S-16-1146 State v. Charles S. Trotter (Appellant)
Douglas County District Court, Judge Leigh Ann Retelsdorf
Attorneys: Melissa R. Vincent (Attorney General’s Office) --- James Martin Davis (Davis Law Office) (Appellant)
Criminal: 1st Degree Murder, two counts; use of firearm to commit felony, two counts
Proceedings below: Appellant was convicted following a jury trial and sentenced to 40 to 60 years on each murder conviction and 5 to 10 years on each firearm, all to run consecutively.
Issues: 1) The district court committed reversible error by excluding relevant evidence offered by the Defendant in support of his primary defense that he was not the perpetrator of the crimes alleged, and in sustaining the State’s Rule 403 objection without any showing of unfair prejudice, and 2) the district court imposed a sentence that is the functional equivalent of life without the possibility of parole for a juvenile, in violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.