Opinion ID: 1470596
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Evidence of Vandalism

Text: [¶ 23] Although the State did not contend that Roberts personally committed the vandalism to the cars that preceded the murder, the State called two witnesses to testify to their observations of a person, admittedly not Roberts, slashing Mendoza's tires on July 1, 2005; a police officer to testify to the incident on August 8, 2005, in which Mendoza's windshield was smashed; and Dawn Destrini to testify regarding the slashing of the tires on her vehicles on August 9, 2005. None of the witnesses identified the perpetrator or perpetrators of these acts. [¶ 24] Prior to the State's first witness, Roberts objected to the admission of any testimony regarding the vandalism. Roberts argued that the jury would impermissibly attribute these acts to him despite the lack of evidence linking him to the vandalism and would therefore use the testimony as improper character evidence prohibited by M.R. Evid. 404(b). [3] The State argued that the testimony should be admitted to explain the sequence of events leading to Mendoza having visits with the daughter at Roberts's home, and to respond to Roberts's portrayal of Mendoza in his opening statement as paranoid and out of control. The court ultimately allowed the testimony, finding that the probative value of the vandalism evidence was to explain Mendoza's conduct and the sequence of events leading to Mendoza's death, which outweighed any danger that the acts would be improperly attributed to Roberts. The court specifically ruled that the State could not attribute the vandalism to Roberts as prior bad acts. [¶ 25] We conclude that the court's decision to admit this evidence was within the proper bounds of the discretion afforded by M.R. Evid. 403. [4] First, as the trial court reasoned, the vandalism evidence explained, from [Mendoza's] point of view, why she's taking certain steps, why she misses the visitation, why it's late, . . . [and] why visitation is changed from the Destrinis' [house] to his house. Second, the State did not assert that Roberts committed the acts of vandalism, and Roberts elicited testimony on cross-examination to establish that he had not committed these acts. In its ruling on the admission of the evidence, the trial court was explicit that none of it can be used to show prior bad acts on the part of Mr. Roberts. Accordingly, the evidence does not fall under M.R. Evid. 404(b)'s proscription against bad character evidence. Finally, although an instruction limiting the jury's use of this evidence for the purpose of understanding the sequence of events surrounding Mendoza's death may have been appropriate, none was requested. See State v. Cloutier, 1997 ME 96, ¶ 14, 695 A.2d 550, 555. [¶ 26] Under the circumstances, the court's application of M.R. Evid. 403 and its decision to admit the vandalism evidence to explain Mendoza's conduct and to establish the circumstances giving rise to Mendoza's appearance at Roberts's residence during the early morning hours of August 15, 2005, was not an abuse of discretion.