Opinion ID: 1312684
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Evidence of Conversations Overheard From the Victim's Wife's Apartment.

Text: Defendant asserts error in the admission of evidence concerning conversations coming from the victim's wife's apartment about dusk on March 5. In those conversations, the victim's wife purportedly identified someone in her apartment as Paul. The objections that defendant articulated at trial concerning the admissibility of this testimony were based on hearsay, relevancy, and the limitations placed on evidence of other crimes by Iowa Rule of Evidence 404. The district court overruled the relevancy and other-crimes objections and found that the hearsay objection was obviated because the statement in question was an excited utterance. On appeal, defendant has abandoned any challenge to this evidence based on hearsay or relevancy. He continues to advance his contentions based on rule 404. Defendant also seeks to show error in allowing this testimony based on the trial court's pretrial ruling on a motion in limine. As to the latter claim, an examination of the motion in limine and ruling thereon convinces us that both the motion and ruling related to another subject. That subject was how extensively the State could develop the circumstances surrounding the finding of the body of Brown's wife. The court tentatively approved the allowance of evidence demonstrating that the body was found without further embellishment. The State acceded to that ruling with respect to evidence describing the body or circumstances of death. We are convinced that the district court's ruling on defendant's motion in limine did not relate to the issue now under consideration. The testimony being challenged involved occurrences that preceded the death of Brown's wife. It was offered as rebuttal testimony to defendant's claim of alibi. Its purpose was to show that a person named Paul, who knew defendant's wife, was in Moline about dusk on March 5. That was the time defendant claimed to have been in McHenry. This testimony was added to the minutes of testimony by an amendment after the court's ruling on the motion in limine. [1] In considering defendant's evidentiary challenges based on rule 404, we entertain substantial doubt that this rule is applicable. The evidence in question related to matters occurring prior to the death of Brown's wife. Nothing contained in the challenged testimony established a criminal activity on the part of anyone. If rule 404 was implicated by this testimony, we believe it was relevant for one of the independent purposes listed in rule 404(b), i.e., opportunity. Although defendant now asserts that the prejudicial effect of this evidence was of constitutional magnitude, sufficient to deny him due process, this was manifestly not the case. We have recognized that, although evidence of other crimes will always be prejudicial to the defendant, that type of prejudice does not outweigh the public interest in allowing the State to fully develop its case. State v. McDaniel, 512 N.W.2d 305, 308 (Iowa 1994). The district court did not err in overruling defendant's objections to this evidence on the grounds that were advanced in the district court.