The court of appeals decided State v. Howard earlier this week. The opinion addresses several issues, but I want to focus on what is sometimes called the connected crimes doctrine, which allows the state to introduce evidence of uncharged crimes closely related to a charged offense notwithstanding Rule 404(b)'s limitations on evidence of uncharged bad acts. The defendant in Howard was charged with, and convicted of, robbing a woman at gunpoint as she entered her hotel room in Archdale. The crime took place at 12:50 a.m. The defendant took her laptop computer, her camcorder, and her wallet. At trial, the state also introduced evidence showing that the defendant broke into Daddy Rabbit’s gun store in Lexington at 4:30 a.m. on the same day, taking a laptop computer and a rifle. A citizen saw the defendant commit the break-in, followed him as he drove away, and called the police. Based on the information provided by the citizen, the police apprehended the defendant shortly thereafter, in possession of the items taken in both incidents. Although the defendant was not charged with the Daddy Rabbit's break-in, he did not object to the admission of the Daddy Rabbit's evidence at trial, so the court of appeals reviewed for plain error. It found none, quoting State v. Agee, 326 N.C. 542 (1990), as follows: [A]dmission of evidence of a criminal defendant’s prior bad acts, received to establish the circumstances of the crime on trial by describing its immediate context, has been approved in many other jurisdictions [...]
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