Court Opinion

ID: 9770361
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 15:59:40.776846+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:16.727123
License: Public Domain

GRAVES, Justice,
dissenting.
Respectfully, I dissent in all respects. However, I particularly take issue with so much of the majority opinion as holds it was reversible error to have permitted the defendants, Ernest Arnaze Rogers and Nakia Dillard, to show their fingernails to the jury.
It was counsel for the co-defendant Na-kia Dillard who made the motion to have the hands of both defendants exhibited to the jury. The court noted that there would be no appreciable change in the size of the defendants’ fingers. Counsel for the defendant Ernest Arnaze Rogers waived objection to showing the jury the defendants’ hands to demonstrate the respective sizes of the defendants’ hands. Defendant Rogers’ counsel argued to the jury that condition of the defendants’ nails at trial would have no bearing on the condition of their fingernails at the time of the crime. The trial court advised the jury that the question of whether Nakia Dillard, Ernest Arnaze Rogers’ co-defendant, bites his nails could only be answered if Nakia Dillard took the stand and testified at trial. Dillard did not testify.
Dr. George R. Nichols, III testified two marks on the upper surface of the victim’s right buttock were consistent with fingertips working by a grabbing action of the human hand. A photograph of those injuries was introduced into evidence. Dr. Nichols also testified concerning parallel contusions on the inner surfaces of each thigh which are consistent with a forceful prying apart of the thighs of a woman as she resists movement by the fingers.
Without a more complete record, we are left to surmise whether it was trial strategy for counsel for Dillard to rule out some characteristics of the fingers.
“Weighing the relevancy against the prejudice is peculiarly within the province of the trial court.” Foley v. Commonwealth, Ky., 942 S.W.2d 876, 888 (1996). No reversible error occurred in permitting the jury to view the defendants’ hands.
WINTERSHEIMER, J., joins this dissenting opinion.