Morales v. State

OPINION

By the Court,

Maupin, J.:

In this opinion, we consider the propriety of bifurcating criminal trials where the State, in the indictment or criminal information, joins a charge of unlawful possession of a firearm by an ex-felon with other substantive criminal violations. We conclude that the district court may resort to bifurcation in such instances, rather than complete severance. In this, we expand our ruling in Brown v. State. We also consider claims concerning the exclusion of alibi evidence, as well as claims of prosecutorial misconduct in final argument. For the reasons stated below,…