Opinion ID: 2427047
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Dedric Weems's testimony

Text: Before Dedric Weems testified to the conversation that he said he overheard between Mr. Foreman and Mr. Childress, defense counsel made a motion in limine to exclude Mr. Weems's testimony on the basis that the prosecutor, during Mr. Childress's trial, had sought to exclude the testimony as untrustworthy. The Trial Court denied the motion. At trial, defense counsel raised no objection to Mr. Weems's testimony until after the prosecutor had completed her direct examination of Mr. Weems and had asked him about the conversation between Mr. Childress and Mr. Foreman he said he had overheard. When the direct examination ended, a side-bar conference was held in which Mr. Foreman's counsel asked that the testimony be struck as too speculative because the incident had occurred several months or weeks before the McDonald's incident and had failed to mention any specific date, time, or victim. The request was denied. After cross-examination, redirect, and then dismissal of Mr. Weems as a witness, Mr. Foreman's counsel renewed the objection and added an objection that the testimony violated Ark. R. Evid. 404(b) by accusing Mr. Foreman of a prior bad act and suggesting he would commit a robbery because he was a bad person. Again, the objection and motion to strike were overruled. In his testimony, Mr. Weems admitted that he had been smoking weed and drinking alcohol when he heard the plans for the robbery. He remembered telling the judge in Mr. Childress's trial that he was half asleep during the conversation he had overheard, and he could not remember the exact time when the conversation occurred. In this appeal, Mr. Foreman argues that the Trial Court erred in admitting Mr. Weems's testimony over his objections concerning Rule 404(b) and the speculative nature of the testimony. We do not address these argument because it is clear that the objections were not timely. Watkins v. State, 320 Ark. 163, 167, 895 S.W.2d 532, 534 (1995)(An issue must be presented to the trial court at the earliest opportunity in order to preserve it for appeal.). Although Mr. Foreman did raise a timely objection on the basis of his argument that the prosecutor had previously characterized Mr. Weems as an unreliable witness, that objection does not preserve for our review Mr. Foreman's arguments concerning Rule 404(b) and the allegedly speculative nature of Mr. Weems's testimony. An appellant must make a specific objection that apprises the Trial Court of his current argument, and he may not change arguments on appeal. Pike v. State, 323 Ark. 56, 912 S.W.2d 431 (1996); Terry v. State, 309 Ark. 64, 826 S.W.2d 817 (1992).