Opinion ID: 1382827
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: exclusion of the judgment of conviction as evidence of willfulness

Text: (5) The trial court as we have seen was properly not persuaded by the collateral estoppel theory presented by Hartford. Failing in the attempt to so persuade the trial court, Hartford sought to introduce the record of the criminal case under Evidence Code section 1300 to prove Lovelace's willfulness. [9] However, the trial court, being of the mind that such evidence would create a substantial danger of undue prejudice, would confuse the issues and mislead the jury, excluded the evidence (see Evid. Code, § 352). At the time of his ruling the trial judge noted that the record established there was no controversy on how the death of the victim occurred, and thus the only purpose of the evidence was to show that another jury had thought that murder had been committed. The trial court concluded that undue weight would be given by the jury to that prior judicial opinion without the evidence in the record being fairly considered. Although the conviction would appear to have been relevant and admissible under section 1300, we cannot say that the trial court abused its discretion in ruling as it did under section 352.