Opinion ID: 1881228
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prior Assault

Text: Appellant next argues that the trial court committed reversible error in not limiting the scope of evidence relating to appellant's prior assault of Talley. Evidence of a prior assault, or character evidence, is inadmissible to prove the character of a defendant in order to show that the defendant acted in conformity with that character in committing the offense with which he or she is charged. However, evidence of a prior assault may be admissible for other purposes, including proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident. Minn. R. Evid. 404(b). To admit the evidence the trial court must determine that there is clear and convincing evidence that the defendant committed the prior bad act and that the probative value of the evidence outweighs any potential for unfair prejudice. State v. Mills, 562 N.W.2d 276, 285 (Minn.1997) A reviewing court generally defers to the trial court's discretion in admitting prior bad acts and will reverse only upon a showing of clear abuse of discretion. Id. The trial court admitted this evidence as proof of motive, intent, and identity. Appellant was on probation for assaulting Talley and facing the unwelcome prospect of returning to jail because she notified the probation office that he violated the no-contact order. Appellant's desire to stop Talley from testifying about his probation violation and to avoid going back to jail demonstrates a motive to kill her. Additionally, the prior assault clearly demonstrates the strained nature of the relationship between appellant and Talley. Character evidence which tends to show the `strained relationship' between the accused and the victim is relevant to establishing motive and intent and is therefore admissible. Mills, 562 N.W.2d at 285. Here, there is no question that appellant committed the prior assault or that the evidence is probative; the only issue is whether the probative value of the evidence is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice. This court has defined prejudice to mean only `the unfair advantage that results from the capacity of the evidence to persuade by illegitimate means.' State v. Townsend, 546 N.W.2d 292, 296 (Minn.1996) (quoting State v. Cermak, 365 N.W.2d 243, 247 n. 2 (Minn.1985)). In Townsend, the defendant was charged with murder and attempted murder. Id. at 295. The defendant moved to sever the murder and attempted murder trials and to suppress all evidence relating to the attempted murder in his murder trial. Id. The trial court denied defendant's motion and allowed the state to introduce evidence regarding the defendant's attempted murder, including testimony from the victim in the attempted murder case, testimony from six other witnesses as to the appearance of the crime scene and the appearance of the victim's wounds, and large color photographs of the crime scene. Id. This court held that admission of extensive and repetitious evidence relating to the other crime was error, because it could do nothing but inflame the jury improperly. Id. at 296. Here, the state introduced a variety of evidence relating to appellant's August 19, 1995 prior assault on Talley, including evidence that appellant was lifting weights and was bulked up at the time of the assault, testimony that appellant assaulted Talley in front of their four-year-old daughter, testimony from Talley's mother, Deborah Woods, that Talley called her immediately after the assault and Woods picked her up and took her to the hospital, testimony from the emergency room physician who treated Talley right after the assault, testimony from the police officer who arrested appellant and wrote the police report, testimony from the police officer who interviewed Talley, and four photographs of Talley's injuries. Although some of this evidence may have been cumulative, the majority of it, with the exception of Woods' testimony, took only a portion of a morning and was not excessively explicit or inflammatory. The four photographs shown to the jury were not overly inflammatory or graphic, especially in comparison to the autopsy photographs. In addition, the trial court did limit the scope of the evidence introduced by excluding certain hearsay statements the victim made to the police officer interviewing her after the assault and excluding as hearsay all statements made by Talley concerning abuse and threats by the appellant. Finally, at the beginning and again during the testimony relating to the prior assault the trial court specifically instructed the jury that they could only use the evidence for the limited purpose of showing motive, intent, or identity, and that the jury could not convict appellant on the basis of the prior incident. The trial court repeated these instructions to the jury at the close of trial. We conclude that on the basis of these facts, the trial court clearly did not abuse its discretion in admitting the prior assault evidence.