Opinion ID: 1757917
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Other Collateral Crimes

Text: On three separate occasions during cross-examination, the prosecutor questioned Gore as to whether he had sex with a thirteen-year-old girl. However, the State failed to file a notice of intent to introduce any collateral crimes evidence involving the thirteen-year-old, nor otherwise sought the trail court's permission to question Gore regarding this crime. Nonetheless, the trial court overruled defense counsel's timely objections to these questions. These questions had no relevance in this trial other than to prove that Gore was a morally reprehensible individual. Because the sole relevance of this evidence could only be to demonstrate Gore's bad character, it was inadmissible. See Czubak, 570 So.2d at 928. In addition, during Gore's cross-examination the prosecutor asked questions about another female, Maria Dominguez. While the State argues that the questions asked concerning Dominguez were themselves innocuous, the State makes no pretense of explaining why the questions were asked in the first place. These questions could only serve to suggest to the jury Gore's involvement in yet another collateral crime against a female victim, close in time to the crime charged. This aspect of the State's cross-examination impermissibly placed before the jury presumptively prejudicial collateral crime evidence without an appropriate predicate for its admissibility having been established. Like the questioning concerning the collateral crime of sex with a thirteen-year-old girl, this questioning could only demonstrate Gore's bad character or propensity to commit crime, and was thus improper. See id.