Opinion ID: 2424168
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Admissibility of Rebuttal Witness

Text: The defendant next contends that the trial justice erred by allowing John to testify in violation of the sequestration order. Rule 615 of the Rhode Island Rules of Evidence permits a trial justice to order witnesses excluded so they cannot hear the testimony of other witnesses. We have held that this is an exercise of discretion, and that a decision to exclude or not exclude a witness will not be disturbed absent an abuse of discretion. State v. Perez, 882 A.2d 574, 583 (R.I.2005) (citing State v. Mathias, 423 A.2d 484, 486 (R.I.1980)). We also have noted that [t]he purpose of sequestration is to prevent witnesses from shaping their testimony to match that given by other witnesses,    thereby assuring a greater likelihood of arriving at the truth. Mathias, 423 A.2d at 486 (citing State v. Cyrulik, 100 R.I. 282, 284, 214 A.2d 382, 383 (1965)). In this case, the trial justice ordered that any witnesses should leave the [c]ourtroom if you are someone who expects to be testifying in the presence of other witnesses. Because he was not anticipating being called as a witness, John remained in the courtroom and heard defendant and Janice testify that Harriet frequently asked them to scratch her stomach. Disagreeing with that statement, at least as it pertained to his experience with Harriet, he approached the prosecutor. What transpired here is similar to the facts of State v. Burke, 522 A.2d 725 (R.I.1987), in which the defendant had sought to call witnesses who had not been sequestered during the state's case to rebut testimony of the complaining witness. Id. at 729. The defendant in Burke had had no intention of calling the individuals as witnesses until after the complaining witness testified, and the proposed testimony was offered to impeach the state's complaining witness rather than to corroborate the testimony of a defense witness. For these reasons, we stated that it [was] highly questionable that the [witnesses] or [the] defendant violated the sequestration order at all, but if a retroactive violation could be discerned, it would obviously be wholly unintentional. The preclusion of testimony based solely on an unintentional violation of the order was unwarranted. Id. Here, it is undisputed that the state had no intention of calling John to testify in this case. If this were deemed a violation of the sequestration order, it appears to have been unintentional. Further, John's testimony called into question the defendant's and Janice's credibility and therefore did not undermine the purpose of the sequestration order, which was to prevent collusion or the shaping of testimony. Lastly, any potential harm to the defendant clearly was addressed by the trial justice when she noted that the defendant could elicit testimony to the effect that this witness had been in the courtroom during defense testimony and was testifying in direct response to what the defendant and Janice had said on the stand. For all these reasons, we are satisfied that the trial justice did not abuse her discretion when she allowed this testimony. [5]