Opinion ID: 1874198
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Theft of Money from Purses.

Text: Testimony from Sharon McNay and Betty Davidson, the victim's sisters, established that Roberts kept her own purse and Davidson's purse in the trunk of her car. Both purses were found in a trash receptacle on the first floor of St. Elizabeth Medical Center on April 4, 2000. Denise Arrington testified that Appellant told her that some time after he had killed the victim, he parked the victim's car at St. Elizabeth's and took money from the two purses to pay for a taxi. Although the Commonwealth provided no pretrial notice that specifically mentioned Appellant's theft of money from these purses, the admission of this evidence was not palpable error. As mentioned above, the Commonwealth's response to Appellant's October 31, 2001, motion notified Appellant that his history of theft related offenses might be introduced. Moreover, the Commonwealth maintained an open file policy at all times prior to trial. Had Appellant objected to the admission of this evidence, the trial court may have held that these broad references in the KRE 404(c) disclosure statement were insufficient pretrial notice to warrant admission of this evidence. See, e.g. Daniel v. Commonwealth, 905 S.W.2d 76, 77 (Ky.1995); Gray v. Commonwealth, 843 S.W.2d 895, 897 (Ky.1992). Nevertheless, because Appellant received some notice more than eight months prior to his trial that the Commonwealth might introduce evidence of his thievery, its admission did not constitute manifest injustice. Evidence of this uncharged theft was also admissible for a legitimate purpose. Under KRE 404(b), evidence of other acts may be offered to prove a plan. In this manner, KRE 404(b) provides an avenue for the admissibility of evidence of uncharged crimes that are part and parcel of a greater endeavor which included the charged offense. Commonwealth v. English, 993 S.W.2d 941, 943-44 (Ky.1999). In this case, the theft could be construed as part of a larger plan to obscure the details surrounding Roberts's disappearance, by parking her car at St. Elizabeth's, discarding the identifying purses in an available trash receptacle, and then using the money taken from the purses to pay for a taxi. Appellant's plan could have been for the police to find Roberts's car and the empty purses at St. Elizabeth's, where she went to visit Davidson virtually every day, and thus conclude that Roberts was robbed and abducted by an unknown assailant while on the hospital grounds. The attempted creation of such a scenario was relevant to Appellant's consciousness of guilt, Adkins, 96 S.W.3d at 793, thus refuting his claim that he did not intend to kill Roberts. Since the evidence was offered for a proper purpose, there was no obvious error in admitting it. Lawson, supra, § 1.10[8][b], at 54. Appellant argues that admission of evidence of his other bad acts likely caused the jury to give less credibility to his testimony that he did not intend to kill Roberts and that Roberts was not alive when he moved her. However, Appellant's numerous conflicting statements prior to trial about the events surrounding Roberts's death was more likely to have affected his credibility, as was the medical evidence tending to negate Appellant's claim that Roberts died before the kidnapping. It is unlikely that evidence of Appellant's theft of a small amount of money (ten dollars) from the purses in Roberts's car substantially affected the jury's assessment of his credibility. Upon a review of the record as a whole, Young, 470 U.S. at 16, 105 S.Ct. at 1046-47, we conclude that the admission of this evidence did not constitute palpable error.