Opinion ID: 2581358
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Thomas Young's arrest and interview by police

Text: Defense witness Thomas Young was one of the occupants of 2250 Menalto on the night of Sadler's killing. He was arrested on May 11, 1994, on suspicion of being an accessory to the murder of Sadler, was given a polygraph test that cleared him of participating in the Sadler murder, and was released. He then gave an interview to Inspector Bruce Sabin of the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office. Young's arrest, interview, and polygraph test were first disclosed to the defense on June 13, 1994, during the guilt phase of trial. Defendant complains of the prosecution's belated disclosure of Young's postarrest interview and maintains that the defense did not learn until after the guilt phase verdict was returned that Young had been arrested in connection with Sadler's killing. Defendant's claim that the defense was unaware of Young's arrest is not borne out by the record. The trial court held an evidentiary hearing, at which Deputy District Attorney Robert Foiles testified that on June 13, 1994, immediately before the defense called Thomas Young as a witness, Foiles personally told Defense Attorney Edward Pomeroy about Young's arrest. The trial court found that the defense had learned on June 13 of Young's previously undisclosed arrest. Because the interview and the fact of the arrest were disclosed before Young testified, the only prejudice to which defendant can point is defense counsel's inability to suggest in his opening statement that Young, not defendant, was the one who killed Sadler. Defendant was not denied due process under our federal Constitution because there is no reasonable probability ( Pennsylvania v. Ritchie (1987) 480 U.S. 39, 57, 107 S.Ct. 989, 94 L.Ed.2d 40) that a defense opening argument citing the arrest of Young, who then passed a polygraph test and was immediately released from custody, would have changed the outcome of the guilt phase, given the evidence of defendant's guilt presented at trial. In his reply brief, defendant asserts that defense counsel's alleged knowledge of Young's arrest before Young testified cannot be reconciled with defense counsel's failure to question Young about his arrest. Defendant bases this claim on a second ruling by the trial court. Once the trial court made the factual finding that Defense Attorney Pomeroy had been told of Young's arrest, both defense attorneys moved to withdraw before the penalty phase of trial began, arguing that if they had had such knowledge they necessarily had provided ineffective assistance by failing to cross-examine Young about his arrest. The trial court also denied that motion, relying on its earlier finding that defendant suffered no prejudice. In essence, defendant challenges the factual determination of the trial court that the defense was informed before Young testified that he had been arrested as an accessory. We are not persuaded that the only possible explanation for defense counsel's failure to question Young about his arrest was counsel's ignorance of the arrest. Based on the record before us we cannot say that the trial court's factual finding that the defense had been told of Young's arrest before Young testified is unsupported by the evidence. Nor can we say that counsel's decision not to pose questions about the arrest was ineffective assistance, rather than a strategic choice.