State v. Fortney, 201 N.C. App. 662 (Jan. 5, 2010)

Following State v. Little, 191 N.C. App. 655 (2008), and State v. Jackson, 139 N.C. App. 721 (2000), and holding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by allowing the State to introduce evidence of the defendant’s prior conviction in a felon in possession case where the defendant had offered to stipulate to the prior felony. The prior conviction, first-degree rape, was not substantially similar to the charged offenses so as to create a danger that the jury might generalize the defendant’s earlier bad act into a bad character and raise the odds that he perpetrated the charged offenses of drug possession, possession of a firearm by a felon, and carrying a concealed weapon.