Before Judges Greenwood, Davis, and Jackson. This question presents a mixed issue of fact and law.
Reliability is . . .
Our careful review of the record leads us to conclude the trial court correctly determined the victim's identification of defendant was reliable under the totality of the circumstances. Id. Defendant next argues his conviction should be reversed because the potentially exculpatory photo array was dissembled before his trial. The mere possibility that an item of undisclosed information might have helped the defense, or might have affected the outcome of the trial does not establish 'materiality' in the constitutional sense. Because we conclude the victim's in-court identification was reliable independent of the photo array, and ample circumstantial evidence of defendant's guilt was presented, we must also conclude the array was not vital to the issue of defendant's guilt. We conclude that the array was not destroyed in bad faith, and we thus agree with the trial court that the destruction of the array does not warrant reversal of defendant's conviction.