STATE OF NEW JERSEY V. BERNARD E. LOPEZ A-4118-08T4 12-9-10
The trial court held that, because defendant waived his right to testify at his trial for unlawful possession of a weapon, N.J.S.A. 2C:39-5b, he was precluded from testifying at the immediately-following trial for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, N.J.S.A. 2C:39-7b. Acknowledging that the proceedings were two separate trials and not phases of the same trial, we held that defendant's waiver of the right to testify in the first trial did not operate to waive his right to testify in the second trial.
