Opinion ID: 1919018
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Potential Witness Brittany Warren

Text: ¶ 29. Tate submits that after resting, the defense was approached by Gerald Warren's daughter, Brittany Warren, who claimed that she could provide information that would impeach her father's testimony. Tate requested that he be allowed to reopen his case and call Ms. Warren as a witness. The trial court allowed the State to interview Ms. Warren, and the state objected to the defense calling her as a witness. The trial court sustained the objection, and the defense then made an offer of proof of what Ms. Warren would have testified: One, that she is approximately 14 years old and is the daughter of one Gerald Warren, a witness in this cause. Two, that since March 12th of 2003, she has been in the home of one Gerald Warren and seen him in possession of four to five pounds of marijuana stored in various Folger coffee cans. Three, that she has seen Gerald Warren, her father, in possession of numerous tablets of Lortabs. Four, that Gerald Warren has smoked marijuana with her, given her marijuana, and smoked marijuana in her presence; and they have smoked it in the presence of each other. Next number, that Gerald Warren, when asked if he set up Kirby Tate for $2,000 and a pound of marijuana given to him by the East Mississippi Task Force, one Karl Merchant in particular, the response of her father Gerald Warren was, Yes, that is the way it went down. Next number, that Gerald Warren has offered this child to a drug dealer by the name of Brock in exchange for drugs, and that she refused to cooperate in the offer of sex for drugs; the offer being made by her father, once again, Gerald Warren. ¶ 30. Tate argues that the trial court had the discretion to allow Ms. Warren to testify under Wells-Lamont Corp. v. Watkins, 247 Miss. 379, 151 So.2d 600, 604 (1963). Tate further argues that it was fundamentally unfair not to allow Ms. Warren to testify because Gerald Warren's testimony was the crux of the State's case against Tate, and Ms. Warren's testimony was crucial to the defense. ¶ 31. The State argues that Ms. Warren's proffered testimony demonstrates that she was not a material witness, that she did not have any first hand knowledge of any material fact, and that virtually all of her testimony was already in evidence and therefore could be excluded as cumulative under M.R.E. 403. The State directs us to the trial court's reasoning for not permitting the testimony: All right. I'm adequately informed. Let me make a couple of comments. We are now on Friday afternoon. It is 2:15 p.m., and at 12:00 noon, ten minutes after 12:00, in the presence of the jury, the defense announced that it had rested its case. This new witness apparently became ... to defense counsel during the lunch break after they had rested their case, and they have now requested an opportunity to reopen their case and present Ms. Brittany Warren as a witness, who I understand is either a 13- or 14-year-old minor. A couple of comments. In my 25-year career on the bench, I don't think I've ever seen a case where there has been so much alleged  so many alleged threats or so much animosity expressed between the various witnesses and the supporters of each side in this case. A good example is Wednesday, the accusations by defense that narcotics officers are roughing up the defense witnesses... And when the smoke clears, it appears that law enforcement officers received a phone call from ... the 15-year-old son of the confidential informant, Gerald Warren, saying that his daddy is going to be blown away in the courthouse ... There are accusations throughout this trial that the lives of the confidential informant and his family have been threatened; that the welfare of numerous people allegedly have been threatened in this case. Now we have a circumstance of a minor child who apparently is of almost sufficient age to be presumed competent . . . She is here. And she allegedly is supposed to testify that her father made some admission, quasi admission ... The mother of this child, from what I understand in chambers, after having an in chambers conference with her and her attorneys and the District Attorney, would prefer that her daughter not be involved with this calamity of a trial at all. The state is complaining because they claim surprise, an inadequate opportunity to prepare to meet the testimony of Ms. Warren; that Brittany Warren has been subject to violation of the Rule of Sequestration; that she has been talked to about alleged testimony by other witnesses; that the jury has not been voir dired or questioned about their knowledge of a minor child named Brittany Warren who might be a possible witness. There are all types of unusual circumstances. Further, the state claims that this is trial by ambush ... Having considered all of that, and the fact that this is Friday afternoon of the trial, I think unusual circumstances do exist and that permitting this witness to be called in violation of the discovery rule would be inappropriate ... And due to all the many circumstances surrounding this, plus the putting on of a 13-year-old child that, in effect, would testify against the interest of her father who is in support of the law enforcement officer is in my judgment inappropriate. She has just recently been through drug treatment, some type of treatment herself. I think it is inappropriate. I am not going to put that girl through the calamity of testifying here in this courtroom before this jury. ¶ 32. This Court reviews the trial court's admission or exclusion of evidence for an abuse of discretion. Herring v. Poirrier, 797 So.2d at 804. We hold that the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it ruled that Brittany Warren could not testify. The trial court explained its reasoning thoroughly on the record, and the decision was within the court's discretion.