HEADNOTE: Mario Rodriguez Gutierrez v. State of Maryland, No. 98 ...

I agree with the majority that most of the expert witness’s gang-related testimony
is relevant to the issue of Gutierrez’s motive to commit murder. I also agree with the
majority’s conclusion that “the trial court erred in allowing [the expert witness] to
comment that MS-13 is the gang that law enforcement ‘had seen the most violence with
recenly for the past four, four and a half years in this region.’” Gutierrez, slip op. at 22.
I disagree, however, with the majority’s conclusion that the trial judge’s error was
harmless. Accordingly, I join in and adopt the reasoning articulated in Chief Judge
Bell’s dissenting opinion, to the extent that the majority failed to apply the harmless
error test as explained by this Court in Dorsey v. State, 276 Md. 638, 350 A.2d 665
(1976) and recently reaffirmed by this Court in Perez v. State, 420 Md. 57, 21 A.3d
1048 (2011); Dove v. State, 415 Md. 727, 4 A.3d 976 (2010); Donaldson v. State, 416
Md. 467, 7 A.3d 84 (2010), and Parker v. State, 408 Md. 428, 970 A.2d 320 (2009).