Opinion ID: 2069678
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Admissibility of UPS Driver's Testimony

Text: Appellant alleges that the trial court erred when it permitted the Commonwealth to introduce testimony from James Howser about his prior contacts with Appellant and the unauthorized entries of Appellant into Howser's UPS truck. This claim is without merit. Evidence is relevant if it logically tends to establish a material fact in the case, tends to make the fact at issue more or less probable, or supports a reasonable inference or presumption regarding the existence of a material fact. Commonwealth v. LaCava, 542 Pa. 160, 666 A.2d 221 (1995). The admissibility of evidence is solely within the discretion of the trial court and will be reversed only if the trial court has abused its discretion. Id. at 174, 666 A.2d at 227. Evidence of prior bad acts committed by a defendant is not admissible if such evidence is offered merely to prejudice the defendant by showing him to be a person of bad character. Commonwealth v. Simmons, 541 Pa. 211, 662 A.2d 621 (1995). However, evidence of a defendant's prior bad acts is admissible when it is likely to prove a common scheme, plan or design, malice, absence of mistake or accident, motive, or intent for the offense charged. Id. This type of evidence is also admissible when it tends to establish the identity of the person charged with the commission of the crime, or where it was part of the chain or sequence of events which formed the history of the case and formed part of the natural development of the facts. Id. Howser's testimony established that Appellant had a propensity for making unauthorized entries into package delivery trucks when the drivers of the trucks stepped away from the trucks. This occurred in the same neighborhood where the driver of this Federal Express truck was murdered. We find this testimony relevant and admissible because it tended to establish the identity of the person who might have had a confrontation with the Victim as he stood at the side of his Federal Express delivery truck. When balancing the probative value of this evidence against any undue prejudice to Appellant in the context of this entire trial, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it permitted the Commonwealth to introduce this relatively brief testimony.