Opinion ID: 1943879
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Simpson's Prior Uncharged Robberies of Drug Dealers

Text: In Newman v. United States , relied on by appellant, we held that the defense could question a witness about a crime committed by that witness which bore similarity to the charge against the defendant both to show the witness's motive to lie and to imply that the witness might have actually committed the charged offense. Newman v. United States, 705 A.2d 246, 254-57 (D.C.1997) (relying on Winfield v. United States, 676 A.2d 1 (D.C.1996) (en banc), and its explication of the relevance of reverse- Drew  evidence, Drew v. United States, 118 U.S.App. D.C. 11, 331 F.2d 85 (1964)). However, Newman turned on a number of similarities between the crimes, including a similar modus operandi, similar treatment of victims, a very short timetwo weeksbetween the two criminal events, and proffered testimony that affirmatively indicated that the defendant was not at the scene of the charged crime. See 705 A.2d at 256-57. The record before us reflects that the prior robberies in which Simpson was allegedly implicated had occurred more than three years before the triple murder. Moreover, beyond the fact that the victims were believed to be drug dealers, defense counsel proffered no similarities between those earlier robberies and the triple homicide. Because appellant's proffer was comprised of nothing beyond prior bad acts highly attenuated from his charged offenses, the trial court did not err in excluding the proposed cross-examination.