Opinion ID: 1301441
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Evidence of Alleged Third-Party Threats

Text: During the trial, Goynes argued that he shot Lofton in self-defense. To establish that defense, Goynes attempted to introduce evidence of threats made against him by Lofton's fellow gang members. The court excluded this evidence. The first incident Goynes proffered as evidence involved a drive-by shooting at Goynes' mother's residence allegedly committed by Murdertown gang members. The second incident involved an alleged threat made by the Murdertown gang on the MySpace Web page, an online social networking site. Goynes argued that the threats showed he reasonably feared Lofton because Lofton was a member of the Murdertown gang. Regarding the first incident, the district court allowed Goynes to testify that after the fast-food restaurant murder, he saw a car drive by his mother's house and he believed a Murdertown gang member owned it. But the court did not allow him to testify that someone fired shots from the car at his mother's house. The court ruled that unless Goynes could testify that Lofton was in the car, he could not testify about the shots' being fired from the car. In an offer of proof, Goynes argued that a jury could findbecause of the firing of shots at his mother's house by Murdertown gang membersthat he reasonably feared he would be killed or seriously injured by a Murdertown gang member. Regarding the second incident, the court did not allow Goynes to introduce testimony regarding an alleged threat against Goynes and his family on Murdertown's Web page on MySpace. In his offer of proof, Goynes alleged that he had heard that there was an alleged threat to kill him and his family on Murdertown's MySpace Web page. Goynes could not, however, link Lofton with the Web page or testify that Lofton was the one who put the threat on the Web page. Goynes also could not testify that he actually saw the purported threat, and the offer of proof did not contain a printout of the actual Web page. Moreover, Goynes could not explain how he became aware of the alleged threat or why he had a reasonable basis to believe the purported threat or that it was connected to Lofton. The court held that the testimony was not admissible unless Goynes could connect Lofton with the Web page. The court did allow Goynes to testify that there was something out there on MySpace with Lofton's name, but that he did not know if Lofton was responsible for the information. Goynes argued the testimony regarding the MySpace threat would show the reasonableness of his fear of Murdertown gang members and that Lofton was the first aggressor.