People v. Lopez

(Court opinion corrected 5/30/13.) Defendant, then age 15, was convicted of murder, for being part of a group which beat to death a factory employee in factory parking lot. Absent a showing, beyond mere suspicion, that a defendant participated in a previous crime or bad act, evidence about that crime is inadmissible. Court erred in admitting evidence of attack on a man by some co-defendants in same parking lot three weeks prior. (STERBA and PIERCE, concurring.)