Court Opinion

ID: 9572255
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:40:10.319564+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:32:09.762167
License: Public Domain

ELMORE, Judge,
dissenting.
I disagree with the majority on the last assignment of error concerning the testimony of Officer Ehrler of the circumstances of defendant’s prior arrest. The admission of the Officer’s testimony was in error, and that error was prejudicial.
At trial, Officer Ehrler testified that in May of 1996 he observed the defendant run a red light and weave in the lane, and pulled the defendant over. Officer Ehrler went on to testify in detail of the defendant’s demeanor and actions throughout the course of the traffic stop, field sobriety tests, and subsequent arrest. Officer Ehrler testified in part:
Q: So at that point [after field sobriety tests] did you place him under arrest?
A: Yes, I did.
Q: Did you have any difficulty placing him under arrest?
*597A: I put one handcuff on him, yes, I did, and he turned around and said “what are you doing?” and grabbed my wrist and started twisting it. He started cussing. Luckily, another officer arrived and we had to wrestle him a little bit, not too much, but a little bit to get him into cuffs.
In transport to the police department, according to Officer Ehrler’s testimony, defendant was “[c]ussing. Screaming. One minute he begged me to let him go, next thing he’d be cussing me, told me how horrible a police officer I am.” In response to questioning by the trial court, the officer noted that defendant had not been speeding, had not left his lane of travel and gone into another lane, and had no trouble producing his license and registration.
Defendant assigns error to the admission of this testimony concerning the details surrounding the 1996 arrest as lacking probative value, and also any probative value would be substantially outweighed by danger of unfair prejudice to the defendant.
State v. Jones, 347 N.C. 193, 213, 491 S.E.2d 641, 653 (1997), provides that an evidentiary ruling by a lower court should only be overturned if the decision was so arbitrary as to be irrational. If there was any rational basis for admitting this evidence, the ruling must stand. Although evidence of prior crimes, wrongs or acts by a defendant is allowed into evidence for purposes of proving malice under Rule 404(b), the admissibility is guided by the constraints of similarity and temporal proximity. State v. Artis, 325 N.C. 278, 299, 384 S.E.2d 470, 481 (1989), judgment vacated on other grounds, 494 U.S. 1023, 110 S. Ct. 1466, 108 L. Ed. 2d 604 (1990), on remand, 329 N.C. 679, 406 S.E.2d 827 (1991). “When the features of the earlier act are dissimilar from those of the offense with which the defendant is currently charged, such evidence lacks probative value. When otherwise similar offenses are distanced by significant stretches of time, commonalities become less striking!) ]” 7<± For example, the evidence is properly admitted when the prior offense and the offense charged are identical. See e.g. State v. McAllister, 138 N.C. App. 252, 530 S.E.2d 859 (2000). Details of the arrest are admissible for the purpose of proving malice only when they have a tendency to demonstrate the defendant knew his conduct was “reckless and inherently dangerous to human life.” State v. Jones, 353 N.C. 159, 173, 538 S.E.2d 917, 928 (2000). I disagree with the majority that this officer’s testimony had any tendency to prove malice. That defendant had been stopped before in a traffic stop with no other cars involved does not tend to *598prove that he knew in the incident before us that his actions were inherently dangerous.
Although defendant was intoxicated in both cases, neither the details of how the. 1996 accident occurred, the facts surrounding his field sobriety tests nor the fact that he resisted arrest are similar or relevant to the case at bar. None of these details have any tendency to demonstrate that defendant was aware that his conduct leading up to the collision at issue was reckless and inherently dangerous to human life. The testimony only tended to make the defendant look uncooperative and belligerent with officials, which had not been the case in the incident at issue here. This evidence was more prejudicial than it was probative. Given all the circumstances of the case, this evidence is of a nature likely to prejudice the jury’s consideration. I would vacate the judgment and remand for a new trial.