Right to present a defense; Evidence exclusion; Relevance; MRE 401 & 402; People v Unger; Custodial-kidnapping (MCL 750.350a(1)); People v McBride; Harmless error

Holding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in excluding as irrelevant the custody order defendant sought to introduce, the court affirmed his custodial-kidnapping convictions. A default judgment entered in Berrien County awarded the children’s mother (D) sole custody of her two children with defendant. He later obtained a parenting-time order in Wayne County. When D was hospitalized, she asked defendant to watch the children at her home, and he agreed. But when she returned home, it was locked and no one was there. In a phone conversation, defendant told her “not to worry about the children’s whereabouts and that he was keeping them and getting his parenting time.” He kept them from her for several months. Eventually with police assistance the children were returned to her care. The Berrien County Prosecutor’s Office charged defendant with two counts of kidnapping–custodial interference. He unsuccessfully sought to admit the Wayne County order at trial. He argued that it was relevant to show “that he was unaware of the Berrien County orders and that he conversely believed that the Wayne County order controlled. Even if that were true, the admission of the order is irrelevant because: (1) when [he] failed to return the children, there was a valid court order granting [D] exclusive parental rights to the children; and (2) defendant did not follow the parenting-time arrangement in the Wayne County order.” The court noted that the Wayne County order provided for “week on, week off” parenting-time, but D testified that after defendant took the children in June, she did not see them again until July or August, and they were not returned to her care until the following March and April. Thus, “even if defendant were operating under the improper assumption that the Wayne County order controlled, [his] actions would still have been in violation of MCL 750.350a(1), and any error in excluding the Wayne County order was harmless.”