Opinion ID: 2352390
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: admission of certified copy of federal judgment

Text: Finally, Appellant contends the trial court erred when it admitted into evidence a copy of a judgment of conviction from the United States District Court of Virginia which was certified as a true copy by the United States District Court of Paducah. He argues the document does not meet the requirements of KRE 902 or RCr 9.44 which require official documents to be certified by an official having legal custody of the record. We do not have enough evidence in the appellate record before us to determine whether the United States District Court of Paducah had legal custody over records generated by the United States District Court of Virginia. See our discussion in Part II, supra. However, even if the document's admission was in error, the error was harmless since there was sufficient proof that Appellant was convicted of two other prior felonies. See KRS 532.080(3) (requiring proof of only two prior felonies in order to satisfy a conviction for persistent felony offender in the first degree). For the reasons set forth above, the judgment of the Christian Circuit Court is affirmed. All concur.