidence is admissible. Otherwise it is not. Commonwealth v. Morrison, Ky., 661 S.W.2d 471, 473 (1983). [Emphasis original.] Here the evidence of prior misconduct was presented in such a way as to cause undue prejudice. Funk had admitted to the Norwood, Ohio police that he sexually assaulted a year and a half old little girl by inserting his finger into the child's vagina, and he pled guilty to a criminal offense designated gross sexual imposition for having done so. This admission and the plea of guilty were ample to prove what was necessary on the identity issue and as a basis for understanding evidence from cell mates about his jailhouse statements. Nevertheless, the Commonwealth called a Cincinnati physician to testify in detail as to the nature of the injuries sustained in the prior criminal act and the child's mother was questioned extensively about the prior occurrence. Much of this was irrelevant, such as the mother's testimony that she talked to Funk with her daughter the night of the incident and he denied anything had happened. The investigating police officer from Ohio went beyond the nature of the offense as admitted by Funk and into Funk's original denials and other irrelevant details, as well as investigative hearsay. A plain statement of the admissions the appellant made establishing the nature of the prior offense, introduced through the indictment and plea of guilty and the admissions the appellant made about the crime to the police officer, would have sufficed. The extensive use of over-kill was unduly prejudicial and trial error.