Opinion ID: 2107935
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Trial Court's Ruling on the Admissibility of Other Crimes Evidence

Text: The government moved to introduce other crimes evidence that appellant assaulted Ms. Deloatch, threatened her and damaged property in her home on May 23, 2005 to prove motive, intent, or the absence of mistake or accident in this case. The government argued that the evidence was admissible to explain the ongoing relationship between appellant and Ms. Deloatch and to establish the similarity between the facts resulting in the prior charges against appellant and the instant case. Defense counsel argued that the evidence was inadmissible because the charges stemming from the 2005 incident were later dismissed by the government. In a colloquy with the court, defense counsel stated: Yes, your Honor. This is a case where there's been several cases that have been filed. We're going forward on specific counts as stated in the information. Because there's no adjudication, and I understand that if they were in fact convictions, they would come in readily, but there's no convictions. The trial judge indicated that convictions are not a prerequisite to admitting prior bad acts evidence: They don't need convictions. It involves the same individual, the complainant and the defendant ... I'll allow it in as the history of the relationship for issues of motive and intent, not propensity and his background to the relationship.