State v. Hague

Summary

The court held that the trial court prejudicially erred by excluding evidence of the victim's prior felony convictions because the evidence was relevant to the defendant's state of mind and the reasonableness of his claimed fear during the shooting. The exclusion also led to redaction of a portion of the defendant's emergency call, which could have impaired the jury's assessment of his credibility and self-defense claim. The court affirmed the order granting a new trial, dismissed review of the stand-your-ground instruction issue as improvidently allowed, and did not reach the sufficiency of the evidence supporting premeditation and deliberation.