Opinion ID: 1944653
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Instructions on Spoliation

Text: Notwithstanding the preservation issue, even if the trial justice did err in instructing on facts pertaining to spoliation, the charge, taken as a whole, did not so prejudice the jury as to warrant reversal. See State v. Gillespie, 960 A.2d 969, 975 (R.I.2008) (`[W]e will not review a single phrase or sentence in isolation,'    but rather will examine it in the context of the whole instruction to determine whether it would have confused or misled the jury.) (quoting State v. Fernandes, 783 A.2d 913, 916 (R.I.2001)); Mandros v. Prescod, 948 A.2d 304, 310 (R.I.2008) (An erroneous charge warrants reversal only if it can be shown that the jury could have been misled to the resultant prejudice of the complaining party.) (quoting State v. Sivo, 925 A.2d 901, 913 (R.I.2007)). We discern no error in the trial justice's explanation of the law of spoliation, and we are satisfied that any error as to her comments on the facts was cured by her cautionary statements on fact-finding. Both before and after her charge on spoliation, the trial justice instructed that her role was limited to explaining the relevant law to the jury so that the jury could apply the law to the facts as it found them to be. After the spoliation instructions, the trial justice further cautioned the jury that any statements in her instructions that evinced her opinion on the evidence were unintentional and should be disregarded. In light of this warning, we are confident that the charge did not prejudice the jury against the defendants on the issue of spoliation. See State v. Holland, 122 R.I. 339, 348, 405 A.2d 1211, 1216 (1979) (the trial justice's improper instruction on a question of fact was mitigated by his earlier caution to the jury not to be influenced by his opinion of the facts). Accordingly, the jury's verdict was appropriate, and the trial justice did not err in denying both the defendants' motion to pass and their motion for a new trial.