State v. Blakney

In this appeal from a murder conviction, defendant claims that the trial court’s defective limiting instructions on other-crimes evidence when combined with inappropriate, emotionally-charged remarks by the assistant prosecutor in summation denied her a fair trial. We agree and therefore remand for a new trial on the charge of murder.

I

This appeal, which comes to us as of right based on the dissent in the Appellate Division, see R. 2:2 — 1(a)(2), involves the tragic death of a six-month old child, S.B., at the hands of his nineteen-year old mother, defendant Breane Starr Blakney. At a jury…