Opinion ID: 167135
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mr. Leonard's driving record

Text: 7 The government claims that evidence of Mr. Leonard's driving record was properly offered under Federal Rule of Evidence Rule 404(b) to prove malice aforethought, a required element of second degree murder. Evidence of prior acts is properly admitted if four requirements are satisfied: 8 (1) the evidence is offered for a proper purpose under Fed.R.Evid. 404(b); (2) the evidence is relevant under Fed. R.Evid. 401; (3) the probative value of the evidence is not substantially outweighed by its potential for unfair prejudice under Fed.R.Evid. 403; and (4) the district court, upon request, instructs the jury to consider the evidence only for the purpose for which it was admitted. 9 Tan, 254 F.3d at 1207-08 (citations omitted). Mr. Leonard claims that the government failed to satisfy the second and third requirements. Mr. Leonard's driving record revealed fifteen citations over a fifteen-year period. Nine of those citations were for driving with a suspended license. Mr. Leonard argues that these citations are irrelevant to the issue of whether he acted with malice aforethought. He also contends that even if the evidence was relevant, it was overly prejudicial and should have been excluded under Rule 403. 10 Evidence is relevant under Rule 401 if it has any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence. Fed.R.Evid. 401. Rule 401 is a liberal standard. United States v. McVeigh, 153 F.3d 1166, 1190 (10th Cir. 1998). The rule establishes only a minimal level of probability—the evidence must render the asserted fact of consequence more probable than it would be without the evidence. Id. 11 The government offered evidence of Mr. Leonard's driving record to establish malice aforethought. A defendant acts with malice aforethought when he engages in conduct which is reckless and wanton, and a gross deviation from a reasonable standard of care, of such a nature that the jury is warranted in inferring that [the] defendant was aware of a serious risk of death or serious bodily harm. United States v. Wood, 207 F.3d 1222, 1228 (10th Cir.2000) (internal quotation marks omitted). This element is therefore established if the government shows the defendant knew that his conduct posed a serious risk of death or harm to himself or others, but did not care. Tan, 254 F.3d at 1207. 12 This Court has held that drunk driving convictions are relevant and admissible to prove malice aforethought in a second degree murder case. See id. at 1210-11. In Tan, we acknowledged that someone `who drives a vehicle while under the influence after having been convicted of that offense knows better than most that his conduct is not only illegal, but entails a substantial risk of harm to himself and others.' Id. at 1210 (quoting People v. Brogna, 202 Cal.App.3d 700, 248 Cal.Rptr. 761, 766 (1988)). Furthermore, based on the number of convictions, the jury could infer that Defendant does not care about the risk he poses to himself and others since he continues to drink and drive. Id. at 1210-11. We believe the same logic applies to Mr. Leonard's extensive record of driving violations. 13 Mr. Leonard attempts to distinguish this case from Tan by arguing that, unlike drunk driving convictions, citations for driving with a suspended license have no tendency to show that he disregarded a known risk that his conduct was dangerous. Mr. Leonard's argument, however, misses the point. Citations for driving with a suspended license, like citations for drunk driving, convey to the malefactor society's considered view that the cited conduct is dangerous. Admittedly, drunk driving is more likely to be dangerous than a single instance of driving with a suspended license. But the requirement of having a license has a serious purpose: to ensure that drivers meet all safety regulations and qualifications. Persistent violations of this requirement betoken a conscious disregard for these considerations. A jury may infer that an individual with a record like Mr. Leonard's knows better than most that his conduct is illegal and unsafe, and continues to do so in defiance of that risk. This evidence tends to show, even if only slightly, that Mr. Leonard acted with malice aforethought. Accordingly, it is relevant under Rule 401. 14 Mr. Leonard also claims that some of the citations were not relevant because they were remote in time. The district court permitted the government to introduce fifteen years of Mr. Leonard's driving record. We find no error in the district court's determination that this information was relevant. The fifteen-year history demonstrated that over a course of many years Mr. Leonard has continuously ignored the government's warnings that he should not drive without a license. If the citations were remote in time and unrepresentative of his behavior in recent years, his argument might have more force. But the evidence in this case shows that Mr. Leonard's dangerous history of driving without a license is both longstanding and continuing. 15 Alternatively, Mr. Leonard argues that the district court should have excluded the evidence under Rule 403. Federal Rule of Evidence 403 provides that relevant evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence. Fed.R.Evid. 403. `Evidence is unfairly prejudicial if it makes a conviction more likely because it provokes an emotional response in the jury or otherwise tends to affect adversely the jury's attitude toward the defendant wholly apart from its judgment as to his guilt or innocence of the crime charged.' United States v. Rodriguez, 192 F.3d 946, 951 (10th Cir.1999) (quoting United States v. Roberts, 88 F.3d 872, 880 (10th Cir.1996)). Excluding otherwise admissible evidence under Rule 403 is an extraordinary remedy [that] should be used sparingly. Id. at 949 (internal quotation marks omitted). 16 Mr. Leonard contends that [t]he jury was bound to be affected by the driving record introduced by the government. Appellant's Opening Br. 14. However, the jury acquitted Mr. Leonard of the second degree murder charge, suggesting that evidence of Mr. Leonard's driving record did not evoke an emotional response and did not prejudice the jury. Furthermore, as compared to drunk driving convictions that courts have admitted under Rule 403, Mr. Leonard's history of driving with a suspended license was not so likely to provoke an emotional response that it should have been excluded. See Moorhead v. State, 638 A.2d 52, 55 (Del.1994); Brogna, 248 Cal.Rptr. at 767. The district court therefore did not abuse its discretion in admitting evidence of Mr. Leonard's driving record. 17