Opinion ID: 159242
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Evidence of Mr. Pearson's character

Text: 159 Mr. Pearson argues that when Ms. Meyer testified that he supported himself as a hustler and a pimp, she offered jury evidence of his character, which the trial court was required to instruct the jury to ignore. According to Mr. Pearson, when the court instructed the jury to disregard Ms. Meyer's statement that he was a pimp but refused to give a similar instruction regarding the word hustler, it violated Fed. R. Evid. 404(b). We review the trial court's evidentiary rulings for abuse of discretion. See Cartier v. Jackson, 59 F.3d 1046, 1048 (10th Cir. 1995). 160 Mr. Pearson's argument takes Ms. Meyer's testimony out of context. Ms. Meyer's statements were in response to the Assistant United States Attorney's query if Mr. Pearson had a job in January or February of 1997. By asking this question, the government was trying to elicit a response that would show the jury that Mr. Pearson was unemployed and had no steady income, giving him a motive to rob Mr. Goodcents. Ms. Meyer answered that she knew Mr. Pearson earned money by working as a hustler. Accordingly, evidence of Mr. Pearson's source of income did not constitute character evidence, and, therefore, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting it over Mr. Pearson's Rule 404(b) objection. 161 Moreover, in light of all of the other evidence against him, any error caused by the admission of this testimony is harmless.