U.S. v. Gomez

In prosecution on drug conspiracy charges, Dist. Ct. erred under Rule 404 in admitting evidence of small quantity of cocaine found in defendant’s bedroom, since such evidence constituted improper propensity evidence where, although govt. claimed that such evidence was admissible to establish defendant’s identity as participant of charged drug conspiracy, instant user quantity of drugs found in defendant’s bedroom 26 days after end of conspiracy did not serve govt.’s purpose, and govt. could offer no theory other than propensity to commit bad act to connect cocaine found in defendant’s bedroom to defendant’s identity as participant in drug conspiracy. In making its ruling, Ct. of Appeals determined that traditional 4-step approach used to determine admissibility of bad-act evidence should be abandoned in favor of relevancy test followed by Fed. Rules of Evidence. Instant error, though, was harmless given other evidence linking defendant to drug conspiracy. (Partial dissent filed.)