State v. King

PHILLIPS, Judge.

Since no witness saw defendant shoot Mrs. Butler or identified him as being at the scene near the time she was shot, the ballistics opinion evidence, which was not as unequivocal and direct as we have seen, was crucial both to the State and the defendant. The State’s case on this pivotal point was erroneously strengthened to defendant’s irreparable prejudice, we think, when the prosecutor deliberately implied to the jury that defendant’s ballistics expert, who did not testify, agreed with the State’s expert. Though the prosecutor’s acts were his responsibility and inexcusable,…