Opinion ID: 2314684
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: exclusion of evidence proffered by greene

Text: At the close of his case, Greene told the court that he intended to call Officer Rufus Archer, proffering that this testimony would show that Archer had seen James Mills rob John Fulton on June 3, 1978, and that a prosecution for that robbery was pending against Mills at the time of the stabbings. Greene also proffered that Mills himself would testify that Fulton had owed him $300, and that when Fulton would not pay, Mills robbed him. Greene's counsel argued that this testimony was relevant to show that Mills had a motive to kill Fulton, in order to keep Fulton from testifying against him in the armed robbery prosecution. The trial court excluded the proffered evidence on the ground that it lacked sufficient probative value. The court stated, [I]t's too big a leap to move from a robbery arrest to a motive for killing. . . . [W]hat we would be asking the jury to do is speculate that a person whom the deceased had caused to be arrested would, in fact, return to kill him. We will disturb a trial court's determination regarding relevance only if the court has abused its discretion. Towles v. United States, D.C.App., 428 A.2d 836, 846 (1981); Randall v. United States, D.C.App., 353 A.2d 12, 14 (1976). We perceive no abuse here.