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Taylor v. State8/2/2001
Submitted: June 26, 2001
Upon appeal from the Superior Court.
REVERSED and REMANDED.
On September 23, 1999, a Superior Court jury found Tyrone L. Taylor, Appellant, Defendant-Below, guilty of eleven drug-related charges including intent to deliver cocaine. Taylor filed a timely notice of appeal. Taylor argues that the trial court abused its discretion when it admitted: two prior drug-related convictions during the State's case-in-chief; the testimony of a police officer regarding his observations of the area outside Taylor's home; and, the cocaine Taylor allegedly sold. We find that admitting Taylor's prior convictions during the State's case-in-chief unfairly prejudiced his right to present an entrapment defense and thus significantly undermines our confidence in the outcome of the trial. Further, the trial court's failure to hold consideration of the relevance of the remoteness of certain prior convictions until the evidence on predisposition could be reviewed under all of the circumstances surrounding the alleged offense compels us to reverse the judgment of the Superior Court and remand this case for a new trial.
I.
On March 9, 1999, a confidential police informant arranged a drug transaction between Taylor and an undercover police officer. After the informant contacted Taylor, the informant and the officer went to Taylor's home where the officer expressed an interest in purchasing cocaine. Taylor sold the officer crack cocaine for twenty dollars. On March 19, 1999, the officer returned to Taylor's home to purchase more cocaine, but Taylor refused to sell the officer cocaine because the informant was not present. On March 25, 1999, police arrested Taylor. During a search of Taylor's home the police discovered several items of paraphernalia such as scales, baking soda and glass vials. Police also discovered marijuana and $314 cash. A jury convicted Taylor of eleven counts of possession, manufacture, delivery and distribution of controlled substances under 11 Del. C. §§ 4751, 4755, 4767. The State filed a motion to sentence Taylor as an habitual offender under 11 Del. C. 4214(b) because of two earlier drug convictions. The trial court granted the State's motion and sentenced Taylor to life imprisonment.
II.
This Court first heard oral argument in this case on December 12, 2000. The Court issued an order on February 28, 2001 requesting supplemental briefing on three issues: (1) whether Taylor objected to the State's introduction of evidence of his prior convictions during its case-in-chief; (2) whether evidence of the defendant's prior bad acts should be admissible under D.R.E. during the State's case-in-chief to rebut reasonably anticipated defense arguments; and (3) whether the convictions in this case were too remote in time to be relevant to Taylor's predisposition at the time of the transaction.
This case raises two issues concerning evidence of a defendant's prior bad acts. First, we determine whether evidence of a defendant's prior bad acts may be admissible during the State's case-in-chief to rebut anticipated evidence supporting elements of an affirmative defense. This issue requires us to consider relevant language in Getz v. State, regarding the introduction of prior bad act evidence during the State's case-in-chief in light of the Court's recent decisions in Milligan v. State and Cobb v. State. Second, we determine whether Taylor's two drug convictions in 1990 and 1993 were too remote in time to be relevant to his alleged predisposition to sell drugs at the time of the 1999 drug transaction.
At trial, Taylor objected to the admission of his two prior drug convictions because t
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