Defendant was charged
with open murder and felony-firearm for the fatal shooting of Derecko Martin
during a fight between defendant and his friends and Martin and his family and
friends. Defendant claimed that he acted in self-defense and/or in defense of
others. At trial, the prosecutor admitted into evidence two rap videos over
defense objection. The prosecutor also elicited testimony from several
witnesses regarding defendant and his friends’ gang affiliation without
objection from the defense. The jury convicted defendant of second-degree
murder and felony-firearm. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that the
trial court erred in admitting the rap videos and gang-affiliation evidence,
but the error was harmless under the standard of review for preserved error. The
Supreme Court vacated that part of the Court of Appeals opinion addressing
harmless error and remanded for reconsideration of the issue. On remand, the appeals
court again concluded that defendant was not entitled to relief. The Supreme
Court has ordered oral argument on defendant’s application for leave to appeal
to address whether the Court of Appeals erred in concluding: (1) that the
preserved error in admitting the rap videos was not outcome-determinative; (2)
that the unpreserved error in admitting the gang-affiliation testimony was not
plain error; and (3) that the erroneously admitted evidence, in conjunction
with the prosecutor’s argument in closing that this evidence showed the
“mentality” of defendant and his friends and the “lifestyle” they lived, did
not constitute impermissible character evidence under MRE 404(a) and People v Bynum, 496 Mich 610 (2014).