Opinion ID: 1781968
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: the other crimes/bad acts evidence and argument violated ron chris foster's rights under mississippi law and the eighth and fourteenth amendments.

Text: The appellant contends that multiple references to a pizza allegedly stolen by Foster were irrelevant, prejudicial and constituted reversible error. Foster refers to testimony by Vincent Harris during direct examination by the State, whereupon Harris was asked whether he was arrested in connection with the murder of Shelton on July 26, 1989. Harris replied, Well we was a  arrested for something else. Well Chris [Foster] had  we was arrested and, uh, Chris stole the pizza and I was wid [sic] him . Counsel for Foster objected and the trial court sustained the objection. The State did not linger on Harris' reply and did not again reference the alleged stolen pizza. Indeed, the record shows when counsel for Foster questioned Harris on four more occasions concerning the pizza, it was the State which objected to the reference. Before this Court Foster's counsel now contends Harris' unresponsive reply unduly burdened Foster by implying that he may have been involved in another, unrelated crime. The cases cited by Foster are easily distinguished from the situation here since they involved testimony of bad acts or other crimes intentionally elicited or presented by the prosecution. See Elmore v. State, 510 So.2d 127, 130 (Miss. 1987); Smith v. State, 499 So.2d 750, 756 (Miss. 1986); West v. State, 463 So.2d 1048, 1052 (Miss. 1985). Foster neither requested that the trial court admonish the jury to disregard the testimony, nor requested a mistrial. His only objection was sustained. We are of the opinion that any error created by Harris' unresponsive remark was effectively cured when the trial judge sustained Foster's objection. Bullock v. State, 391 So.2d 601, 609 (Miss. 1980), cert. denied 452 U.S. 931, 101 S.Ct. 3068, 69 L.Ed.2d 432 (1981); Holifield v. State, 275 So.2d 851 (Miss. 1973). This assignment is rejected.