E.C. v. State

DANIEL S. PEARSON, Judge.

We reverse the adjudication of delinquency for aggravated battery and remand the cause for a new adjudicatory hearing. The testimony of several witnesses that the victim, a security guard in an apartment complex, reached for his nightstick during a fight with the juvenile’s friend, established a sufficient predicate for defense counsel’s questioning of the juvenile as to the juvenile’s awareness of prior incidents of violence perpetrated by the security guard. It was error for the trial court to sustain the State’s objection to such testimony on the ground that a…