Opinion ID: 1708394
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Relevancy and Res Gestae

Text: This Court has held that evidence, to be relevant, must appear calculated to alter the probabilities of some fact of consequence in an action. Mississippi State Highway Commission v. Dixie Contractors, Inc., 375 So.2d 1202, 1205 (Miss. 1979). Likewise, as of January 1, 1986, relevant evidence is defined in our law as evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence. Rule 401, Mississippi Rules of Evidence. The determination of relevancy is left to the sound discretion of the trial judge whose determination will not be reversed in the absence of clear abuse. Lambert v. State, 462 So.2d 308, 313 (Miss. 1984); McNeil v. State, 308 So.2d 236, 241 (Miss. 1975). On a different note, this Court has also held that evidence may be introduced as part of the res gestae [2] of a crime if it was an inseparable part of the entire transaction. Woods v. State, 393 So.2d 1319, 1324 (Miss. 1981). The admission of res gestae evidence is largely left to the sound discretion of the trial judge. Hemingway v. State, 483 So.2d 1335, 1337 (Miss. 1986). The primary issue under this assignment of error is whether Collins' possession of six magazines was relevant and/or part of the res gestae of the alleged commission of sexual battery.