Opinion ID: 1624316
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Commonwealth Opening Statement

Text: Wheeler claims that the use of the words slaughterhouse and gutted like a pig by the prosecutor in the opening statement warranted a mistrial because they were inflammatory and calculated to unduly prejudice the jury. We disagree. The trial judge properly overruled the motion for a mistrial. We have held previously that a trial judge is in the best position to evaluate the existence of undue prejudice and in this case, she determined there was no undue prejudice. Cf. Wilson v. Commonwealth, Ky., 836 S.W.2d 872 (1992), cert. denied, 507 U.S. 1034, 113 S.Ct. 1857, 123 L.Ed.2d 479 (1993), overruled on other grounds, St. Clair v. Roark, Ky., 10 S.W.3d 482 (1999). Here, the comments of the prosecutor reflecting his opinion based on his view of the evidence were certainly colorful, but not improper. Cf. Derossett v. Commonwealth, Ky., 867 S.W.2d 195 (1993). Considering the general circumstances of this bloody crime, the words used by the prosecutor did not render the trial fundamentally unfair. See Partin v. Commonwealth, Ky., 918 S.W.2d 219 (1996). Opening and closing statements are not evidence and wide latitude is allowed in both. Slaughter v. Commonwealth, Ky., 744 S.W.2d 407 (1987). Counsel may draw reasonable inferences from the evidence and propound their explanations of the evidence and why the evidence supports their particular theory of the case. Tamme v. Commonwealth, Ky., 973 S.W.2d 13 (1998), cert. denied, 525 U.S. 1153, 119 S.Ct. 1056, 143 L.Ed.2d 61 (1999).