Opinion ID: 1309573
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Admissibility of Evidence of Prior Crimes.

Text: During the guilt phase of the trial, the State sought to introduce certain evidence of the other killings committed by Woomer just prior to the episode at Jack's Mini-Mall. The State argued at trial that this evidence tended to identify and place Woomer at Jack's Mini-Mall and to show a common design or scheme on Woomer's part to dispose of all victims. It was admitted into evidence over the objections of defense counsel that it was irrelevant and highly prejudicial and not admissible under State v. Lyle , 125 S.C. 406, 118 S.E. 803 (1923). In Lyle , this court held that evidence of other crimes is competent to prove the specific crime charged when it tends to establish, among other things, (1) a common plan or scheme involving two or more crimes, or (2) the identity of the accused presently on trial. More recently, we said: It cannot be gainsaid that the existence of a design or plan to act in a certain way has probative value to show how one in fact did act. Although plans are not always carried out, one who plans to act in a certain way is more likely to act in that way because of the existence of the plan. The question is whether the particular item of evidence tends to show the existence, the nature, or the content of the plan. Much of the showing is evidence of the conduct of the defendant, and the specific question becomes whether the particular conduct circumstantially tends to prove the design or plan. State v. Anderson , 253 S.C. 168, 169 S.E. (2d) 706, cert. den. , 396 U.S. 948, 90 S.Ct. 386, 24 L.Ed. (2d) 253 (1969). The plan or design which the State sought to show was that Woomer and Skaar left West Virginia intending to come to South Carolina, make money by robbery, and dispose of all victims. A photograph and driver's license of one of the robbery victims were found in the motel room of Skaar and Woomer. Their admission into evidence, along with testimony that this victim had been shot and killed, was proper since it was used to show the existence and commission of a preconceived plan and tended strongly to implicate Woomer as a participant. The scheme and Woomer's participation in it were later confirmed at trial by the taped confession of Woomer himself. In that confession, Woomer explained his involvement with Skaar, their scheme to rob and dispose of witnesses, and the actual execution of that scheme, including the robbery and killing of the victim from whom the photograph and driver's license were taken. Even without the confession, however, the evidence would have been proper under State v. Anderson, supra. No error was committed.