S-13-0798 State v. Jose Carlos Oliveira-Coutinho (Appellant)
Douglas County District Court, Judge Thomas A. Otepka
Attorneys: Stacy M. Foust (Attorney General's Office) --- Todd W. Lancaster (Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy) & Horacio Wheelock (Horacio Wheelock Law Offices PC, LLO) (Appellant)
Criminal: 1st degree murder; theft by deception
Proceedings below: Appellant was convicted following a jury trial and sentenced by a three-judge panel.
Issues: The district court erred by: 1) not granting Appellant's Batson v. Kentucky challenge during the peremptory strike phase of jury selection, 2) not granting Appellant's request to sequester the jury during the submission of evidence at trial, 3) not sustaining Appellant's motion to suppress, 4) not granting Appellant's motion to dismiss due to loss of testimonial evidence, 5) not granting Appellant's motion for advanced ruling and motion to reconsider, 6) not granting Appellant's motion in limine to exclude the opinion testimony of the State's handwriting expert, 7) prohibiting Appellant's presentation of a defense and presenting exculpatory evidence, 8) allowing the State to submit prejudicial photographs, 9) not granting Appellant's motion for a new trial, 10) not granting a mistrial after the State's opening statement which included vouching for the testimony of the State's primary witness, 11) not sustaining the Appellant's objections to gruesome photographs, not moving to strike the State's expert's testimony, and not granting a mistrial based on the State misleading the court as to the nature of evidence and the relevance of the evidence solely in order to overcome Appellant's objection to the evidence.