People v. Smith

This case presents question in prosecution on residential burglary charge, whether trial court properly denied defendant’s motion in limine to preclude government from introducing into evidence two nonconsecutive iPhone video clips generated by owner of victim’s building that depicted defendant walking away from victim’s apartment after touching doorknob and then exiting victim’s apartment about 20 minutes later. While defendant argued that instant iPhone clips violated best evidence rule, because iPhone clips were not duplicates where they were not accurate reproduction of entire original surveillance footage, Appellate Court, in affirming defendant’s conviction, found that trial court did not err in admitting said iPhone clips, where: (1) there was no evidence suggesting that police purposefully designed to prevent original footage from being admitted at trial; (2) government verified accuracy of iPhone clips through owner of building, who explained that he could not transfer entire original footage from surveillance video to CD; and (3) there was no evidence that police lost or destroyed original footage in bad faith. (Dissent filed.)