Opinion ID: 1886550
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The Content of the Cellular Telephone Records

Text: The telephone records showed forty-three separate calls to the telephone number (202) 744-4241. All of the calls occurred between 12:07 a.m. and 10:38 p.m. on January 16, 2004, the day of the shooting. The proffered records showed that Deborah Scott was the name associated with the account under Customer Information and Billing Information. Brian Scott is listed under the heading of Main CBR. Ms. Barnes testified that her home number was: (301) 630-0668. The records show five telephone calls from (301) 630-0668 to (202) 744-4241: at 1:06 a.m., 1:11 a.m., 1:16 a.m., 1:18 a.m., and 1:21 a.m. The records show that prior to Ms. Barnes's calls, Scott received four calls from three different numbers and another call between Ms. Barnes's first and second calls. Ms. Barnes's testimony is roughly consistent with the telephone records, but notably lacking in detail. She testified her first call was made just after midnight and that Scott sounded normal. In the second call, Ms. Barnes testified that Scott alerted her that someone was shooting and she testified that she heard a loud noise like firecrackers. In her third and fourth calls, she testified that Scott was out of breath and stated he would call her back. Ms. Barnes testified she called Scott two more times, but was unable to reach him, although the records show only one more call between the two numbers. The second telephone call made from (301) 630-0668 to (202) 744-4241 lasted from 1:11:00 a.m. to 1:11:46 a.m. According to Ms. Barnes's testimony, it was in her second conversation that she heard firecrackers. The only other specific time reference to the shooting is found in Officer Wallace's police report, which showed the shooting of Tyson occurred at 1:10 a.m. These coinciding times give powerful corroboration to Ms. Barnes's testimony. We now consider whether the trial court's error in excluding the cellular telephone records was: (a) constitutional error which requires reversal, unless the government demonstrates that it was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt under Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967), or (b) an error that should be evaluated under the less stringent harmless error test under Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 765, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946). [7] Scott contends that the trial court's ruling excluding the cellular telephone records deprived him of his constitutional right to have a meaningful opportunity to present a complete defense. Holmes v. South Carolina, 547 U.S. 319, 324, 126 S.Ct. 1727, 164 L.Ed.2d 503 (D.C.2006) (quoting Crane, supra, 476 U.S. at 690, 106 S.Ct. 2142). We agree. Scott's defense was essentially that although he was at or near the scene of the shooting of Tyson, he was not involved in the crime. The only witness he called to provide a basis for that defense was a family friend, Ms. Barnes, the strength of whose testimony was somewhat diminished by a lack of detail but, more important, severely undermined by a remarkably large number of convictions of crimes involving dishonesty. Appellant Scott's reply brief cogently summarizes the reasons that made the cellular telephone records of central importance to the defense. Without any documentation of Ms. Barnes's phone calls to Scott, the government was able to characterize her account as an unsubstantiated and rather convenient tale told by a longtime family friend trying to get Mr. Scott out of trouble, while Mr. Scott was unable to support the account without forfeiting his constitutional right not to testify. Jurors had to believe, on Ms. Barnes's word alone, not only that she would call someone multiple times in the middle of the night, but that she had called Mr. Scott multiple times in the middle of the night, and further, that one of these calls took place precisely at the time that Mr. Tyson was shot. The excluded records would have provided independent verification as to each of these points, providing critical support to the defense theory. The fact that the records may not have proven the existence or content of certain conversations does not negate the importance of establishing the more basic facts regarding the making and timing of the calls. The government argues that the exclusion of the records did not constitute constitutional error, as the defense was able to introduce through Ms. Barnes's evidence that suggested that Scott was not participating in the shooting of Tyson, citing, inter alia, Burgess v. United States, 786 A.2d 561, 578 (D.C.2001) (Where ample... evidence [has been] admitted on a particular issue, the defendant's constitutional rights are not implicated even if the trial court curtails his presentation.). The government also argues that the evidence of Scott's guilt was so strong that his conviction should stand. We are not convinced on either score. We cannot agree that, by itself, the testimony of Ms. Barnes, lacking as it did in important details and vulnerable to withering impeachment, provided Scott with a meaningful opportunity to present the defense he sought to put before the jury. The government's case, while strong enough to put before the jury, was weakened by inconsistencies among its witnesses as to the number of assailants and which of them were shooting at Tyson. The government argues that because the exclusion of the cellular telephone records did not deprive appellant Scott of the opportunity to present his defense, we should apply the less stringent Kotteakos standard rather than the harmless beyond a reasonable doubt Chapman standard. As we find that argument unconvincing, we conclude that the Chapman reasonable doubt standard applies. We add, however, that the determination of which standard to use is not determinative of the outcome here. We could not find the error harmless under either standard. Scott was indeed deprived of a meaningful opportunity to present his defense and, in any event, we are convinced that we could not conclude with fair assurance that the judgment was not substantially swayed by the error. See Harris v. United States, 834 A.2d 106, 126-28 (D.C.2003) (exclusion of affidavit and defense witness deprived defendant of only corroborating evidence creating reversible error under Kotteakos ); cf. Howard v. United States, 656 A.2d 1106, 1117-19 (D.C.1995) (trial court committed Chapman error in excluding defendant's testimony of complaining witness' prior assaults against him).