Court Opinion

ID: 9713177
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:10:13.310096+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:17.332094
License: Public Domain

DeBRULER, Justice,
dissenting.
The evidence of the killing of the husband was not admissible in this prosecution of appellant for the killing of her mother-in-law. It was irrelevant. It was not admissible on the issue of identity, as the perpetrator of the killing testified and admitted the act. It was not admissible under the common scheme or plan exception because the two killings were so separated in time, manner and space as to be separate and distinct in the legal sense. It was not admissible to prove motive in the killing of the mother-in-law. According to the State the motive provided by three witnesses was that the husband, Paul, was to be killed because he was abusive to appellant and their two sons. According to the State's witnesses, the mother-in-law was killed so that appellant and her two sons could use the old woman's life savings to solve their financial problems.
I am unable to conclude that the erroneous admission of this evidence was harmless. The jury concluded that appellant was guilty of the murder of her mother-in-law on a theory of vicarious liability, that is, because she aided and abetted her son in the crime. -It also concluded that appellant was guilty of a conspiracy to murder her mother-in-law, that is, that she made an agreement with that son to carry out that same crime. It is therefore highly probable that appellant's convictions for both murder on a vicarious liability theory and conspiracy, as well as the consecutive sentences for both murder and conspiracy, are the product of the erroneous admission of evidence of appellant's prior crime. In light of this assessment of injury, and in order to grant relief for it, I would remand with instructions to grant a new trial on both charges, or in the alternative to set aside the conviction and the sentence for conspiracy.
SHEPARD, C.J., concurs.