Opinion ID: 1348762
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Donald Janz

Text: Phillips argues that improper rebuttal testimony was offered. During Christenson's defense, she called Carol Picard, the director of the Career Learning Center in Rapid City, South Dakota, to testify. Picard testified that Christenson read and performed math at a second-grade level and that she was probably not intelligent enough to conspire to commit a crime. State cross-examined Picard. Thereafter, the trial court admitted a stipulation that Christenson had an I.Q. of 74, which falls within the lowest four percent of the general population. State then called as a rebuttal witness Donald Janz, a counselor and psychotherapist who performed a psychological evaluation on Jerome. Janz concluded that Jerome's I.Q. was 88, that he was upset and crying for help, that he had a number of depressive symptoms, and that he was a very dependent individual with very low self-esteem. It is important to point out that Jerome testified as one of State's witnesses in its case-in-chief. SDCL 23A-24-2(4) provides: After a jury has been impaneled and sworn, a trial must proceed in the following order: .... (4) The parties may then, respectively, offer rebutting evidence only, unless the court, for good reason, in furtherance of justice or to correct an evident oversight, permits them to offer evidence upon their original case[.] State argues that Janz' testimony properly rebutted Picard's testimony regarding Christenson's mental capability. We first note that Janz' testimony concerning Jerome's psychological evaluation, if somehow relevant to the conspiracy, may have been admissible in State's case-in-chief. However, we find it was improper rebuttal testimony as it did not rebut the evidence presented by Christenson or Phillips. Furthermore, given the timing of its introduction, it had little or no relevance. Brings Plenty, 459 N.W.2d at 398. However, as with the testimony from Erdman, Phillips has failed to show how this testimony prejudiced her. Michalek, 407 N.W.2d at 818-19; Dokken, 385 N.W.2d at 498. Affirmed. WUEST, HENDERSON, SABERS, and AMUNDSON, JJ., concur.