Woodard v. Commonwealth

147 S.W.3d 63, 2004 Ky. LEXIS 244, 2004 WL 2363756
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 21, 2004
Docket2003-SC-0032-TG
StatusPublished
Cited by96 cases

This text of 147 S.W.3d 63 (Woodard v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Kentucky Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Woodard v. Commonwealth, 147 S.W.3d 63, 2004 Ky. LEXIS 244, 2004 WL 2363756 (Ky. 2004).

Opinions

Opinion of the Court by

Chief Justice LAMBERT.

Appellant, James Woodard, was convicted of second-degree assault and of being a persistent felony offender in the second degree. Appellant was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. This appeal is as a matter of right.1 Appellant assigns the following errors: (1) the trial court erred in admitting testimony of his name change, use of various aliases, and instances of unrelated criminal acts; (2) the trial court erred by not granting a mistrial following the testimony of a police witness that Michelle Riggs seemed to be protecting Appellant; (3) the trial court erred for failing to strike for cause a deaf juror; and (4) the trial court erred by not granting Appellant’s motion for directed verdict. We discern no errors warranting reversal and affirm the conviction.

In the early morning hours of November 19, 2000, Appellant and a woman by the name of Michelle Riggs were patrons at a bar in Louisville. During the course of the evening, an argument ensued between Appellant and two other patrons, Kenneth Hardin and Joe Proctor. After the argument Appellant and Riggs left the bar, but returned a short time later. Upon returning, the pair walked through the bar, from back to front, and then exited. Approximately thirty minutes later a man entered alone with a handgun and fired several rounds, hitting Proctor in the abdomen and Hardin in the leg. The gunman immediately fled the scene. Appellant was later identified as the shooter by Hardin in a police photo lineup.

Although not specifically relevant to the crime, but nonetheless relevant to this opinion, is the matter of Appellant’s name. Appellant was born James Summit. At some point prior to 1996, Appellant took the alias of James Woodard. On December 9, 1996, a man known as James Woodard legally changed his name to Bo Clark.

[66]*66Appellant pled not guilty to charges of first-degree wanton endangerment, two (2) counts of first-degree assault, and of being a persistent felony offender. He was subsequently convicted of all charges except wanton endangerment and was sentenced to twenty (20) years. Appellant contends that the trial court committed reversible error upon the grounds set forth herein-above.

Appellant’s first argument is that the trial court erred with respect to three separate evidentiary issues involving prior bad acts. The acts were admitted into evidence through the testimony of three police officers. The first alleged instance of error involves the testimony of Officer Hellinger who testified that on November 22, 2000 (three days after the bar shooting), he served an unrelated arrest warrant on James Woodard at an apartment in Louisville. A blonde female answered the door and told him that no one by the name of James Woodard was there. The woman said that her friend, Bo, was in the shower. Appellant (the man in the shower) then told Officer Hellinger that his name was Bo Clark. Noting the similarity of description to that of James Woodard, the officer threatened to charge Appellant with giving a false name to a police officer. Appellant then admitted that he was James Woodard. Defense counsel objected at trial on the basis that the testimony only served to prejudice the jury against Appellant by the admission of irrelevant and collateral evidence of unrelated prior bad acts. The Commonwealth stated that this evidence was admissible at trial to establish residency and to rebut the testimony of defense witnesses that Appellant lived in Indianapolis.

The second alleged instance of error involves the testimony of Deputy Jensen. Deputy Jensen testified that during the early morning hours of February 18, 2001, he executed a traffic stop in Louisville. The driver (Appellant) told the officer that he did not have any identification on him, but that his name was James Woodard. Appellant also volunteered his social security number. When Deputy Jensen ran the number the name came back as Bo Clark. Appellant then told Deputy Jensen that he had legally changed his name from Bo Clark to James Woodard. Dispatch then informed the deputy that there was an arrest warrant for Bo Clark. The warrant and the arrest did not relate to the bar shooting incident. Appellant objected to this evidence both prior to and during trial on the basis that it was irrelevant and prejudicial. The trial court, in overruling Appellant’s motion in limine to preclude this evidence, held that the probative value of this evidence outweighed any prejudicial effect. Specifically, the trial court held that Appellant’s use of false identification to evade arrest is relevant and the jury should be allowed to weigh the evidence as the fact-finder.

The third alleged instance of evidentiary error involved the testimony of Detective Jones. Detective Jones testified that on April 17, 2001, Appellant appeared in court on charges unrelated to this case. As Appellant left the courtroom, he was approached by Detective Jones and Detective Terry. Detective Terry asked Appellant if his name was James Clayton Woodard. Appellant replied that it was not and showed Detective Terry his driver’s license with the name of Bo Clark. In response to further questions from Detective Jones, Appellant told the detective that he had changed his name from James Woodard to Bo Clark. The detective then arrested Appellant on the charges arising from the bar shooting incident. The trial judge admitted this evidence, over Appellant’s objection, stating that it was relevant and the jury should be allowed to weigh its value as the fact finder.

[67]*67Abuse of discretion is the proper standard of review of a trial court’s eviden-tiary rulings.2 “The test for abuse of discretion is whether the trial judge’s decision was arbitrary, unreasonable, unfair or unsupported by sound legal principles.”3 Appellant argues that it was prejudicial to admit the evidence of his name change and aliases. This, coupled with the evidence of the other bad acts, Appellant contends, was reversible error. Appellant further argues that this evidence should have been excluded under KRE 404(b), which provides: “Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith.” KRE 404(b)(1) provides that other crimes, wrongs, or acts, however, may be admissible “if offered for some other purpose, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.”

For testimony to be admissible pursuant to the relevancy standard, it must have “any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.”4 The particular testimony regarding the use of aliases and different names is relevant and admissible to show consciousness of guilt.5 “Evidence of assumption of a false name following the commission of a crime is relevant as an admission ‘by conduct, constituting circumstantial evidence of consciousness of guilt and hence of the fact of guilt itself.’ ”6 Here, each of the instances of misrepresentation by the Appellant occurred after the commission of the assault and upon the inquiry of a police officer. A reasonable jury could believe from this evidence that Appellant misrepresented himself with a consciousness of his guilt to avoid prosecution. The intricacies of Appellant’s name change, whether legal or not, are of little concern.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
147 S.W.3d 63, 2004 Ky. LEXIS 244, 2004 WL 2363756, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/woodard-v-commonwealth-ky-2004.