Opinion ID: 1790359
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the evidence of the appellant's past marriages, child abandonment and his prior incarcerations

Text: Jim Major, Appellant's father testified at trial via video deposition. During his testimony, he made several references to Appellant's prior incarcerations. When asked if Appellant had graduated from high school, he responded he had gotten his GED in prison. He also stated that Pauline (Appellant's wife in Rhode Island) divorced Appellant while he was in jail. Mr. Major also volunteered that Appellant had a child by a young woman that he did not marry and left the woman to raise the child by herself on welfare. He then detailed each of the Appellant's prior marriages and testified to the fact that Appellant had most recently married a pen pal he had while in prison. The Commonwealth even questioned Mr. Major about his knowledge of Appellant's arrest for sexual offenses in Rhode Island in 1985, whereupon he replied, Appellant was given 15 (years), but got out in 10 for good behavior. He testified he never visited Appellant in prison, but had disowned him upon his arrest. Following his release from prison in Rhode Island in 1996, the Appellant was sent back to Kentucky on a detainer issued from this state on charges relating to the molestation of his son, Donald, in Kentucky. It was during this incarceration when he called his father and allegedly confessed to the murder of Marlene. KRE 404(b)(2) is intended to be flexible enough to permit the prosecution to present a complete, un-fragmented, un-artificial picture of the crime committed by the defendant, including necessary context, background and perspective. Norton v. Commonwealth, 890 S.W.2d 632, 638 (Ky.App.1994). Thus, the evidence of his incarceration in Kentucky in response to the detainer issued to Rhode Island provides the setting and context within which he called and confessed to his father of the murder of Marlene. The fact of the incarceration, and the time of incarceration, in Rhode Island is relevant and admissible as explaining the delay in the Appellant being brought back to Kentucky and necessarily explains the context within, and time in which, the investigation occurred, and, upon a retrial, the conviction itself could be relevant to the continuing sexual abuse of Donald Oakes if such abuse is denied. However, as there should be no issues at trial involving the subsequent sexual abuse of Lalona Bramble, the conviction and incarceration in Rhode Island should not be used in such a way as to be connected to her. On the other hand, the testimony relating to the Appellant's previous and subsequent marriages, including the abandonment of his child by another woman, are totally irrelevant to the issues involved in this case, prejudicial and should not reoccur at retrial.