State v, Gibbs

THIS OPINION HAS NO
PRECEDENTIAL VALUE.  IT SHOULD NOT BE CITED OR RELIED ON AS PRECEDENT IN ANY
PROCEEDING EXCEPT AS PROVIDED BY RULE 268(d)(2), SCACR.

THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA

In The Court of Appeals

The State, Respondent,

v.

Jarvis Dequan
Gibbs, Appellant.

Appeal From Kershaw County

G. Thomas Cooper, Jr., Circuit Court
Judge

Unpublished Opinion No.  2011-UP-511 

Submitted November 1, 2011 – Filed
November 28, 2011

AFFIRMED

Appellate Defender Robert M. Pachak, of
Columbia, for Appellant.

Attorney General Alan Wilson, Chief Deputy
Attorney General John W. McIntosh, Assistant Deputy Attorney General Salley W.
Elliott, and Senior Assistant Attorney General Harold M. Coombs, Jr., all of
Columbia; and Solicitor Daniel E. Johnson, of Columbia, for Respondent.

PER CURIAM:  Jarvis
Dequan Gibbs appeals his convictions for entering a bank with intent to steal,
kidnapping, and using a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. 
Gibbs argues the trial court erred in allowing testimony about his statement to
the police that he offered twenty dollars' worth of crack cocaine to borrow a
bicycle because the testimony was unduly prejudicial and placed his character
at issue.  We affirm.[1]

"The admission of
evidence is within the discretion of the trial court and will not be reversed
absent an abuse of discretion."  State v. Pagan, 369 S.C. 201, 208,
631 S.E.2d 262, 265 (2006).  "An abuse of discretion occurs when the
conclusions of the trial court either lack evidentiary support or are
controlled by an error of law."  Id.  "Generally, appellate
courts will not set aside convictions due to insubstantial errors not affecting
the result."  Id. at 212, 631 S.E.2d at 267.  "[A]n
insubstantial error not affecting the result of the trial is harmless where
'guilt has been conclusively proven by competent evidence such that no other
rational conclusion can be reached.'" Id. (citation omitted).

Here, competent evidence established Gibbs's guilt beyond a
reasonable doubt.  Arthur Macklin, the owner of the bicycle, testified, and
Gibbs admitted, Gibbs borrowed Macklin's bicycle the morning of the robbery.  Melissa
Roberts, a bank teller, testified she recognized the bank robber as Gibbs
despite his mask.  Two witnesses testified the bank robber left the bank on a
bicycle.   The police later found the bicycle abandoned next to a shoe print
having the same outsole design of the shoe Gibbs was wearing the morning of the
robbery.  Gibbs admitted to Chad Moore, a person incarcerated in the Kershaw
County Detention Center, he robbed the bank on a bicycle and escaped in a
four-wheeler abandoned thereafter.  A police detective testified the bicycle,
when found, was laying down on tracks from a four-wheeler and the police discovered
an abandoned four-wheeler after talking to Moore.  Therefore, because competent
evidence of Gibbs's guilt was presented at trial, Gibbs's convictions will not
be set aside even if the statement was admitted in error.  See Pagan,
369 S.C. at 212, 631 S.E.2d at 267 ("[A]ppellate courts will not set aside
convictions due to insubstantial errors not affecting the result.").

AFFIRMED.

SHORT,
WILLIAMS, and GEATHERS, JJ., concur.

[1] We decide this case without oral argument pursuant to
Rule 215, SCACR.