DEMARCO GREGORY JAMES v. STATE OF MARYLAND

Daily Record Staff//March 14, 2017//

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Criminal procedure — Motion to suppress evidence — Other-crimes evidence

Following a jury trial in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County, Demarco Gregory James was convicted of murder in the first degree, felony murder, first-degree assault, unlawful possession of a regulated firearm, burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary, and use of a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence. The court sentenced James to incarceration for life for the murder, a consecutive twenty years of incarceration for the unlawful possession of a firearm, and to two concurrent twenty-year terms of incarceration for the conspiracy to commit burglary and use of a firearm counts.

James appealed, presenting us with three questions:

1. Did the trial court err in failing to propound to the venire two of James’s requested voir dire questions?

2. Did the trial court err in admitting hearsay evidence?

3. Did the trial court err in permitting the State to present highly prejudicial evidence of other crimes?

Read the opinion here: