Opinion ID: 6105748
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: 44a Harvey's relationships with other women

Text: During opening statements, defense counsel remarked that the jurors would hear testimony by prosecution witness Mark Harvey, who had spent time with Kerr at his home on the night of her death. According to counsel, several months before the killing, defendant observed Kerr becoming even closer to Harvey, which was tremendously upsetting to him. Counsel described Harvey as a very nice looking guy who spends a lot of time at the Alcoholics Anonymous Club, dating women [who] are trying to recover from their problems with their alcohol and drugs. Shortly after the parties' opening remarks, but outside the jury's presence, the prosecutor indicated to the court that he intended to move in limine to exclude evidence of Harvey's bad character to which defense counsel had alluded during opening statement, specifically, evidence regarding Harvey's sexual relationships with other women. The court conducted a hearing on that motion immediately before Harvey was set to testify in front of the jury. Harvey stated at the hearing that he had been attending AA meetings for the past 20 years and that during that time he had formed romantic relationships with four women, but Kerr was not one of them. In ruling on the motion, the court indicated that evidence regarding a relationship between Kerr and Harvey was relevant to whether defendant killed Kerr in the heat of passion. In the court's view, however, evidence of Harvey's sexual conduct with  women other than Kerr, was totally irrelevant to proving the existence of that relationship. Defense counsel argued that evidence regarding Harvey's proclivity for hitting on women at the AA Club would support the defense theory that defendant believed Harvey and Kerr were romantically involved, which would provide the basis of the provocation for the heat of passion defense. The court was not persuaded and reiterated that it would not allow evidence regarding other  sexual or romantic relationships that Harvey may have had with the unnamed women. The court explained that, under Evidence Code section 352, the prejudicial impact of such evidence-that is, the undue consumption of time required for its presentation-far outweighed any probative value.  Defendant insists that the court erred in excluding evidence that Harvey had engaged in sexual relationships with women he met through his involvement in AA because such evidence was relevant to the reasonableness of defendant's belief that Harvey and Kerr were having a sexual relationship and was therefore fundamental to his heat of passion defense. As mentioned previously, the court found evidence that Harvey engaged in romantic relationships with women in AA to be totally irrelevant. Although the court reasonably concluded that such evidence had no bearing on whether Harvey and Kerr were romantically involved, the evidence appears to have had at least some relevance to defendant's suspicions in this regard. But even if the court mistakenly characterized the evidence as completely lacking in relevance, the court did not abuse its discretion in excluding it under Evidence Code section 352. The court weighed the arguably slight probative value of evidence regarding Harvey's romantic relationships with four women in AA against the likelihood that its admission would require an undue consumption of time (Evid. Code, § 352 ), and soundly determined that the balance justified exclusion. Contrary to defendant's assertion, the excluded evidence was far from fundamental to his heat of passion defense because several witnesses testified that defendant suspected Kerr was having a sexual relationship with Harvey. (Cf. People v. Minifie (1996) 13 Cal.4th 1055 , 1070, 56 Cal.Rptr.2d 133 , 920 P.2d 1337 [concluding that the court erred in excluding evidence of third party threats that went to the  'heart of'  defendant's claim of self-defense and that would not have required an undue consumption of time].) We conclude that no abuse of discretion occurred.