Opinion ID: 163645
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: evidence of kravchuk's prior crimes

Text: 27 We review a district court's decision to admit evidence under Fed.R.Evid. 404(b) for abuse of discretion. United States v. Grissom, 44 F.3d 1507, 1513 (10th Cir.1995). Under Rule 404(b), evidence of prior bad acts may be admitted for proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident. 28 Kravchuk's co-participants testified at his trial about committing two prior crimes with him involving ATMs in addition to the theft in Broken Arrow upon which the federal charges were based. In one incident, they successfully removed an ATM from a shopping mall in Tulsa; in another incident, they attempted to remove an ATM from a store in South Tulsa County, but were thwarted by the size of the machine and the fact that it was bolted to the floor. Both events occurred within seven months of the crime for which Kravchuk was charged in federal court. 29 On appeal, Kravchuk argues that the district court improperly allowed evidence of his prior crimes involving ATMs to be presented at trial. He alleges that the prior crimes were too remote in time to be relevant, and that they were not offered for a proper purpose under the rule. See Fed.R.Evid. 404(b). 30 We find, however, that the evidence was properly admitted under Rule 404(b) for proof of Kravchuk's plan. Kravchuk was on trial for the burglary of ATMs. The prior bad acts had also involved the burglary or attempted burglary of ATM machines. Moreover, the prior bad acts involved the same group of co-participants who aided Kravchuk in the crime charged. Finally, the two prior bad acts occurred within seven months of the time of the federal crime-close enough in proximity to show that Kravchuk had not necessarily changed his modus operandi. These similarities show that Kravchuk had plainly developed a plan and stable team of co-participants to burglarize ATM machines. Accordingly, the district court's decision to admit the evidence of prior bad acts was not an abuse of discretion.