Opinion ID: 2083109
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Did the court err in admitting, over objection, evidence of the assaults on Belle Copper after the killing of Jack Copper?

Text: Defendant's counsel cite to us the well-established rule that evidence of other crimes is not, in general, admissible to prove the commission of the offense charged. State v. Greco, 7 Boyce 140, 30 Del. 140, 104 A. 637; Garboctowski v. State, 2 W.W. Harr. 386, 32 Del. 386, 123 A. 395, and note. Conceding that there are exceptions to this rule, e. g., where intent, identity, or a common scheme is required to be proved, defendant says that the instant case does not fall within any such recognized exception; and further argues that even if the evidence was admissible the jury should have been cautioned that it did not constitute substantive proof of the crime charged and was introduced for a limited purpose only. We hold the evidence admissible. The applicable rule is stated by Wigmore (Vol. I, sec. 218) as follows: There is, however, an additional class of cases in which the misconduct of a defendant may be received, irrespective of any bearing on character and yet not as evidential of one of the above matters (design, motive or the like), or as relevant to any particular subsidiary proposition. That class includes other criminal acts which are an inseparable part of the whole deed. Such evidence is not one of the exceptions to the general rule; it is admitted ex necessitate rei, since the two crimes constitute proof of one transaction, and proof of one necessitates proof of the other. State v. Russ, 4 W.W.Harr. 379, 34 Del. 379, 153 A. 545; Garboctowski v. State, supra; Underhill, Crim.Evid. (4th Ed.), sec. 182. The cases supporting this rule are so numerous that extended quotation is unnecessary. See for example Commonwealth v. Coles, 265 Pa. 362, 108 A. 826; Seams v. State, 84 Ala. 410, 4 So. 521; State v. Vaughan, 200 Mo. 1, 98 S.W. 2; People v. Pallister, 138 N.Y. 601, 33 N.E. 741; People v. Manasse, 153 Cal. 10, 94 P. 92; May v. Commonwealth, 153 Ky. 141, 154 S.W. 1074. In the case at bar the shooting of Belle Copper, as well as the robbery and larceny committed by defendant, were all parts of an inseparable criminal transaction which the State was entitled to lay before the jury. If one chooses so to enmesh one crime with another that intelligent proof of one cannot be admitted without proof of the other, he must bear the consequences of such proof. The cases cited by defendant's counsel (with the possible exception of State v. Taylor, 7 Idaho 134, 61 P. 288) do not touch this point. Moreover, evidence of this nature, being admissible, as we have said, from the necessity of the case, is not admitted for a limited purpose only and hence no qualifying instruction to the jury is required. Cf. State v. Russ, supra. We find no error in the admission or use of the evidence of the second assault.