People v. Knox

• Decision Date: 04 February 2004
• Docket Number: Docket No. 123970.
• Citation: 469 Mich. 502,674 N.W.2d 366
• Parties: PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Danny Lee KNOX, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court

674 N.W.2d 366

469 Mich. 502

PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Danny Lee KNOX, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.

Docket No. 123970.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

February 4, 2004.

Michael A. Cox, Attorney General, Thomas L. Casey, Solicitor General, James J. Gregart, Prosecuting Attorney, and Judith B. Ketchum, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, Kalamazoo, for the people.

State Appellate Defender (by Gary L. Rogers), Detroit, for the defendant.

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

The defendant was charged in the death of his four-month-old son, Xavier Knox, and convicted of first-degree felony murder, MCL 750.316(1)(b), with first-degree child abuse, MCL 750.136b(2), as the predicate. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. We must determine whether the admission of evidence regarding defendant's past anger directed at the child's mother, the child's prior injuries, and the mother's good character were plain errors affecting defendant's substantial rights. The Court of Appeals, in a divided decision, affirmed the judgment of the trial court. We reverse the conviction of defendant and remand for a new trial.

I

On July 22, 1998, defendant was in the apartment of LaToya Kelley, the mother of his son. The couple argued during the evening, and Kelley later fed Xavier a bottle of formula and put him to bed. Defendant testified that Xavier seemed fine at that time. After Xavier went to sleep, Kelley left the apartment around 9:30 p.m. to visit a friend and neighbor. According to defendant, he checked on Xavier at around 9:45 p.m. and then sent Kelley's two-year-old child to the bathroom. When defendant returned to the bedroom, he noticed Xavier making gurgling noises and saw that his eyes had rolled back into his head. Xavier would not respond, so defendant ran to the balcony to call out for Kelley and then telephoned Kelley's mother to tell her that something was wrong with the baby. Defendant took his son to a neighbor, who in turn called 911. Emergency personnel arrived at the apartment around 10:15 p.m., at which point Xavier still had a heartbeat. By 10:25 p.m., the child's heartbeat had stopped.

Medical experts determined that the boy had died from being severely shaken and from his head coming into contact with an object several times. The boy suffered from retinal hemorrhaging, subdural and subarachnoid hematoma, and three distinct skull fractures from three separate contacts with an unknown object. The experts opined that Xavier's injuries were not accidental, that the child most likely lost consciousness within one or two minutes of being injured, and that it would have been impossible for Xavier to consume formula after being injured. An expert also opined that Xavier's respiratory problems could have stabilized for an hour or more before his heart rate collapsed. There was also evidence that he had suffered prior abusive injuries, including recently sustained fractures to the right arm and left leg, as well as healed rib fractures that were between three- and six-weeks-old.

Defendant's first trial resulted in a deadlocked jury. At his second trial, defendant denied killing or ever abusing his son and argued that it was Kelley who must have abused Xavier before leaving the apartment. Kelley testified that she and defendant had many arguments, with defendant becoming increasingly angry, shouting and kicking physical objects. On one occasion, he allegedly shoved her. Kelley also testified that she told defendant to get help for his anger and urged him to take anger-management classes. Defendant claimed that these were, in fact, parenting classes, but admitted that he took them at Kelley's urging. Kelley admitted that she, too, had a temper and that she had thrown items and torn a shower curtain in anger. The prosecutor, however, also elicited testimony from her about how she had cared for her eleven brothers and sisters from the age of eight, and how she loved children in general and treasured her own two children. Kelley's parents and friends testified that she had a caring nature and loved her children.

Defendant did not object at trial to the testimony regarding his angry confrontations with Kelley, the prior injuries sustained by his son, or the testimony regarding Kelley's good character. After the jury convicted defendant, defendant appealed of right.¹ Defendant accused the prosecutor of misconduct in presenting the evidence regarding defendant's prior acts, Xavier's prior injuries, and Kelley's good character, and accused his trial counsel of ineffective assistance in failing to object. Defendant also questioned the propriety of his felony-murder conviction where the acts comprising the predicate felony also comprised the murder.

The Court of Appeals treated defendant's first issue as a purely evidentiary one and, in a divided decision, affirmed defendant's conviction.² In ruling that defendant was not entitled to relief, the majority relied heavily on this Court's decision in People v. Hine, 467 Mich. 242, 650 N.W.2d 659 (2002), and the majority's belief that this decision compelled a finding that there was no showing by the defendant of plain error affecting his substantial rights. The majority found the evidence of defendant's angry behavior against Kelley sufficiently similar to the alleged abuse of the child to be either admissible or not harmful in admission. It found the evidence of the past abuse of defendant's son probative of whether the injuries the boy suffered were inflicted intentionally. It found the admission of the evidence of Kelley's good character improper under MRE 608 and 609, as well as MRE 404, but saw no showing of plain error affecting defendant's substantial rights because the prosecutor had a reasonable likelihood of convicting defendant by demonstrating that defendant was alone with the boy when the fatal injuries were sustained.

The dissenting judge disagreed with the majority's assessment of the effect of Hine, stating that Hine was consistent with precedent, and that application of that precedent required a reversal in this case. The dissenting judge opined that the evidence of defendant's past anger and abuse served the improper purpose of demonstrating that defendant must have abused his son, resulting in the boy's death, because defendant had a bad character. The dissenter agreed that the evidence of past abuse of the child was admissible under MRE 404(b), but stated that the prosecutor put this evidence to improper use by indicating to the jury that the prior injuries were not just intentionally caused, but were caused by defendant. Finally, the dissenting judge opined that admission of the evidence regarding Kelley's good character prejudicially undermined defendant's credibility and defense. The dissenter argued that these plain errors were outcome-determinative and required the reversal of defendant's conviction and a remand for a new trial.

Although we agree with the Court of Appeals majority's assessment that this matter should be analyzed from the standpoint of whether admission of the contested evidence discussed above constituted plain error affecting defendant's substantial rights, we agree with the dissenting judge that plain error requiring reversal did, in fact, occur.

II

In order to preserve the issue of the improper admission of evidence for appeal, a party generally must object at the time of admission. Because defendant did not object to the admission of the challenged evidence in this case, he must demonstrate plain error affecting his substantial rights, meaning that he was actually innocent or that the error seriously affected the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of the judicial proceedings independent of his innocence. People v. Carines, 460 Mich. 750, 763, 597 N.W.2d 130 (1999).

III

MRE 404(b) provides in part:

(1) 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. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, scheme, plan, or system in doing an act, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident when the same is material, whether such other crimes, wrongs, or acts are contemporaneous with, or prior or subsequent to the conduct at issue in the case.

In People v. VanderVliet, 444 Mich. 52, 74-75, 508 N.W.2d 114 (1993), this Court articulated the factors that must be present for other acts evidence to be admissible. First, the prosecutor must offer the "prior bad acts" evidence under something other than a character or propensity theory. Second, "the evidence must be relevant under MRE 402, as enforced through MRE 104(b)[.]" Id. Third, the probative value of the evidence must not be substantially outweighed by unfair prejudice under MRE 403. Finally, the trial court, upon request, may provide a limiting instruction under MRE 105.

In People v. Crawford, 458 Mich. 376, 385, 582 N.W.2d 785 (1998), this Court explained that the prosecution bears the initial burden of establishing the relevance of the evidence to prove a fact within one of the exceptions to the general exclusionary rule of MRE 404(b). "Relevance is a relationship between the evidence and a material fact at issue that must be demonstrated by reasonable inferences that make a material fact at issue more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence." Crawford, supra at 387, 582 N.W.2d 785. Where the only relevance of the proposed evidence is to show the defendant's character or the defendant's propensity to commit the crime, the evidence must be excluded.

In People v. Sabin (After Remand), 463 Mich. 43, 614 N.W.2d 888 (2000), this Court specifically examined the exception in MRE 404(b) for evidence showing a "scheme, plan, or system." We clarified that "evidence of similar misconduct is logically relevant to show that the charged act occurred...