Opinion ID: 2177003
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Evidence of Drug Use

Text: Appellant Nero also argues that the trial court abused its discretion in permitting the government to introduce evidence that he smoked cocaine before and after the shooting on the night of the murder. [19] The government contends that the two references to appellant's drug use that night were relevant to the cocaine payment which Nero told the witness that he expected to receive for the crime and completed the chronological sequence of events. Appellant counters that neither smoking episode occurred contemporaneously with the murder, and therefore, the Toliver rule for admitting such evidence does not apply. See Toliver v. United States, 468 A.2d 958, 960-61 (D.C.1983) (contemporaneous criminal conduct is not other crimes evidence, and criminal conduct inextricably intertwined with charged offense is admissible without necessity of cautionary instruction). We need not decide upon the propriety of the admission of this evidence. Having examined the record, we conclude that even assuming error in the trial court's rulings in this regard, they were harmless. [20] See Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 765, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 1248, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946).