State v. Thang

We are asked to review (1) the scope of privacy rights of a guest whose host consents to a search of the premises and (2) the admissibility of prior bad acts under the identity prong of ER 404(b). Petitioner Vy Thang claims that evidence obtained during the search of an apartment where he was residing as a guest should have been suppressed, and that testimony concerning prior bad acts should not have been admitted. We hold that the search was constitutional, but that the admission of the prior bad act was error, and we reverse.

In August 1997, Thang and Simeon Terry, residents of the Maple…