Opinion ID: 1348169
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: probationary status of witness

Text: In his third assignment of error Rincker contends the trial court erred in refusing to permit him to show by cross-examination that Siegrist, an eyewitness to the killing and thus a crucial State's witness, was, at the time of the killing, on probation as the result of a drunk driving conviction. Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 39 L.Ed.2d 347 (1974), held the trial court committed prejudicial error when it refused to permit the defendant therein to cross-examine a crucial prosecution witness to establish that the witness was on juvenile probation at the time of the crimes and of trial. The Davis Court ruled that the defendant's right of confrontation under U.S. Const. amends. VI and XIV was paramount to the state's policy of protecting the anonymity of juvenile offenders and that the defendant had the right to show the witness was biased by virtue of his vulnerable status as a probationer and his concern that, because the stolen safe was found on his property, he himself might be a suspect in the burglary charged against the defendant. In so ruling, the Davis Court stated: We have recognized that the exposure of a witness' motivation in testifying is a proper and important function of the constitutionally protected right of cross-examination. 415 U.S. at 316-17, 94 S.Ct. at 1110-1111. In the case before us, however, not only was Siegrist not himself a suspect, he was not on probation at the time of trial. The very county judge who had placed Siegrist on probation conducted the preliminary hearing which produced the trial resulting in the appeal presently before us. During the course of that preliminary hearing, Siegrist admitted that he had drunk a beer at a bar during the evening preceding the killing. As a consequence, the county judge determined Siegrist had violated a condition of his probation by drinking. That county judge therefore unsatisfactorily discharged Siegrist from his probation. As a consequence, Siegrist served 7 days in jail; that jail time would have been suspended had he satisfactorily completed probation. Thus, by the time of trial Siegrist was no longer vulnerable to the State's reprisal because of an earlier probationary status; he had been punished, and the effects of his violation of probation had become final and could not be enhanced by State action. Indeed, during cross-examination at trial, Siegrist admitted he had also been at another bar the night preceding the killing where he drank a couple of beers, and further admitted he had omitted relating that fact in his deposition because he had not remembered. Under those circumstances, we cannot say the trial court abused its discretion in such a manner as to have deprived Rincker of his right to confront Siegrist. See Amin v. State, 686 P.2d 593 (Wyo.1984), which rules that where a prosecution witness was not on probation at the time of the crime or trial, was not an accomplice or suspect, and, although he was the victim, he was not the State's only witness, it was not error to refuse cross-examination to show that the witness had been on juvenile probation.