Opinion ID: 1348602
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Reference to prior bad acts

Text: The victim's grandmother testified that she had once observed Sterling using drugs. [2] Sterling argues that this was improper evidence of a prior bad act, constituting prejudicial error. Evidence of other crimes, wrongs or acts are not admissible to prove a defendant's character and that he acted in conformity therewith; however, such evidence is admissible to prove motive, intent, knowledge, or absence of mistake or accident. NRS 48.045(2). However, inadvertent references to other criminal activity not solicited by the prosecution, which are blurted out by a witness, can be cured by the trial court's immediate admonishment to the jury to disregard the statement. Allen v. State, 91 Nev. 78, 83, 530 P.2d 1195, 1198 (1975). The grandmother's statement about observing the drug usage was not solicited by the prosecution. The trial court cured any error when it immediately admonished the jury to disregard the witness' statement of smoking rock cocaine. [3]