Case Name: Chris McCLELLAN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee
Court: District of Columbia Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: District of Columbia
Decision Date: 1997-06-19
Citations: 706 A.2d 542
Docket Number: No. 92-CF-1522
Parties: Chris McCLELLAN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.
Judges: Before FERREN and FARRELL, Associate Judges, and BELSON, Senior Judge.
Reporter: West's Atlantic Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 706
Pages: 542–561

Head Matter:
Chris McCLELLAN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.
No. 92-CF-1522.
District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
Argued April 18, 1996.
Decided June 19, 1997.
Mindy Daniels, appointed by this court, Washington, DC, for appellant.
Diana Harris Epps, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Eric H. Holder, Jr., United States Attorney, and John R. Fisher and Michael L. Volkov, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on the brief, for appellee.
Before FERREN and FARRELL, Associate Judges, and BELSON, Senior Judge.

Opinion:
BELSON, Senior Judge:
Appellant McClellan urges that his conviction of first degree murder and related weapons offenses be reversed because of the following claimed trial court errors: (1) allowing an eyewitness to the crime to testify for the government while denying the defense the right to cross-examine that witness for bias in one particular when the witness invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination; (2) allowing testimony that two witnesses (who were sisters) and their family had moved to North Carolina because of their fear of testifying against McClellan; (3) failing to grant a mistrial when the prosecutor, in closing argument, improperly suggested that the jury could use the witnesses' move to North Carolina, out of fear, as a basis for believing that one of them could, but would not, identify McClellan as the murderer; and (4) improperly admitting prior consistent grand jury testimony. We are satisfied that the trial judge made a reasonable and permissible accommodation between the appellant's right to confront a witness against him and the witness' Fifth Amendment privilege to refuse to incriminate himself by testifying about an offense different from the one being tried. Although some of the prosecutor's comments in closing argument were impermissible, the jury could readily evaluate and discount them in deciding the ease. The other claimed errors do not warrant reversal. Therefore, we affirm.
I.
After a jury trial on September 10-17, 1992, Chris McClellan was convicted of the first degree murder while armed of Leonard Cole, III, D.C.Code § 22-2401, -3202 (1989); of carrying a pistol without a license, id § 22-3204(a); and of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, id § 22-3204(b). The trial court sentenced McClellan on December 1,1992, to a total of twenty-one years to life in prison. This timely appeal followed.
We set forth the facts in some detail in order to provide the basis for our conclusion that there was no violation of the Confrontation Clause — McClellan's principal claim' on appeal — because McClellan had an adequate opportunity to demonstrate witness Wayne Smith's bias against him.
Wayne Smith testified that on the afternoon of September 12, 1991, he and Shantia Moore, Moore's sister Ayanna Grant, and Leonard Cole drove by Dunbar High School. Shantia Moore was driving, Ms. Grant was in front, and the two men were in the back seat. As they drove by, Smith noticed McClellan and a group of his friends standing outside the school. Smith testified that McClellan was wearing "a loose shirt collarf,] . a navy blue shirt with white stripes, short sleeve[s]." McClellan yelled obscenities at the four in the car, and Cole responded in kind. Smith saw McClellan jog about fifteen steps toward the ear while brandishing a silver handgun. From a distance, according to Smith, it "looked like a .45." McClellan then retreated to where he had been standing with his friends.
The vehicle went a few blocks farther and then stopped at a red light at the corner of Sixth and R Streets, N.W. There, McClellan again approached the rear of the car. Smith indicated that he looked at McClellan through the rear window of the vehicle and that there was nothing blocking Smith's "view of [McClellan's] gun, his arms, his shirt and his face." Using the same silver, chrome gun Smith had seen a few minutes earlier, McClellan fired three shots into the vehicle. Smith grabbed the door and the lock and attempted unsuccessfully to grab Cole's shirt. McClellan paused, and then fired another four shots into the back seat of the car, striking Cole. After the four shots, Smith kicked the car door open and ran away through a gap between the ears parked nearby. As Smith ran from the vehicle, toward 7th Street, he saw McClellan running the other way, inferably on R Street, until he turned onto Fifth Street, N.W.
Defense counsel was not permitted to cross-examine Smith about an incident a week earlier at Dunbar High School in which he and decedent Cole shot at McClellan and others because Smith declined to testify about that incident on Fifth Amendment grounds. Accordingly, the testimony of government witness' Karlyles Spencer is worthy of special note.
Spencer testified that on the morning of September 5, 1991, Spencer and Cole encountered McClellan, Raymond Rouse, and another friend of McClellan's named Germane, outside the D.C. Armory where they had gone to get their class schedules. McClellan and Cole exchanged angry words and were "looking at each other hard, looking him down." They moved close to each other as if preparing to fight when a security guard arrived and prevented it. Later that day Cole, Smith, Spencer, Raymond Bigelow, and Billy Davis drove by Dunbar High School in a stolen black Jeep. Cole was in the right front seat of the Jeep and Smith was on the right side of the back seat. Spencer sat in the back seat behind the driver, Bigelow, while Davis sat in the middle of the back seat. At the corner of New Jersey and O Street, Cole and Smith shot guns out of the windows of the Jeep. Five specified individuals, including McClellan, were standing in the area near Dunbar High School at which Cole and Smith were shooting.
On cross-examination, Spencer acknowledged that Cole had asked him to go along with him in the Jeep. Defense counsel asked him about whether the Jeep was a stolen vehicle, pressed him on whether certain individuals had stolen that Jeep and turned it over to Cole, elicited that Cole was armed with an automatic pistol and that-Smith was armed with a small .380 automatic, and established that eleven to twelve shots were fired from the Jeep. Defense counsel also elicited that before the drive-by shooting Spencer went with Cole and others to Cole's grandmother's house and that when Cole went into the house he had only one gun but that he came out with two guns. Spencer testified that before they returned in the Jeep to Dunbar for the drive-by shooting, Cole gave one of the guns to Smith. Cole told Smith at the time that he shouldn't be scared, and Smith said "I'm gonna get mine."
Spencer acknowledged that at the time of his testimony he knew that Smith had a charge pending as a result of the drive-by and that he, Spencer, had gotten immunity from that charge. He also acknowledged later giving a statement to Smith's lawyer exonerating Smith from responsibility for the drive-by shooting and stated that the statement was a lie but not given under oath.
On redirect, Spencer testified that McClellan was a friend of "Truck," a person who was with McClellan at the Armory and at the time of the drive-by shooting., Spencer stated that during the events at the Armory it was "[his] group (Cole, Spencer, et al.) against their group ('Truck,' McClellan, et al.)."
Ayanna Grant testified that a week later on September 12, 1991, she, her sister Shan-tia Moore, Wayne Smith, and Leonard Cole were driving around in her mother's white Hyundai Excel. They drove by Dunbar High School where she saw McClellan outside, wearing "[a] dark shirt, I believe it was green; it had white stripes in it around an inch thick and some other colors, but I couldn't make them out." After hearing a noise like firecrackers, Grant looked behind her car where she saw "an arm and part of the shirt sleeve" holding "something silverish, shiny." When asked, Grant answered that she could not see the person's face "[b]e-cause it was over [the] top of the car." She further indicated that the shirt sleeve looked the same as the shirt McClellan was wearing, and that the complexion of the skin on the arm she saw was like McClellan's complexion.
Thereafter, Shantia Moore, Grant s sister, gave testimony about the events of September 12, 1991, culminating in the shooting of Cole. Moore said that after Cole was shot she first got out of the ear and then got back in and drove the car to Seventh Street, N.W. She saw Cole lying across the back seat; Cole told her he had been hit. The police arrived shortly thereafter. Moore described the person she had seen on the street as a young, short, dark-skinned, black male wearing a white shirt with stripes.
Teddy Ford testified that at about 1:00 p.m. on September 12, 1991, he was leaving Dave's Carryout at the corner of New Jersey and R Streets, N.W. He heard approximately five gunshots and saw McClellan about a block away running toward Fifth Street with a gun in his hand. The gun "looked shyer" and "[l]ike a .38 semiautomatic." On cross-examination, Ford could not remember what McClellan had been wearing on the day of the shooting, but Ford testified that on March 30, 1992, when he testified before the grand jury, he told the truth when he said that the person with the gun was wearing "a red and white striped shirt with a colorful hat on his head and blue jeans."
The court admitted into evidence photographs of the scene that were taken by San-jeev Modi, a defense investigator. Modi testified that, in the photograph taken from the sidewalk outside Dave's Carryout, a person standing at the corner of Fifth and R Streets appeared "almost like a speck of dust on the picture," but acknowledged that the 3x5 inch print did not depict what the naked eye would see.
Odean Horne testified that on September 12,1991, he had been stopped at the red light at Sixth and R Streets, N.W., when "all of a sudden a young man appeared at the front right fender of my car . and he just came up, raised his hand — both out like this — with a gun in it." Horne then watched the young man fire three shots into the white Hyundai that was also stopped at the red light. The shooter then moved forward to the passenger window, and pumped four additional shots into the rear passenger compartment. He said that the shooter had been wearing a "stripey shirt, as I would say blue and white, uh, or black and white." Two weeks later, Horne selected two individuals from an array of nine color photographs as most strongly resembling the shooter, indicating that one bore a better resemblance than the other. According to witness Detective Bell that photograph was of McClellan. Horne, however, could not identify McClellan at trial as the shooter.
II.
McClellan argues, first, that the trial court erred in allowing Wayne Smith to testify for the government while denying McClellan, over objection, the opportunity to cross-examine Smith for bias after Smith had invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against testifying concerning the previous altercation. Similarly, McClellan contends the trial court erred in failing to strike Smith's testimony. We disagree. The jury was made fully aware of Smith's role in the previous shooting incident, and the marginal advantage to the defense of having the jury hear about it from Smith himself does not warrant reversal.
We begin our analysis by considering how counsel for appellant McClellan framed the Confrontation Clause issue before the trial court, and how the court responded to counsel's requests. Before the trial began, the trial judge had a lengthy discussion with counsel, including witness Smith's counsel, about how McClellan's right to confrontation and witness Wayne Smith's Fifth Amendment rights could be accommodated. When the prosecutor raised the question about what would happen "if [Smith] is going to invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege — " the court immediately said "[t]hen you cannot use him as a witness." The prosecutor then informed the court that defense counsel would be in a position to cross-examine fully another witness (Karlyles Spencer), "an immunized witness who [McClellan's counsel] can ask everything he wants" concerning the other incident, ie., the drive-by shooting that Smith and decedent Cole allegedly perpetrated the week before Cole's murder.
The court in turn asked defense counsel how he would be prejudiced by that procedure. Counsel replied that the defense would be prejudiced "[b]y our inability to expose this witness' familiarity with weapons," and Smith's "utter disregard for justice and for truth-telling and his credibility," but made no specific reference to bias.
After counsel for the witness Smith confirmed that Smith would assert the privilege only as to the earlier drive-by shooting and the events of the thirty to sixty minutes that preceded it, the court asked Smith's counsel "What about questions regarding who he was friends with, who he was not friends with? Obviously there can be some cross-examination or full cross-examination as to bias_" The prosecutor interjected that witness Smith had waived his Fifth Amendment privilege in that regard before the grand jury.
The court continued to ask defense counsel to explain how his "cross-examination [would be] unfairly limited by [Smith's] assertion of the Fifth regarding the prior shooting," and finally requested the specific question that the defense would ask. Defense counsel responded that he would like to inquire whether Smith on the day of the murder "remained upset" about what happened the week before and Smith's interest in keeping Leonard Cole from getting Smith implicated in that case.
Further colloquy left the court, understandably, "not clear as to how [defense counsel's] cross-examination is materially hindered by the fact that we know [Smith] is going to take the Fifth on questions about the first shooting." Eventually the court made a preliminary ruling, saying:
Why don't we assume at this point that I will permit Mr. Smith to testify along the lines set with the understanding that it does hinder somewhat [the defense]'s ability to fully cross-examine; however, I don't think it is very material. It just is sort of another factor to challenge the witness with under circumstances where the jury is going to learn what the factor is, and, indeed, it will virtually be stipulated to, whether or not you can reach a formal stipulation, but if the Government is saying it in their opening statement and then putting him on, and if they are sponsoring a witness that is going to come in and say that Mr. Smith was the shooter, you will have all that to argue to the jury in terms of assessing Mr. Smith's credibility. So, I don't think that the prejudice to you is so extreme that a material eyewitness should be kept off the stand.
The court added:
I think it is a very difficult [issue], but when we are dealing with someone who is unquestionably an eyewitness in the sense that [he was] present and was there to make ah identification and I gather probably the strongest identification witness to some extent; in other words, it is not terribly redundant. I mean, if there was a confession here and it became unnecessary, if there was a lot of other evidence, but it is an essential witness in an important ease, and the limits on cross-examination, it seems to me, by the assertion of the Fifth [Amendment] are more apparent than real and that it is not any serious prejudice in the ability to cross-examine.
Although aware before the trial actually began that the court would permit Smith to testify while at the same time successfully asserting his Fifth Amendment privilege regarding the drive-by shooting, defense counsel did not request that McClellan's trial be continued to a date after the trial of Smith, then, scheduled to take place about two months later. Nor did he suggest that the government give Smith use immunity regarding his testimony concerning the previous incident. He did, however, note his general objection to the way in which the court proposed to handle Smith's testimony.
During opening statement the prosecutor informed the jury of the basis for concluding that Smith was biased against McClellan when he told the jury that Smith and Cole had fired shots at McClellan and his friends during a September 5, 1991, drive-by shooting near Dunbar High School. Then, during direct examination, Smith admitted that, at about 11:00 p.m. on the day of Cole's murder, he had been "arrested and charged for allegedly participating on September 5, 1991 in a drive-by shooting at Dunbar High School." The government also established that Smith had been indicted and was scheduled to go to trial two months later, on November 17,1992.
Prior to cross-examination, Smith invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege to remain silent and declined to answer questions concerning the September 5, 1991, drive-by shooting at Dunbar High School. The court instructed the jury just before cross-examination of Wayne Smith began:
As you have previously learned, this witness, Mr. Smith, is presently charged himself in the first shooting that occurred at Dunbar on September 5, 1991, and he has a trial scheduled on those charges in the near future. In light of those pending charges Mr. Smith has a constitutional privilege against incriminating himself as to those charges. Mr. Smith has asserted that privilege. This means he may refuse to answer any questions which may tend to incriminate him as to the first Dunbar shooting on September 5th.
Because of Mr. Smith's assertion of this privilege, I have ordered both lawyers not to ask any questions of Mr. Smith pertain^ ing to his involvement in this September 5, 1991 shooting at Dunbar High School.
We conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in limiting cross-examination of Smith in a way that honored Smith's Fifth Amendment privilege and that McClellan's Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause rights were not violated. We are satisfied that the trial court gave due weight to the government's right to present evidence, the defendant's Sixth Amendment right to confront adverse witnesses, and the witness' Fifth Amendment privilege.
It is not disputed that the trial court had good reason to honor Smith's Fifth Amendment claim. It is also not disputed that " "when a conflict arises between a witness' proper exercise of his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and the defendant's right to confront witnesses, a proper balance must be struck.' " Johnson v. United States, 418 A.2d 136, 140 (D.C.1980) (quoting United States v. Gould, 536 F.2d 216, 222 (8th Cir.1976)). Here, such a balance was struck and there was'no Confrontation Clause violation because McClellan was afforded extraordinarily complete and effective substantive means of showing bias notwithstanding the limitation on his cross-examination. See Elliott v. United States, 633 A.2d 27, 32 (D.C.1993) ("After sufficient cross-examination has been allowed to satisfy constitutional requirements, the trial court retains broad discretion to determine the scope and the extent of cross-examination.") (citing Roundtree v. United States, 581 A.2d 315, 323 (D.C.1990) (internal citation omitted)); Beard v. United States, 535 A.2d 1373, 1379-80 (D.C.1988) (witness' potential bias from plea agreement "was thoroughly explored before the jury" even though questions on sentencing hearing and first plea agreement were forbidden); Johnson, supra, 418 A.2d at 140 ("While the complete preclusion of cross-examination of a witness as to his bias or motive for testifying (assuming an appropriate proffer) is a clear denial of a defendant's Sixth Amendment confrontation right, anything less presents the issue of "whether defense counsel had an opportunity to [adequately] bring out considerations relevant to motive or bias.' " (quotation and citations omitted)).
The. only real bias issue related to Smith's hostility toward McClellan. This hostility was evinced by Smith's taking part in a drive-by shooting in which McClellan and those with him were shot at by Smith and the deceased Cole. If defense counsel had been permitted to cross-examine Smith about the drive-by shooting, there are relatively few responses that might have been forthcoming. Most likely, defense counsel either would have secured an admission from Smith that he was so hostile to McClellan that he shot at him on September 5, or would have encountered equivocation or denial on Smith's part which could have led the jury to conclude that Smith was not answering truthfully.
Instead, as the case was actually tried, McClellan had the following bases for arguing to the jury that Smith was hostile toward McClellan and thus might attempt to implicate him in the shooting of Cole in order to harm him: (1) the government conceded in its opening statement that Smith and Cole had committed the drive-by shooting at McClellan and those near him a week before Cole's murder — indeed, the government was anxious to put in evidence of the drive-by shooting in order to show McClellan's motive for later killing Cole; (2) the government called Karlyles Spencer, the immunized witness who had ridden along in the Jeep from which Cole and Smith had shot at McClellan and those around him, who gave detailed testimony about the drive-by shooting; (3) the jury was made aware of the fact that Smith had been indicted for the drive-by shooting; and (4) the government reiterated in its closing argument that Smith had shot at McClellan and his friends in broad daylight a week before the murder of Cole.
In addition, the defense had several other avenues available for cross-examining Smith on his bias against McClellan. For example, the defense could have asked Smith whether he anticipated that McClellan would be testifying against him at Smith's forthcoming trial in November, whether McClellan ran with a different crowd than Cole and Smith, and generally whether Smith was hostile toward McClellan. In short, there can be no question that McClellan had a completely adequate opportunity to bring to the jury's attention his bases for contending that Smith was biased against him, both because of the extraordinarily effective alternative means afforded him to present this drive-by shooting incident and because of other available means of showing Smith's bias.
We reach this conclusion recognizing fully that limitations on cross-examination for bias are suspect because they may frustrate a defendant's attempt "to expose to the jury the facts from which jurors, as the sole triers of fact and credibility, could appropriately draw inferences relating to the reliability of the witness." Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 318, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 1111, 39 L.Ed.2d 347 (1974). As we have noted, however, this does not mean that the right of cross-examination is "without limits." Elliott, supra, 633 A.2d at 32 (citing Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 679, 106 S.Ct. 1431, 1435, 89 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986)). The controlling question is whether a "reasonable jury might have received a significantly different impression of [the witness'] credibility had [appellant's] counsel been permitted to pursue his proposed line of cross-examination." Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. at 680, 106 S.Ct. at 1436. "Confrontation Clause violations are found primarily where defendants have been given no realistic opportunity to ferret out a potential source of bias." United States v. Derr, 301 U.S.App. D.C. 60, 64, 990 F.2d 1330, 1334 (1993) (emphasis in original). Limitations on cross-examination are not deemed an abuse of discretion so long as, despite the limitation, the jury has "available to it sufficient information to make a 'discriminatory appraisal of the witness's motives and bias.' " United States v. Robinson, 832 F.2d 366, 373 (7th Cir.1987) (citation omitted), cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1010, 108 S.Ct. 1739, 100 L.Ed.2d 203 (1988); see Johnson, supra, 418 A.2d at 141.
In Beynum v. United States, 480 A.2d 698, 707 (D.C.1984), we held the trial court did not commit reversible error in limiting cross-examination of the police officer who shot appellant. We noted that the officer's other testimony, in addition to the questionable circumstances of the shooting itself, "alerted the jury to the acute possibility that [the officer] might seek to 'slant his testimony in favor of the government' in order to defend his actions." Id. (quotation omitted). We concluded that "[t]he jury was aware of sufficient facts, and heard sufficient testimony, from which it could infer (and from which defense counsel could argue) bias." Id. (citations omitted).
Here, the jury was afforded not merely "sufficient" information to make an appraisal of Smith's testimony, but an extraordinarily complete and substantive basis for evaluating what his motive or bias may have been in testifying against McClellan. The prosecutor's opening and closing statements, the extensive cross-examination of Smith which was permitted, and the lengthy direct and cross-examination of Spencer combined to show unequivocally that Smith's hostility toward McClellan was indeed powerful. In short, there was no shortage of "facts from which jurors . could appropriately draw inferences relating to the reliability of the witness." Davis, supra, 416 U.S. at 318, 94 S.Ct. at 1111.
Appellant has cited us to no case in which a conviction was reversed because of a limitation on bias cross-examination where the jury was actually made aware of the significant reason why the witness would have been hostile to the accused. On the other hand, the result we reach here is consistent with the holding of the Fifth Circuit in United States v. Viera, 819 F.2d 498 (6th Cir.1987), because in both eases the witness' "potential bias and the reasons to doubt his credibility were effectively communicated to the jury." Id. at 502. In Viera, as was equally true here, "appellant was able to disclose to the jury by various means all the information he had wanted to present through cross-examination." Id. at 501. In short, "the desired testimony had been presented by other witnesses." Id. (citing United States v. Balliviero, 708 F.2d 934 (5th Cir.)), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 939, 104 S.Ct. 351, 78 L.Ed.2d 316 (1983). This holding of Viera — that the Confrontation Clause can be satisfied when information is before the jury despite a preclusion of cross-examination — supports affirmance here.
The appellant's reliance on our opinion in Johnson, supra, 418 A.2d at 136, is misplaced. There, a Martha Ellis was the complaining witness and one of only two witnesses who observed in its entirety her alleged armed robbery by Johnson. Id. at 141. Ellis asserted the Fifth Amendment when defense counsel asked her whether defendant Johnson had ever failed to pay for a quantity of marijuana that she sold to him (the defense theory being that Ellis accused appellant of armed robbery to retaliate against Johnson for his failure to pay). Id. at 139. The court ruled that absent that cross-examination, which one could reasonably assume might produce evidence of bias, "the jury . would not be in possession of a sufficient amount of information concerning formative events" to allow a proper appraisal of motive and bias. Id. at 141.
In this case, in direct contrast to Johnson, a hoped-for admission (or denial) by Smith of his participation in the drive-by shooting would not have added significantly to the "information concerning formative events" that the jury received. Johnson does not support a finding of error here, but instead underscores the basis for concluding that there was no Confrontation Clause violation.'
III.
McClellan argues the trial court erred in overruling defense counsel's objection to questions eliciting the fact that Grant, Moore, and their family moved to North Carolina after Cole's murder out of fear they would be harmed. McClellan contends that this particular claim of fear lacked an evidentiary foundation, was irrelevant, and in any event was prejudicial beyond any probative value. McClellan also contends that the prosecutor's improper use of this "fear" evidence in closing argument warranted a mistrial. We consider these arguments together.
A.
The prosecutor's first line of direct examination of Ayanna Grant established that at the time of trial she lived in North Carolina. Grant then recounted the events of September 12,1991, including the shooting of Cole in the back seat of her mother's car. The prosecutor sought to remove the sting from the defense's inevitable impeachment of Grant regarding her prior inconsistent statement to the police, made shortly after the shooting on September 12, that she had been at school all morning. The prosecutor asked Grant:
Q: Now, Ms. Grant, how did you feel after this incident occurred?
A: Scared.
Q: How did you feel when you gave that statement [to the homicide detective]?
A: Scared.
Q: And when you gave .that statement to the homicide detective, did you tell that homicide detective everything that you're telling the jury here?
A: No.
Q: And why didn't you tell the homicide detective everything that you're telling the jury here?
A: Because I was scared and I just wanted to get out of there.
Q: Now, after this incident occurred, ma'am did you leave this jurisdiction? Did you leave Washington, D.C.?
A: Yes.
At this point, defense counsel objected, and the court conducted a bench conference. The trial court ruled that "until and unless that issue [ie., failure to tell the whole truth to the homicide detective] is injected, I think its prejudice outweighs the probative [value]." Defense counsel, however, injected that issue on cross-examination by asking the witness about her untruthful statement to the homicide detective, asking whether she considered herself a "good enough liar that you can trick homicide detectives" and then elicited testimony that Grant had lied "so [her] mother wouldn't get upset because she thought [she] was in school the whole morning."
On redirect, over defense counsel's objection, the prosecutor was permitted to elicit testimony that Grant had moved to North Carolina because she was afraid. The prosecutor first asked Grant how she felt about testifying. Grant responded, "Scared." The prosecutor then established that after the shooting, Grant had moved to North Carolina with her sisters and her mother; that her father had moved into his mother's house; and that "if this shooting had never occurred" Grant and her sister would still be living in Washington, D.C.
Comparable testimony was elicited from Moore, who also had previously told the police that Grant was in school all morning on September 12, 1991. The prosecutor then asked Moore about the move to North Carolina:
Q: Now, after this incident happened on September 12th, 1991, did you move from Washington, D.C.?
A: Yes.
Q: And did you move to North Carolina? A: Yes.
Q: And why did you move?
A: I was scared for, for our fives.
Appellant contends the trial court erred in allowing this testimony of Grant and Moore and further erred in disallowing recross-examination of the women. We begin our analysis by noting that the scope of witness examinations is entrusted to the sound discretion of the trial court and will not be reversed absent an abuse of discretion. Mitchell v. United States, 408 A.2d 1213, 1215 (D.C.1979) (direct examination); Singletary v. United States, 383 A.2d 1064, 1073 (D.C.1978) (recross-examination).
The government contends that evidence of Grant's and Moore's fear was relevant to their motive for making the prior inconsistent statements to the homicide detective and for their delay in telling the truth. As the trial court initially noted, however, such testimony tends to be prejudicial because it suggests the witness fears reprisal at the hands of the defendant or his associates if she testifies.
It is not unnatural, however, for any witness to react self-protectively out of generalized fear for her own safety after witnessing a murder, even though the witness may not have received a direct threat. Cf. Outlaw v. United States, 632 A.2d 408, 409 n. 1 (D.C.1993). Thus, when, as here, the witness' credibility has been attacked on the basis of her initial failure to tell the truth to the police, evidence that the real reason for her silence was such self-protective fear is not necessarily inadmissible. Under the circumstances, we think it appropriate to defer to the trial judge's exercise of discretion. But that does not end the matter for we must go on to consider the government's use of the fear issue in its closing argument.
B.
The standards for evaluating claims of prosecutorial impropriety are well-defined.
First, we must determine whether any or all of the challenged comments by the prosecutor were improper. If we conclude that they were, we must then, viewing the remarks in context, "consider the gravity of the [impropriety], its relationship to the issue of guilt, the effect of any corrective action by the trial judge, and the strength of the government's case."
Peoples v. United States, 640 A.2d 1047, 1056 (D.C.1994) (quoting McGrier v. United States, 597 A.2d 36, 41 (D.C.1991) (quoting Dixon v. United States, 565 A.2d 72, 75 (D.C.1989) (other citations omitted))).
McClellan contends that the prosecutor overstepped the bounds of proper argument by suggesting, erroneously, that Grant really saw the killer's face and by capitalizing on the testimony regarding Grant's move to North Carolina to suggest that she had reacted out of fear of a killer who knew she could identify him. We agree with McClellan's point. The prosecutor argued:
PROSECUTOR: Who else told you the defendant was the killer? Ayanna Grant told you the defendant was the killer. [S]he told, she told you in not so many words, but she told you the defendant was the killer.

PROSECUTOR: And [Grant] told you about the killer. When the, killer started shooting into that ear on the rear window, rear passenger window, she told you it's the defendant. And how did she tell you?
She told you the shooter had the same shirt on that the defendant was wearing. The killer had-the same complected skin and the killer had the same build as the defendant, but she didn't see his face.
Do you believe her that she didn't see his face? I leave that- for your judgment. But consider this.
DEFENSE COUNSEL: Objection.
THE COURT: Overruled.
PROSECUTOR: When I asked her do you see Chris McClellan here in the courtroom, did you see how she identified him? She got up there and she went like this. She pointed her finger weakly over there, wouldn't look at him and said he's over there.
I ask you when she fled to North Carolina, when her parents moved her to North Carolina, when she uprooted her life from her[e], her whole life from D.C. to move to North Carolina out of fear, was it a fear because she saw that shirt or was it a fear because she knew who did it and saw that face?
Was her parents' fear because she didn't see the face? Or was the parents fear that they knew she'd seen the face and that she knew who did it? And she told you in the closest way she could without having to say it was the defendant's face. But she didn't have to, ladies and gentlemen, she didn't have to.
Grant actually testified:
Q: Now, the person that you saw, what did you see of the person that was standing next to the car?
A: I saw an arm and part of the shirt sleeve.
Q: And did you see the face of this person?
A: No.
Q: And why weren't you able to see the face?
A: Because it was over [the] top of the car.
McClellan argues, first, that the prosecutor's statements warrant reversal because
"the prosecutor's argument constituted a clear misstatement of the evidence, and, as such, was misconduct." See Lewis v. United States, 541 A.2d 145, 147 (D.C.1988); see also Jones v. United States, 512 A.2d 253, 258 (D.C.1986). The government responds that, in most of the instances cited, the prosecutor was merely making "reasonable comments on the evidence," Tuckson v. United States, 364 A.2d 138, 142 (D.C.1976), and arguing "all reasonable inferences from the evidence adduced at trial." Streater v. United States, 478 A.2d 1055, 1058-59 (D.C.1984).
We agree with McClellan that the government went too far when it asked the jury to infer, in direct conflict with Grant's sworn testimony, that Grant had seen McClellan's face and was afraid of retaliation since she could identify him as the shooter. The prosecutor was asking the jury to draw inferences that the evidence simply would not bear. Nothing indicated Grant and her family would have had more reason to fear McClellan if Grant had identified his face than they had because she identified his shirt. Thus, the argument was improper, and McClellan's objection to it should have been sustained.
But we are not persuaded that the government's improper argument injected reversible error into the proceeding. It is reasonable to assume that the jury was quite capable of evaluating what was placed before it here. Defense counsel responded to the prosecutor's argument that Grant stopped short of identifying McClellan as the shooter only because of fear by emphasizing in his closing argument that, in fact, Ms. Grant had never identified the defendant as the perpetrator. The trial court instructed the jury that the arguments of counsel were not evidence. See McGrier, supra, 597 A.2d at 41 (one factor we consider is effect of any corrective action by the trial judge). Jurors are presumed to follow the court's instructions, Hairston v. United States, 497 A.2d 1097, 1103 (D.C.1985). Moreover, it is obvious to the observer of the criminal justice system that jurors do not accept uncritically everything a prosecutor says in argument. The prosecutor did not intimate that he had any source of knowledge that McClellan made a threat that was outside the record. Cf. Stewart v. United States, 101 U.S.App. D.C. 51, 54-55, 247 F.2d 42, 45-46 (1957) (where the government so implied regarding a witness' credibility). Nor was this a case in which the government made a complex argument for the first time in rebuttal, advancing an argument not based in record evidence that the defense never had a chance to meet. See, e.g., Coreas v. United States, 565 A.2d 594, 599-604 (D.C.1989). Finally, we note , that the government had a strong case against McClellan and that while the prosecutor's improper statement concerned Grant's not making an identification and thus was closely related to the issue of guilt, Grant had already identified the shirt and arm of the shooter in a description matching McClellan. See McGrier, supra, 597 A.2d at 41 (factors to consider include gravity of the impropriety, its relationship to issue of guilt, . and strength of government's case). Considering the relevant factors, we conclude that the prosecutor's argument did not result in reversible error.
In sum, we conclude that there was no violation of the Confrontation Clause or abuse , of discretion in the limitation on cross-examination of the witness Smith, but that there was impropriety in closing argument which the trial court did not fully remedy but which, in light of all the relevant factors, resulted in harmless error. Therefore, we affirm.
. We are satisfied that the trial judge did not err, much less commit plain error, by failing to inquire of the government whether it could obtain an order of use immunity for Smith. During the discussion concerning Smith's assertion of his Fifth Amendment privileges, neither party suggested use immunity for Smith. We are unwilling to say, based on this record, where defense counsel made a rather weak showing of why cross-examination of Smith about the first shooting was necessary, that the court sua sponte should have discussed the option of a continuance in order for the government to obtain an order of use immunity. See Carter v. United States, 684 A.2d 331, 344-45 (D.C.1996) (en banc) ("If immunity of the crucial defense witness is then sought, the defendant must first establish to the trial court's satisfaction that the proposed testimony is (a) material, (b) clearly exculpatory, (c) non-cumulative, and (d) unobtainable from any other source. These conditions are mandatory."). Here, although the cross-examination of Smith regarding the drive-by shooting might have helped to demonstrate his bias, we cannot say that he was the "crucial defense witness," nor can we conclude that his testimony was "unobtainable from any other source" where Spencer testified in detail about the first shooting.
. The defense produced no evidence or other showing of support for a few other farfetched theories that it mentioned, e.g., that Smith himself might have conspired to have Cole killed because he was afraid Cole would implicate Smith in the drive-by shooting and that Smith would want to shift blame for Cole's murder from himself to McClellan.
. This is not to suggest that the indictment itself could be cited as evidence of Smith's guilt of the drive-by shooting, but rather that it was reasonable to assume, and even to ask Smith, whether he was angry at McClellan and others for cooperating with the government with respect to the indictment against Smith.
. We recognize that neither the opening statement nor the closing argument of government counsel of itself was evidence of Smith's bias against McClellan, but both served to focus the jury's attention on the evidence of Smith's hostility, and were, in effect, concessions by the government of Smith's animus against McClellan.
. In Beynum, defense counsel was not permitted to ask the officer whether he gave a statement to an internal police department investigation to keep from losing his job and about defendant's federal civil suit against him alleging tortious use of excessive force. The officer did testify as to his knowledge of police guidelines regulating the use of weapons and that violation of these rules could lead to adverse employment consequences.
. To make Johnson the equivalent of this case, the government in Johnson would have had to present evidence sufficient to establish that Johnson had purchased a large quantity of marijuana from Ellis and failed to pay for it, included that account of events in its opening statement, and announced that it was prosecuting complaining witness Ellis for her crime.
. The government contends that, because defense counsel did not object to this line of questioning during the government's examination of Moore, this issue as to Moore should be reviewed for plain error. We disagree. Given the trial court's earlier ruling, it would have been pointless for defense counsel to renew its objection and may have been tactically disadvantageous to highlight the testimony for the jury. See Wilkins v. United States, 582 A.2d 939, 942 n. 7 (D.C.1990) ("An objection to evidence, once made and overruled, need not be renewed to the same type of evidence subsequently received.").
. In Outlaw, evidence showed that witnesses to the shooting did not want to be interviewed at the scene apparently out of fear of reprisal. We noted that such a "reaction on the part of wit nesses who had just observed a cold-blooded murder on the street, however, was hardly surprising; the instinct for self-preservation is well-nigh universal." 632 A.2d at 409 n. 1.
. McClellan also contests the admission into evidence, over defense counsel's objection, of Odean Home's (an eyewitness) and Grant's grand jury testimony as prior consistent statements. To admit transcripts of grand jury testimony, two hearsay hurdles must be overcome. Home's and Grant's actual testimony before the grand jury is, in itself, out of court statements offered for the tmth of the matter as asserted to the grand jiiry. Additionally, the grand jury transcript admitted into evidence is also a hearsay document offered to prove, as fact, that each witness said the words contained in the document on the day he or she testified before the grand jury. The prosecutor did not ask Home and Grant (or any other sworn witness) what his or her grand jury testimony was.
Prior recorded testimony is admissible only when the proponent establishes, among other things, that the direct testimony of the declarant is unavailable. Feaster v. United States, 631 A.2d 400, 405 (D.C.1993) (quoting Skyers v. United States, 619 A.2d 931, 933-34 (D.C.1993) (quotation omitted)). In this case, both Horne and Grant were available at trial. The prior recorded testimony exception was therefore inapplicable to justify direct admission of the transcripts. Accordingly, even if the substance of the grand jury testimony was admissible pursuant to the prior description or rehabilitation exceptions, the grand jury transcripts themselves were inadmissible hearsay.
The admission of these hearsay documents, however, was harmless error. Although defense counsel could not cross-examine the witnesses regarding their grand jury testimony without recalling the witnesses, counsel could have done so. As we have noted in previous cases, " 'the objection to the introduction of prior consistent statements is at bottom based on the principle of irrelevance . [Tjherefore, the harm that may occur . is less serious than the inadmissible introduction of clearly prejudicial evidence.'" McKenzie v. United States, 659 A.2d 838, 841 n. 9 (D.C.1995) (quoting Jordan v. United States, 633 A.2d 373, 377 (D.C.1993)). Here, each witness was extensively cross-examined on closely related issues. The trial court, in admitting their grand juiy testimony under the rehabilitation exception, instructed the jury that the prior consistent statements were admitted only to assist the jury in assessing the truthfulness of each witness' testimony at trial. Finally, although the testimony contained in the transcripts addressed the key contested issue in the case — identification — neither Home nor Grant was ever able positively to identify the shooter.
. We find no merit in McClellan's further claims that the prosecutor's closing argument improperly appealed to the passions and prejudices of the jurors, commented on the credibility of witnesses, and argued facts not in evidence with respect to means and opportunity.