Court Opinion

ID: 9852796
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:37:00.278159+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:34.698694
License: Public Domain

PLEICONES, Justice:
I agree with the result reached by the majority in this case. However, because I would analyze ISSUE 3 differently, I write separately.
I would hold that Cecily McMillan’s testimony recounting the events of the Dodger’s robbery was admissible under Rule 404(b) SCRE only to show identity. McMillan testified that two men, one very tall and the other much shorter, robbed Dodger’s. She testified that the taller man was armed with a pistol while committing the offense. Tyrone Aiken, who is *482much taller than Benjamin, testified that he and Benjamin robbed both the Sweetwater Citgo and Dodger’s, and that only he had been armed during the crimes. He further testified that, while fleeing Dodger’s, he lost the pistol used in the robberies. Police found a pistol on the ground outside of Dodger’s. The State’s ballistics expert testified that the gun found outside of Dodger’s was the gun used in the Sweetwater Citgo killing. Eyewitnesses testified to seeing two men, one very tall and one very short, walking across the parking lot, towards the Sweetwater Citgo shortly before the robbery. The clerk in the Sweetwater Citgo testified that two men, one armed and much taller than the other, committed the Sweet-water Citgo robbery. In light of this evidence, McMillan’s testimony concerning the descriptions of the Dodger’s perpetrators was admissible under SCRE 404(b) to show the identity of the Sweetwater Citgo robbers.
In my opinion, it was error to allow McMillan to repeat what was said inside Dodger’s because the prejudicial impact of the statement substantially outweighed its probative value. See Rule 403, SCRE. Nevertheless, in light of the overwhelming evidence presented against Benjamin, the error in admitting the statement was harmless.
The majority finds that McMillan’s testimony was admissible because McMillan’s testimony rebutted Benjamin’s defense of duress, and was admissible as part of the res gestae.
Because the Dodger’s robbery occurred after the Sweetwater Citgo robbery, I am not persuaded that Benjamin’s actions at Dodger’s were inconsistent with his claim that he was acting under duress when he committed the Sweetwater Citgo robbery.
Were he on trial for the Dodger’s robbery, the statements attributed to Benjamin by McMillan would be admissible to rebut Benjamin’s defense of duress, assuming Benjamin proffered such a defense. That is not the case here. Benjamin was not on trial for the Dodger’s robbery. The majority superimposes Benjamin’s claim that he was acting under duress when he entered the Sweetwater Citgo over his participation in the Dodger’s robbery. It then finds that evidence admissible to rebut the latter claim, i.e., evidence suggesting Benjamin was not acting under duress during the Dodger’s *483robbery, is likewise admissible to rebut his claim of duress in the Sweetwater Citgo robbery. I would hold that evidence of Benjamin’s participation in the Dodger’s robbery is not admissible to rebut his claim that he acted under duress in committing the. Sweetwater Citgo robbery.
In my opinion, the evidence of the Dodger’s robbery was not “necessary to a full presentation of the State’s case”11 in the Sweetwater Citgo crime, such as to make the challenged evidence admissible under a res gestae exception to Rule 404(b), SCRE. The majority, in footnote 9, employs an estoppel analysis and finds that because Benjamin, in his appeal in the Dodger’s case, argued that the crimes were part of a single continuous crime spree, he cannot now challenge a finding that the evidence was admissible, under a res gestae exception, since the crimes “would be ‘so linked together in point of time and circumstances’ that one could not be shown without proving the other.” While I agree that one cannot advance conflicting factual arguments simply because his interests have changed,12 I do not agree that Benjamin has somehow lost his right to challenge the contested evidence because he has asserted, on appeal in a different case, that the acts were part of a single crime spree.
I do, however, agree with the result reached by the majority, and would affirm the trial court’s decision because, in my opinion, evidence of the Dodger’s incident was admissible to establish the identity of the Sweetwater Citgo perpetrators. Because its prejudicial impact substantially outweighed its probative value, the content of Benjamin’s statement directed toward the Dodger’s clerk was not admissible. Nonetheless, in light of the competent evidence presented by the State, the error in admitting the statement was harmless.

. See State v. Hough, 325 S.C. 88, 480 S.E.2d 77 (1997).

. See Hayne Federal Credit Union v. Bailey, 327 S.C. 242, 489 S.E.2d 472 (1997).