United States v. Carrillo
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
981 F.2d 772 (5th Cir. 1993)
Charged with heroin and cocaine distribution based on an undercover officer's identification testimony, Carrillo (defendant) argued mistaken identity, claiming he was actually elsewhere at the time; to bolster the officer's identification, the prosecution introduced testimony from two other officers describing separate prior occasions on which they claimed to have witnessed Carrillo selling drugs in balloons in the same San Antonio neighborhood. Carrillo was convicted and appealed, arguing this prior-acts testimony was improperly admitted propensity evidence.
Whether testimony describing a defendant's prior drug sales, sharing only generic characteristics common to drug dealing in a particular neighborhood, is admissible to prove identity through a unique modus operandi.