Opinion ID: 1948185
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The Alternative Perpetrator Evidence

Text: Boobar next contends that the trial court deprived him of a fair and impartial trial by not permitting him to introduce testimony designed to suggest that another person had both the opportunity and a motive to kill Rebecca Pelkey. Through an offer of proof made outside the hearing of the jury, the defense indicated that the alternative suspect's testimony would demonstrate that he is a friend and former intimate companion of Rebecca's mother, and that in 1986, while he was living with the Pelkeys, he had been the subject of a Department of Human Services investigation involving Rebecca. [9] He would have further testified that on the date Rebecca was last seen, he had driven from his hunting camp in Howland to the Pelkey residence in Bangor, where he took a shower. This trip took him near the place where Rebecca's body was discovered. According to the State, the alternative suspect would have testified that following his shower, he left the Pelkey home by himself, leaving both Heather and Rebecca behind. Over Boobar's objection, the trial court ruled this evidence inadmissible. A criminal defendant is entitled to present evidence in support of the contention that another is responsible for the crime with which the defendant is charged, provided the evidence is of sufficient probative value to raise a reasonable doubt as to the defendant's culpability. Robinson, 628 A.2d at 667; State v. Dechaine, 572 A.2d 130, 134 (Me.1990), cert. denied 498 U.S. 857, 111 S.Ct. 156, 112 L.Ed.2d 122 (1990) (connection between alternative perpetrator and crime must be reasonably established by admissible evidence). Moreover, the probative value of the alternative suspect evidence must be weighed against the danger of confusing or misleading the jury, or considerations of undue delay and waste of time. See M.R.Evid. 403. The court must take into account the extent to which the alternative perpetrator evidence is in dispute, the time required to present it, and the extent of rebuttal evidence that it would generate, i.e., the extent that it would result in a trial within a trial. The connection between the alternative perpetrator and the crime must be reasonably established by the admissible evidence the defendant is prepared to offer. Without such evidence, a defendant cannot be allowed to use his trial to conduct an investigation that he hopes will convert what amounts to speculation into a connection between the other person and the crime. Robinson, 628 A.2d at 667 (quoting Dechaine, 572 A.2d at 134) (emphasis in original). In this case, the evidence proffered by Boobar established only the alternative perpetrator's familiarity with the general vicinity in which the body was found, and that there had been a fleeting contact between the alternative perpetrator and the victim on the date of her disappearance. The alternative perpetrator's belief that he had been investigated by DHS for alleged improper sexual contact with Rebecca some two years before her death, does not, in itself, amount to a reasonably plausible motive for killing her. We cannot say that the court's exclusion of the evidence was clearly erroneous or constituted an abuse of discretion.