Opinion ID: 1760832
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Gill's Counsel's Performance Was Deficient

Text: When the State introduced evidence regarding the victim's good character, Gill's counsel should have presented rebuttal evidence. However, his counsel failed to present rebuttal character evidence because they failed to discover it. They saw the names of the sexually explicit files on the report but were not diligent in investigating further. Defense counsel testified at the Rule 29.15 hearing that after more carefully reviewing the report, they noticed entries that should have alerted them to the presence of pornography on the computer. They had the opportunity to discover the child pornography, bestiality content, and instant message conversations on the victim's computer but neglected to do so. By failing to discover those files on the victim's computer, Gill's counsel's performance was deficient. A reasonably competent attorney would have carefully reviewed the report provided by the State and recognized file names like a_sluttyl8girl_w38c and sweet_tasting_slute as evidence of sexually explicit material on the computer. A reasonably competent attorney would have conducted further investigation as to the contents of the computer and discovered the child pornography images, bestiality content, and sexually explicit instant message conversations about the 17-year-old daughter. Then, a reasonably competent attorney would have rebutted the State's character evidence at the penalty phase. Moreover, a reasonably competent attorney would have interviewed or deposed Lt. James, the investigator who prepared the probable cause statement and the report and who the State had listed as a potential witness. He knew the victim's computer contained sexually explicit material. If Gill's counsel had interviewed or deposed Lt. James about the report, they would have learned about the child pornography images, bestiality content, and sexually explicit instant message conversations on the victim's computer. Then, a reasonably competent attorney would have been able to rebut the State's character evidence at the penalty phase. Gill's counsel were unprepared to rebut the State's character evidence of the victim and, therefore, their performance was deficient if the prosecutor still chose to introduce that evidence.