Opinion ID: 1909621
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Contract on victim's life

Text: Mr. Powers, one of defendant's co-workers, testified that defendant had plotted with him to kill the victim and her fiance, entomb them in a car, and bury it in a large pit on the construction site where defendant and Mr. Powers both worked. Defendant's initiation of a plot to kill the victim and her fiance was admitted as relevant to defendant's guilty state of mind and the existence of a continuing plan or scheme. Whether defendant himself ever took his own talk of murder seriously is not so much the issue as the fact that he would mouth off about killing his daughter and her fiance. Defendant had ample opportunity to attack Mr. Powers' credibility and the plausibility of the purported assassination plan. Whatever unfair prejudice may have been engendered was substantially outweighed by its probative worth. It was not an abuse of discretion to admit it.