State v. HREN

Defendant appeals her conviction for second-degree theft, ORS 164.045. She assigns error to the exclusion of her testimony that she had been told by a Macy’s employee that she could take the item that she was charged with stealing: a bottle of perfume used by customers as a “tester” bottle. The state concedes that the trial court erred in excluding the testimony but argues that the exclusion was harmless because there was little likelihood that the excluded evidence would have affected the jury’s verdict. We disagree with the state’s harmless error argument and, accordingly, reverse and…