Court Opinion

ID: 9540112
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:12:54.139602+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:59:37.827330
License: Public Domain

KIRSHBAUM, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with the majority that Carter v. Commonwealth of Kentucky, - U.S. -, 101 S.Ct. 1112, 67 L.Ed.2d 241 (1981), and Kimmel v. People, 172 Colo. 333, 473 P.2d 167 (1970), require reversal of the *629judgment for the trial courts refusal of defendant’s tendered instruction respecting his rights to refrain from testifying. I also agree that the evidence seized from defendant’s office was properly admitted at trial.
However, I disagree with the majority’s apparent holdings in Part II of the opinion that evidence of the New York transaction was properly admitted during the trial to establish a “scheme” and may not be excluded on retrial for lack of a sufficient nexus. I say “apparent” holdings because at trial the prosecution in fact offered the New York transaction to establish “common plan, scheme, design, intent and motive”— not “scheme” alone — and because the prosecution may choose to offer such evidence to show something other than “scheme” on retrial. In the event the evidence is elicited to establish common plan, scheme or design, the test of People v. Honey, 198 Colo. 64, 596 P.2d 751 (1979), must be applied by the trial court. I disagree with the majority’s analysis of that test and with the majority’s application of such test to this case.
People v. Honey articulated a rule of exclusion of similar transaction evidence from criminal proceedings unless the evidence falls within certain narrowly defined exceptions. This rule, based on the recognition that any evidence of prior criminal conduct is inherently prejudicial, gives maximum effect to the principle that a defendant in a criminal case must be tried only for the offense charged, and may not be convicted as one prone to commit criminal acts. Stull v. People, 140 Colo. 278, 344 P.2d 455 (1959); see Stone, The Rule of Exclusion of Similar Fact Evidence: America, 51 Harv. L.Rev. 988 (1938). The rule is quite different from its English common law counterpart, which reduces questions of admissibility of similar transaction evidence in criminal cases to issues of relevancy. See Stone, The Rule of Exclusion of Similar Fact Evidence: England, 46 Harv.L.Rev. 954 (1933).
It is inevitable that an exclusionary rule with specifically defined categories of exceptions will invite confusion. The adversary process will inexorably test the limits of such rule by seeking to enlarge or contract the concepts expressed by the language of the exceptions. However, I find the discussion about the exception of “common plan, scheme or design” in People v. Honey to be relatively clear. There, our Supreme Court stated that for two acts to constitute a common plan, scheme or design, “they must have a nexus or relationship with each other from which a continuous scheme or a common design can be discerned,” and “must be such that they are naturally to be explained as the individual manifestations of one general plan.” (emphasis added) People v. Honey, supra. Thus, to be excluded from the exclusionary rule on the basis of common plan, scheme or design, similar act evidence must be so related with the acts constituting the charged offense that the trial court, and, hence, the jury, may infer a pattern of continuous conduct or the crafting of a single plan including the different incidents by the defendant. Similarity alone can never be the touchstone of admissibility. See People v. Ray, Colo., 626 P.2d 167 (1981).
Although aspects of the New York transaction were indeed similar to defendant’s Colorado acts, there was no contention at trial by the prosecution that the two series of events were part of any single scheme or pattern of continuous conduct. Indeed, the six-month delay and certain dissimilar features of the two series of acts in all probability would preclude such an argument in this case. I therefore conclude that proof of common plan, scheme or design did not constitute a valid purpose at trial for the admission of evidence of defendant’s New York acts. See People v. Martinez, 190 Colo. 507, 549 P.2d 758 (1976); People v. Moen, 186 Colo. 196, 526 P.2d 654 (1974). Furthermore, without even reaching the question of whether any probative value would outweigh the admittedly prejudicial result, I cannot join the majority in sanctioning in advance the admission of such evidence if offered by the prosecution to show some as yet undefined “scheme.”