State v. Petties

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

O’HERN, J.

This case presents the other side of the coin seen in State v. Harmon, 104 N.J. 189, 516 A.2d 1047 (1986). A jury acquitted Harmon of aggravated assault for pointing a firearm at another but convicted him of possession of the weapon for an unlawful purpose. He appealed, claiming that he had been denied the right to show the jury that he had brought the weapon, a BB gun, to the scene for a lawful purpose. The trial court refused to permit him to assert that he had possessed the gun only as a precaution against a possible life-threatening…