The People v. Sebastian Telfair

Summary

The Court reversed Telfair's weapons-possession conviction and ordered a new trial because the trial court improperly admitted evidence of two remote prior firearm-possession incidents under the character-evidence rule, and the error was not harmless. The prior incidents did not make it more likely that Telfair knowingly possessed the firearms found in his truck in 2017 and risked inviting a prohibited propensity inference. The Court did not reach Telfair's constitutional challenges because they were unpreserved, and it rejected his separate challenge to testimony concerning alleged uncharged conduct against two witnesses.