Opinion ID: 1285642
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Insufficient similarity between barbershop and cab driver killings

Text: Appellant claims there is insufficient similarity between the barbershop shootings and the McDonald shooting because they happened in different settings and the number of victims was different. We disagree. A close degree of similarity or connection between the prior bad act and the crime for which the defendant is on trial is required to support admissibility under the common scheme or plan exception. State v. Cutro, 332 S.C. 100, 504 S.E.2d 324 (1998); State v. Parker, 315 S.C. 230, 433 S.E.2d 831 (1993). In this case, there is forensic evidence that the same gun was used in both the barbershop and cab driver shootings. This fact establishes a substantial connection between the two crimes that supports the admission of evidence regarding the cab driver murder. Further, where the defendant's own actions link two crimes together, evidence of one crime is admissible as proof of the other under the common scheme or plan exception. State v. Bell, 302 S.C. 18, 393 S.E.2d 364 (1990). Here, appellant himself linked the barbershop and cab driver murders in his letters to Virgil Howard.