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Collins v. Hertenstein9/3/2002
d to questions asked of police officers and Collins' expert witness to suggest that Collins opened the door to character evidence. They also provide citations to the transcript wherein they objected to some of Collins' comments concerning Wilson's character and state of mind. The officers, however, do not direct us to where in the record they attempted to introduce evidence that Wilson possessed drugs and appeared to be an active drug dealer, that he had been arrested twice, and that he had served time in a halfway house and where in the record the circuit court did not allow such evidence.
When they do point to certain instances in the argument portion of their brief, they do not cite where in the transcript or legal file we can find the alleged error. They do not cite where in the record the circuit court made its ruling; therefore, they have not established that they preserved their challenge for appeal. Nor do we discern plain error. In their statement of facts, the officers do provide references to the transcript pertaining to the testimony by the Jackson County medical examiner. The medical examiner testified that he found Wilson's body to be that of a "normal healthy young male child." On cross-examination, the officers claimed that Collins had "opened the door" for the medical examiner to testify about the results of Wilson's drug test. The officers wanted to ask the medical examiner, "In your medical opinion, does a normal healthy 13 year old male have [a breakdown product of marijuana, called carboxy tetrahydrocannabinol] in his system?" The circuit court did not allow the question. The circuit court found that Collins did not open the door to the evidence. The officers never asserted to the circuit court that the evidence was admissible as character evidence or to prove Wilson's state of mind. We will not convict the circuit court of error on an issue that it was not accorded an opportunity to rule. Lincoln Credit Company v. Peach, 636 S.W.2d 31, 36 (Mo. banc 1982), appeal dismissed, 459 U.S. 1094 (1983).
The officers next assert that the circuit court abused its discretion by refusing to admit evidence, which, they contend, pertained to the amount of damages suffered by Collins. Although the officers put their contentions in a single point relied on, we address each separately because some of the evidence pertained to compensatory damages and other evidence pertained to aggravating circumstances damages. "Multiple contentions not related to a single issue may not be grouped together in a single point relied on." In the Interest of A.H., 963 S.W.2d 374, 379 (Mo. App. 1998), overruled on other grounds, State ex rel. Stubblefield v. Bader, 66 S.W.3d 741 (Mo. banc 2002).
Moreover, the officers have not preserved these contentions for appeal. They do not provide citations to the record where they attempted to introduce the specific evidence or where the circuit court made its ruling disallowing the evidence. For some of the contentions, they also provide no citation of authority as to why the evidence would be admissible, and they fail to provide the evidence as part of the record on appeal. Thus, we address the contentions for plain error only.
First, they claim that the circuit court should have allowed them to introduce into evidence a mug shot photograph of Wilson because the circuit court allowed Collins to show the jury two photographs of Wilson, "one of which showed Wilson in a particularly angelic looking pose." We do not discern plain error in the circuit court's not admitting the photograph into evidence. Whether or not the photographs that Collins submitted depicted Wilson as "angelic" is not a sufficient legal reason to require admission of a mug sho
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