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State v. Thomas2/27/2004
estimony as Assistant United States Attorney Tony Arvin read the transcript aloud. Next, Defendant Thomas contends that the date of Defendant Bond's guilty plea and the later date of Mr. Day's testimony provided the inference that the federal proceeding went forward against Defendant Thomas without Defendant Bond. Finally, Defendant Thomas complains that the trial court erred by overruling his objections to Defendant Bond's counsel asking questions regarding Bond's guilty plea in federal court. As argument on these claims, Defendant Thomas makes the general assertion that this evidence was not relevant. The State asserts that Defendant Thomas has waived these claims for failing to make proper argument. See Tenn. Ct. Crim. App. R. 10(b). Additionally, the State contends that Defendant Thomas has failed to demonstrate that the trial court abused its discretion with respect to the admission of any of this evidence. The State's position is well-taken. Nonetheless, we elect to review the admission of the contested evidence on its merits.
Rulings on the admissibility of evidence based on its relevance are entrusted to the sound discretion of the trial court and will not be overturned absent an abuse of that discretion. See State v. DuBose, 953 S.W.2d 649, 652 (Tenn. 1997). " n appellate court should find an abuse of discretion when it appears that a trial court applied an incorrect legal standard, or reached a decision which is against logic or reasoning that caused an injustice to the party complaining." State v. Shuck, 953 S.W.2d 662, 669 (Tenn. 1997).
A. Evidence stickers from federal proceeding.
Initially, we note that Defendant Thomas fails to reference the record regarding objections made to the introduction of exhibits that had been previously used during his federal trial. The State, noting this omission, also fails to cite to the objections, if any, made. Despite the reference made at the motion for new trial hearing that this issue was thoroughly addressed at trial, this Court has been unable to locate any objections to these exhibits, although examples of the trial court's curative measures are found. Irregardless, Defendant Thomas claims that the exhibits were prejudicial because they contained exhibit stickers from the previous trial. Numerous exhibits contain stickers indicating that they had previously been exhibits. No other information is provided on the exhibit tags. Assistant United States Attorney Arvin testified that there were proceedings in federal court. With regard to Defendant Thomas, the jury did not know where or how the exhibits were used previously, the name of any other defendant, or the outcome of any hearing. In short, even if any prejudice resulted from the use of these exhibits, such prejudice was slight and did not substantially outweigh the probative value of this evidence. See Tenn. R. Evid. 403.
B. Videotape of the crime
A videotape of the incident was recorded by Walgreens' security camera and was introduced at trial through the testimony of Charles Young. Defendant Thomas objected, asserting lack of foundation and lack of chain of custody. The trial court found:
Well, chain of custody is not relevant. It's just like with a photograph; if the witness can state that he's viewed this film, and it accurately reflects what it purports to show the there is no chain of custody problem like there would be if you had drugs or something that you needed to maintain - preserve the integrity of the item. As far as foundation is concerned, [Charles Young] is the assistant manager of the store. He said he was familiar with the cameras and how they were pointed and how they operated, so I'll note your excepti
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