Opinion ID: 2612858
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: offers of compromise

Text: In addition to objecting to evidence of the drug charges pending against Peckham at the time of Roy Hernandez' murder, Peckham objected prior to trial to the admission of evidence of his offers of compromise concerning those charges. The court ruled that such evidence would be admitted, finding that the rule making offers of compromise generally inadmissible does not apply when the offer of compromise was made in a different case. Peckham contends that the trial court erred in admitting evidence of his offers of compromise in the drug case. However, he offers no argument in his brief on this issue, other than to restate the district court's ruling on this issue and to assert, These statements necessarily brought before the jury the existence of prior charges, and as such were controlled by K.S.A. 60-455. The State contends that the issue is not properly before this court because the defendant made no contemporaneous objection when this evidence was admitted and, alternatively, that the fact that offers of compromise in the drug cases would not be admissible in those cases does not prohibit offers of compromise in the drug cases as evidence in the murder case. As discussed in the preceding issue, evidence of the drug charges pending against Peckham at the time of the offense in the case at bar was properly admitted. Evidence of the defendant's proposed plea negotiations in his drug cases as evidenced by the testimony of John Heinrichs, Robert Jobe, and Robert Sterner would have been inadmissible to prove Peckham's guilt in the drug cases. However, evidence of Peckham's offers of compromise in the drug cases is admissible in the murder case at bar. This evidence was central to the State's theory that Peckham killed Roy Hernandez to gain favorable treatment on his drug cases and was offered to prove his motive, intent, preparation, or plan in killing Hernandez. This evidence was properly admitted.