Opinion ID: 2280221
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Commonwealth's Comments on the Drug Buy Tape Were Proper Comments on the Evidence.

Text: We will reverse for prosecutorial misconduct to which the defendant did not object if the misconduct rendered the trial fundamentally unfair. Brown v. Commonwealth, 313 S.W.3d 577, 627 (Ky. 2010); Slaughter v. Commonwealth, 744 S.W.2d 407, 412 (Ky.1987). While the prosecutor has a duty to confine his or her argument to the facts in evidence, Caretenders, Inc. v. Commonwealth, 821 S.W.2d 83, 89 (Ky.1991), the prosecutor is entitled to draw reasonable inferences from the evidence, make reasonable comment upon the evidence and make a reasonable argument in response to matters brought up by the defendant, Hunt v. Commonwealth, 466 S.W.2d 957, 959 (Ky.1971). See also Wheeler v. Commonwealth, 121 S.W.3d 173, 180 (Ky.2003). Further, a prosecutor is given wide latitude in making arguments to the jury, Williams v. Commonwealth, 644 S.W.2d 335, 338 (Ky.1982), and may appeal to the jury with all of the power, force, and persuasiveness which his learning, skill, and experience enable him to command, Housman v. Commonwealth, 128 Ky. 818, 110 S.W. 236 (1908). In the present case, there was no prosecutorial misconduct as the Commonwealth's Attorney did no more than make reasonable comments on the evidence. Thomas Osborne testified that when he gave Debbie Childers the $100 buy money at the car wash she asked him if there was a hundred dollars there. Osborne's testimony from recollection was permissible and constituted evidence that Childers asked whether the money he handed her was one hundred dollars. The Commonwealth's Attorney did not exceed the bounds of propriety in commenting on this evidence in her opening statement and closing arguments.