Commonwealth v. Prater

Opinion of the Court by

Chief Justice MINTON.

The Court of Appeals vacated a judgment convicting Angella Prater of reckless homicide 1 for her son’s death in a vehicular collision, concluding that the trial court erred in allowing extrinsic evidence to impeach Prater on a collateral matter. Specifically, the trial court had allowed the Commonwealth to introduce extrinsic evidence to disprove Prater’s assertion in direct testimony that she had undergone nasal surgery a few days before the collision and, as a result of the nasal surgery, had received prescriptions for two painkillers. Because…