State v. J.M., Jr. (A-48-14; 075317)
The evidence of defendant’s prior sexual assault in Florida is inadmissible under N.J.R.E. 404(b) because it fails to satisfy the four-factor test established in State v. Cofield, 127 N.J. 328 (1992). The Court declines to adopt the appellate panel’s bright-line rule that evidence of a prior crime for which a defendant was acquitted is always inadmissible. The Court also declines the appellate panel’s reformulation of the instruction provided to jurors governing the circumstances under which a jury may give any weight to acquitted-crime evidence.
