Court Opinion

ID: 9734235
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:29:20.059287+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:47.137571
License: Public Domain

Michael J. Kelly, J.
(dissenting). I respectfully dissent. I believe that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting under MRE 404(b) the testimony concerning prior bad acts.
People v Golochowicz, 413 Mich 298; 319 NW2d 518 (1982), requires some special quality or circumstance of the bad act tending to prove the defendant’s connection. The circumstances and the manner in which the charged offense and the other bad acts were committed need to be so nearly identical in method as to earmark the charged offense as the handiwork of the accused. Much more is demanded than the mere repeated commission of crimes of the same class, such as repeated burglaries or thefts. Golochowicz, supra at 310. The uncharged act and the crime in question need to be sufficiently alike or similar and involve characteristics so distinctive, unique, peculiar, or special as to justify an ordinarily reasonable juror *488to infer that both were the handiwork of the same person. Golochowicz, supra at 312.
The uncharged offenses in this case are not so nearly identical in method as to earmark the charged offense as the handiwork of the accused. The testimony presented showed merely the repeated commission of crimes of the same class. Because Golochowicz requires more, the testimony concerning prior bad acts should not have been admitted at trial.
Further, I believe that defendant’s obtaining of information while in the county jail and turning over two handwritten documents signed by an inmate attempting to solicit a murder was objective and verifiable information that was admissible to reduce defendant’s sentence under People v Windall Hill, 192 Mich App 102; 480 NW2d 913 (1991).