State v. Moore, 317 Neb. 493

Gregory Moore was convicted of second degree murder and use of a weapon to commit a felony after fatally stabbing Fernando Camacho-McBride in his apartment during a physical altercation.
The prosecution introduced evidence of Moore's prior March 2020 assault on his former landlord, which also involved a knife and similar statements by Moore justifying his conduct as protecting his "inventory."
Moore argued that the prior assault evidence constituted improper propensity evidence under Nebraska Rule of Evidence 404(2) and should have been excluded as unfairly prejudicial.
The trial court allowed the prior assault evidence for the limited purposes of proving motive, intent, knowledge, and absence of mistake or accident concerning the charged offenses, accompanied by a limiting instruction to the jury.
Moore appealed, asserting error in the admission of this evidence and alleging it unfairly swayed the jury.
The Nebraska Supreme Court reviewed for abuse of discretion and affirmed the trial court’s admission of the evidence and Moore’s convictions.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Admissibility of prior bad act evidence under Rule 404(2)	Moore: The prior assault evidence was inadmissible	State: The evidence was relevant to motive, intent,	Evidence was admissible for limited purposes and
	propensity evidence, showing only violent character	knowledge, and absence of mistake or accident	not solely to show propensity; no abuse of discretion.

Whether the probative value outweighed unfair prejudice	Moore: Any relevance was substantially outweighed	State: High probative value due to similarity in	Probative value not outweighed by danger of unfair
	by risk of prejudice	time, circumstances, and repeated motive statements	prejudice, especially with jury limiting instruction.
Sufficiency of limiting instruction to cure possible prejudice	Moore: Limiting instruction inadequate	State: Jury was properly instructed to use evidence	Limiting instruction was appropriate and effective.
		only for allowable purposes
Evidence relevant for non-propensity purposes	Moore: Evidence showed only criminal disposition	State: Evidence showed specific, situational motive	Evidence of motive, intent, knowledge, and lack of
		and intent, independent of character	accident was properly admitted.

State v. Matteson, 313 Neb. 435 (2023) (upholding abuse of discretion standard in reviewing evidentiary rulings under rule 404(2))
State v. German, 316 Neb. 841 (2024) (reaffirming standard for balancing probative value and unfair prejudice)
State v. Boswell, 316 Neb. 542 (2024) (discussing the analysis of other crimes evidence under Rule 404(2))
State v. Freeman, 253 Neb. 385 (1997) (admitting factually similar prior acts to prove plan, knowledge, and identity)
State v. Stewart, 219 Neb. 347 (1985) (clarifying admissibility of prior use of weapon to refute accidental cause claim)