State v. DeCosta
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The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the superior court convicting Defendant of felony assault resulting in serious bodily injury and sentencing him to a term of twenty years at the Adult Correctional Institutions, holding that any error was harmless.
On appeal, Defendant argued that the trial justice erred in admitting evidence that he struck an unrelated person in an unrelated event earlier on the evening in question, in violation of R.I. R. Evid. 404(b) and 403. The Supreme Court affirmed the conviction, holding (1) the admission of the challenged evidence was an abuse of discretion; but (2) the error did not contribute to the jury's evaluation of the evidence and Defendant's conviction and amounted to harmless error.
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