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Evidence of Shooting Committed by Defendant’s Twin Brother Was Highly Prejudicial and Had No Bearing Upon Defendant’s Guilt—Murder Conviction Reversed

The Second Department determined defendant’s murder convictIon must be reversed because evidence of a shooting committed by defendant’s twin brother should not have been admitted. This highly prejudicial evidence had no bearing on defendant’s culpability:

“Evidence of uncharged crimes or crimes committed by a person other than the defendant is generally inadmissible because it is highly prejudicial with little probative value” … . Here, the evidence of the unrelated shooting was admitted in response to evidence introduced by the defense to show that the defendant and his uncharged accomplices exhibited a calm demeanor shortly after the shooting at the garage and that such a demeanor was inconsistent with the People’s contention that they had been recently involved in a violent crime. The People argued that evidence of the unrelated shooting was relevant to this case on the ground that it showed that the defendant’s identical twin brother had similarly exhibited a calm demeanor after he shot an individual at a bar on a prior occasion.

Evidence that the defendant’s identical twin brother had perpetrated a separate shooting less than two months prior to the shooting in this case was highly prejudicial to the defendant and had no bearing whatsoever on the defendant’s culpability for the crimes charged … . This evidence “served no purpose other than to raise an inference of guilt by association” … . People v Grigoroff, 2015 NY Slip Op 06517, 2nd Dept 8-12-15

 

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