Opinion ID: 2540917
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Third-Person Guilt Evidence Was Excluded Properly

Text: Nash argues that the trial court wrongly refused to admit his evidence that a third party, Anthony Lambert Feldman, had motive and opportunity to kill Judy. Nash's offer of proof highlighted that the evidence about Feldman included that Feldman's fingerprints were found on Judy's car, but Nash's and Judy's fingerprints were not. Nash asserted that his evidence would include that there had been a heavy rainstorm on the night of March 10, which suggested that the rain had washed other fingerprints off Judy's car. Nash also wished to present evidence that included: Feldman falsely had denied to police that he had met Judy or ever been to Salem; Feldman had an Iowa arrest for stalking a woman with the intent to assault her sexually; Feldman was known to carry a shotgun in his vehicle; and Feldman had killed himself in 2008 with a shotgun. The trial court's decision to exclude Nash's evidence as to Feldman is a ruling that this Court reviews to determine if the trial court abused its discretion. See State v. Forrest, 183 S.W.3d 218, 223 (Mo. banc 2006). The trial court has broad discretion in evidentiary rulings, and an abuse of discretion will not be found unless the ruling is clearly against the logic of the circumstances and is so unreasonable as to indicate a lack of careful consideration. Id. Evidentiary errors require reversal if they are prejudicial to the defendant because they deprived him of a fair trial. Id. at 223-24. An error is not prejudicial if there is no reasonable probability that it affected the outcome of the trial. Id. at 224. As discussed above, the direct connection rule required that the Feldman evidence directly connect him to the corpus delicti of Judy's murder. See Rousan, 961 S.W.2d at 848. The rule also rejects evidence relating to a disconnected or remote act outside of Judy's murder. See id. Considering Nash's evidence as to Feldman in light of Missouri's direct connection rule, the trial court's conclusion that Nash's evidence did not meet the requirements of the rule was not a decision that was clearly against the logic of the circumstances and so unreasonable as to indicate a lack of careful consideration. As such, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to admit the Feldman evidence. [14]