| The Supreme Court primarily affirmed the judgment of the intermediate court of appeals (ICA) affirming the judgment of the circuit court convicting Defendant of various counts, including attempted murder of a police officer, and sentencing Defendant to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole plus ten years, holding that the issues Defendant raised on certiorari lacked merit. In his application for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court Defendant raised five questions, including the issue of whether the ICA committed grave errors of law and fact when it held that the trial court properly admitted evidence of Defendant's suicide attempt the day after the shooting. The Supreme Court addressed Defendant's question regarding his suicide attempt, holding (1) evidence of a suicide or attempted suicide is not automatically admissible as relevant to a defendant's consciousness of guilt, and (2) the circuit court correctly ruled that the evidence was admissible as probative of Defendant's identity as to the person who had committed the offenses charged. Further, the Court noted plain error affecting Defendant's substantial rights with respect to the lack of a merger instruction on Defendant's firearms convictions and remanded the relevant counts to the circuit court for further proceedings. |
