Opinion ID: 2014063
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Exclusion of Evidence of Warner's Possession of the Murder Weapon

Text: Defendant also argues that he must receive a new trial as a result of the circuit court's exclusion of evidence that Dyno Warner possessed the knife used to kill the Brewers when he was stopped by police several weeks prior to the Brewer murders. The State filed a motion in limine, in which it requested that the circuit court bar evidence relating to the June 20, 1997, police stop of Warner's car. At the time, Warner was riding in the passenger seat of the car. During a search of the vehicle, police found the knife later used in the Brewer murders between the driver's and passenger's seats. Warner was not arrested or charged as a result of this stop, but another passenger in the car was arrested for possession of marijuana. The court granted the motion in limine. Defendant argues that evidence that Warner had the knife on June 20, 1997, was relevant and admissible because it made it more probable that he was the one who used the knife to murder the Brewers   , and that he was lying about Brad taking the knife. In addition, defendant asserts that evidence that Warner had the knife in his car in June 1997 indicated that Warner used the knife to commit drug offenses instead of merely keeping it in his home. According to defendant, the exclusion of this evidence prevented him from asking Warner if, at the time of the murders, he was also using the knife to get drugs, and prevented defendant from relying on this evidence to support his theory that Warner and Merriman rather than defendant killed the Brewers. Defendant contends that he was thereby denied his rights under the sixth amendment to confront witnesses and to present a defense. It is the function of the circuit court to determine the admissibility of evidence, and a reviewing court will not reverse the circuit court's ruling on a motion in limine absent an abuse of discretion. People v. Williams, 188 Ill.2d 365, 369, 242 Ill.Dec. 260, 721 N.E.2d 539 (1999); People v. Buss, 187 Ill.2d 144, 219, 240 Ill.Dec. 520, 718 N.E.2d 1 (1999). In order to be admissible, evidence must be legally relevant, that is, it must tend `to make the existence of any fact in consequence to the determination of the action more or less probable than it would be without the evidence.'  People v. Hope, 168 Ill.2d 1, 23, 212 Ill.Dec. 909, 658 N.E.2d 391 (1995), quoting People v. Peeples, 155 Ill.2d 422, 455-56, 186 Ill.Dec. 341, 616 N.E.2d 294 (1993). Although a defendant in a criminal case may offer evidence that tends to show that someone else committed the offense with which he is charged, such evidence should be excluded on the basis that it is irrelevant if it is too remote or too speculative. People v. Whalen, 158 Ill.2d 415, 430-31, 199 Ill.Dec. 672, 634 N.E.2d 725 (1994); People v. Ward, 101 Ill.2d 443, 455, 79 Ill.Dec. 142, 463 N.E.2d 696 (1984). In the case at bar, the circuit court properly excluded the evidence of Warner's possession of the knife as irrelevant to the murder charges against defendant. Evidence that Warner was in possession of the knife on June 20 was too remote to demonstrate that Warner, rather than defendant, possessed the knife at the time of the Brewer murders. There was no dispute in this case that the knife used to murder the Brewers belonged to Warner and was in his possession prior to August 8. Warner testified, however, that defendant stole the knife from his house on August 8 before leaving to kill the Brewers. Evidence that Warner possessed the knife on June 20 did not undermine Warner's claim that defendant stole the knife. Defendant asserts that Warner's use of the knife on June 20 in a drug offense supports a conclusion that he was the one who used it to obtain drug money from the Brewers on August 8. There was no evidence, however, that Warner was involved in a drug offense on June 20. Thus, there is no connection between Warner's possession of the knife during the traffic stop on June 20 and the Brewer murders on August 8. The conclusion that because Warner possessed the knife on June 20 he was the one who used it to kill the Brewers on August 8 is speculative. Accordingly, we decline to find an abuse of discretion or a constitutional violation in the circuit court's exclusion of this evidence.