Solis-Morales v. State

The trial court did not err in allowing the jury to view a video recording of police conducting a search of the defendant's pockets after his arrest, as the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the victim's keys in the defendant's pocket comprised a material fact at issue.

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Jose Luis Solis-Morales was tried by a Gwinnett County jury and convicted of aggravated assault,1 burglary,2 and six counts of false imprisonment.3 Solis-Morales now appeals, contending that the trial court erred when it allowed the State to present evidence that, according to Solis-Morales, is substantially more prejudicial than probative.4 We find no merit to this claim, and we affirm Solis-Morales’s convictions. It is within the sound discretion of the trial court to determine if the probative value of the evidence “is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury.” Quedens v. State , 280 Ga. 355, 361 4 629 SE2d 197 2006 citation and punctuation omitted; see also Alvelo v. State , ___Ga.___ 4 Case No. S11A1979, decided February 27, 2012. Here, Solis-Morales claims that he was unfairly prejudiced when the jury was allowed to view a video recording of a police officer conducting a search of his pockets after he was arrested5 because, Solis-Morales alleges, he was restrained in handcuffs at the time of the search.

First, we disagree with Solis-Morales’s assertion that the video recording is not “probative” because it is irrelevant and cumulative of other evidence. Although Solis-Morales has failed to provide a copy of the video recording with the appellate record,6 he acknowledges that it shows a police officer recovering a set of keys from his pocket during a search at the Norcross police station. At trial, the State offered testimony to show that the keys belonged to the one of the victims of the home invasion, and this evidence supported the claim that Solis-Morales committed an armed robbery in which the keys were taken from the victim at gunpoint.

Solis-Morales v. State

The trial court did not err in allowing the jury to view a video recording of police conducting a search of the defendant's pockets after his arrest, as the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the victim's keys in the defendant's pocket comprised a material fact at issue.

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