PEOPLE OF MI V TANISHA L WILLIAMS
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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS
PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN,
UNPUBLISHED
October 2, 2001
Plaintiff-Appellee,
V
No. 226320
Wayne Circuit Court
LC No. 98-011563
TANISHA L. WILLIAMS,
Defendant-Appellant.
Before: Cavanagh, P.J., and Markey and Cooper, JJ.
PER CURIAM.
Defendant appeals by right her jury convictions for assault with intent to commit great
bodily harm, MCL 750.84, and felony-firearm, MCL 750.227b. We affirm.
Defendant’s convictions arose out of a shooting that followed an altercation on August
23, 1998. Defendant asserted that she acted in self-defense after she was attacked by
complainant. On appeal, she asserts that the trial court abused its discretion in excluding
evidence that could have supported her claim of self-defense.
The decision whether to admit evidence is within the discretion of the trial court and will
only be reversed on appeal if the trial court abused its discretion. People v Lukity, 460 Mich 484,
488; 596 NW2d 607 (1999). Defendant bears the burden of establishing that the error was
prejudicial and undermined the reliability of the verdict. Id. at 495.
Defendant maintained that complainant had keys in her hand that could have been viewed
as a weapon. One of the other witnesses testified not only that he saw complainant’s keys in her
hand, but also that the keys scratched his hand. The trial court did not require the prosecutor to
produce two police witnesses who may have taken possession of complainant’s keys. The trial
court did not abuse its discretion where there was no showing that these were the officers who
took the keys. Where other testimony was admitted supporting defendant’s claim, defendant was
not prejudiced by the police officers’ absence.
Defendant also claims that the trial court erred in preventing her from displaying her own
keys to the jury, ostensibly to prove that she had separate key sets for her house and her car. But,
again, other witnesses testified that defendant returned to the scene because she forgot her keys,
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and the keys were found at the scene after the shooting and returned to defendant. Defendant
was not prejudiced where other testimony established her claim.
Finally, defendant asserts that the trial court erred in precluding her from testifying that
she had a personal protection order (PPO) against another individual as the explanation why she
carried a gun. However, the court allowed defendant to testify that she carried the gun because
her daughter’s father had tried to kill her once and had threatened her on other occasions. The
trial court properly found that the PPO was irrelevant. Defendant was not prejudiced where the
excluded testimony was cumulative. People v Bartlett, 231 Mich App 139, 158; 585 NW2d 341
(1998); People v McElhaney, 215 Mich App 269, 283; 545 NW2d 18 (1996).
We affirm.
/s/ Mark J. Cavanagh
/s/ Jane E. Markey
/s/ Jessica R. Cooper
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