Fairbanks v. State

The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's conviction for felony neglect of a dependent resulting in her death, holding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting evidence at trial that Defendant had, on prior occasions, used a pillow to muffle his infant daughter's crying.On appeal, Defendant argued that the evidence of prior pillow incidents was inadmissible under Ind. R. Evid. 404(b). The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the State may introduce other-bad-acts evidence to show lack of accident only when the State has reliable assurance that an accident defense will be raised or after the defendant places the accident at issue on trial; (2) in the instant case, because the State was reliably assured that Defendant would raise an accident defense, it could properly introduce the Rule 404(b) evidence; and (3) there was no abuse of discretion in admitting that evidence because the evidence's prejudicial effect did not outweigh its probative value. View "Fairbanks v. State" on Justia Law