Summary
The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed Kevin Tate’s conviction for first-degree murder and forty-year sentence. The court held that evidence of Tate’s firing a gun near a roommate shortly before the killing was admissible under Arkansas Rule of Evidence 404(b), and that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying mistrial motions concerning character evidence and prosecutorial closing remarks. The court also declined to reach Tate’s due-process challenge to photographs introduced during the penalty phase because his sentence was less than the statutory maximum.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether testimony that Tate intentionally fired the murder weapon into a couch near Schaffer two days before the killing was admissible under Arkansas Rule of Evidence 404(b).
- Whether testimony that Tate was unemployed improperly placed his character in issue under Arkansas Rule of Evidence 404(a), requiring a mistrial.
- Whether the prosecutor's closing-argument comment that the defense could have played the 911 tape improperly shifted the burden of proof and required a mistrial.
- Whether admission of twelve photographs depicting the victim's life during the penalty phase violated due process or prejudiced Tate's sentence.
Holdings
- The trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting testimony that Tate intentionally discharged the murder weapon into a couch two days before the killing because the evidence was independently relevant to show lack of mistake or accident and, together with the threat against Portwood, motive and intent.
- The trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying a mistrial after a witness testified that Tate was unemployed because the evidence could be relevant to motive, and the testimony did not warrant the drastic remedy of a mistrial.
- The trial court did not manifestly abuse its discretion by denying a mistrial after sustaining Tate's objection and admonishing the jury to disregard the prosecutor's comment that the defense could have played the 911 tape.
- The court did not reach the due-process challenge to the twelve penalty-phase photographs because Tate received a sentence within the statutory range and less than the maximum possible sentence, preventing him from demonstrating prejudice.
Key quotations
“Testimony is admissible pursuant to Rule 404(b) if it is independently relevant to the main issue, relevant in the sense of tending to prove some material point rather than merely to prove that the defendant is a criminal or a bad person.” (258)
“A mistrial is a drastic remedy and should be declared only when there has been an error so prejudicial that justice cannot be served by continuing the trial, or when the fundamental fairness of the trial itself has been manifestly affected.” (259)
Factual background
Tate lived with Melissa Portwood and her friend Brande Schaffer. On January 31, 2004, Portwood was found in the apartment with a contact gunshot wound to the head and died shortly afterward; the murder weapon was found beside her. Tate initially described the shooting as accidental while cleaning the gun and later said it occurred accidentally during an argument. Two days before the killing, Tate had intentionally fired the same pistol into a couch near Schaffer's foot after asking whether she was afraid of him, and the night before the killing he threatened to kill Portwood if she would not leave him.
Procedural history
A jury convicted Tate of first-degree murder on October 17, 2005, and the trial court sentenced him to forty years' imprisonment. The trial court admitted other-acts evidence, denied mistrial motions based on character evidence and prosecutorial closing remarks, and admitted twelve photographs during the penalty phase. Tate filed a timely appeal, and the Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed.