Morales-Garcia v. State

Summary

The Court reversed Yony Morales-Garcia’s convictions and remanded for a new trial because the prosecutor improperly referenced his codefendant’s guilty plea in opening statement and elicited testimony about that plea before the codefendant testified. Although Morales-Garcia did not object, the claims were forfeited rather than waived and were reviewed for plain error. The Court held that the repeated references violated governing limits on use of a codefendant’s guilty plea and created a reasonable probability of a different verdict. The Court did not reach the alternative claim concerning a limiting jury instruction.