Court Opinion

ID: 9759208
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:08:37.219122+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:00.247800
License: Public Domain

Brock, J.,
dissenting: In my opinion the trial court erred in admitting into evidence the victim’s testimony concerning what she “thought” the defendant and his friend might do to her if she did not get out of the truck. The defendant was on trial for criminal restraint, not rape, attempted rape, conspiracy to commit rape, kidnapping, or assault. That the prejudicial effect of the victim’s testimony that she was afraid that they were going to rape her clearly outweighed its probative value is dramatically demonstrated to me by statements made by the prosecutor to the jury. State v. Baker, 120 N.H. 773, 775, 424 A.2d 171, 172 (1980); State v. *552Farrow, 118 N.H. 296, 307, 386 A.2d 808, 815 (1978). He stated “[t]hey had other intentions for Brenda. . . . She is going to tell you what was going through her mind”, and in his final argument the “thoughts” of the victim were turned into fact when the prosecutor said: “She was going to be raped. . . .” Because the defendant’s conviction may have been based not upon the crime charged and committed but upon one imagined by the victim and prosecutor, I cannot conclude that the trial court’s error in admitting the challenged testimony and allowing the overzealous argument of the prosecutor was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See State v. Scarlett, 121 N.H. 37, 42-43, 426 A.2d 25, 28-29 (1981).