Opinion ID: 2051244
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: garza's status as felon

Text: Garza next argues that the trial court erred in allowing the prosecution to make reference to his alleged status as a prior felon. Garza urges this court to require that to mention a defendant's status as a convicted felon, a motion in limine should first be held outside the presence of the jury. Then the court could determine whether evidence concerning a defendant's alleged status as a felon is admissible prior to its being referenced by the prosecution. The State responds by arguing that the prosecution did not err in attempting to prove Garza was a prior felon, since the State was required to prove as much to convict Garza of the charges for possession of a firearm or a deadly weapon by a felon. The State is correct in its assertion that evidence of a defendant's prior felony conviction is admissible to prove one of the elements of possession of a firearm or a deadly weapon by a felon. State v. Perrigo, 244 Neb. 990, 510 N.W.2d 304 (1994). In the instant case, Garza was charged with two such counts, each of which required the State to establish such. The prosecution made a reference to Garza's status as a prior felon on direct examination of a State witness and asked a question of Garza concerning such status, each of which references amounts to an accusation that Garza had previously been convicted of a felony. We fail to see how these accusations unfairly prejudiced Garza, when the State was required to prove Garza's status as a felon to convict him of certain charges. In effect, such an accusation and any accompanying prejudice to Garza had already occurred when Garza was charged with possession of a firearm or a deadly weapon by a felon, since, presumably, the jury would have been informed that possession of a firearm or a deadly weapon by a felon was one of the charges it would be asked to decide. Thus, the State's later repetition of the accusation embodied in the charge was merely a reiteration of a charge that the jury had already heard. We conclude that Garza was not unfairly prejudiced by the State's attempts to prove Garza's alleged status as a prior convicted felon at trial.