Opinion ID: 1924529
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Whether the trial court properly admitted Hailey's videotape of photographs into evidence.

Text: ¶ 34. CMF also believes that the videotape admitted into evidence by the trial court was designed to, and did, solicit undue sympathy and inflame the passions of the jury. It maintains that the danger of undue prejudice greatly outweighed the probative value of the evidence and, hence, the videotape should have been excluded pursuant to Miss. R. Evid. 403. See Butler v. Chrestman, 264 So.2d at 816. Further, CMF argues that the videotape was hearsay and cumulative of the testimony of the Hailey's witnesses and should have been excluded on that basis. ¶ 35. Hailey argues that this was not a Day in the Life of video. Videotapes have commonly been accepted as probative evidence to prove loss of society and companionship claims, and their use has been approved by this Court. The following cases support this proposition and leave this decision to the discretion of the trial court. Mills v. Nichols, 467 So.2d at 930; Butler v. Chrestman, 264 So.2d at 816; Niles v. Sanders, 218 So.2d 428, 432 (Miss. 1969). ¶ 36. We have viewed the videotape and find no error in its admission. While some of the pictures present borderline Miss. R. Evid. 403 problems, it was not an abuse of the court's discretion to admit them with the film as a whole. Motorola Comm. & Electronics v. Wilkerson, 555 So.2d at 721.