Opinion ID: 2612942
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Finding of Unavailability

Text: Between the time of the preliminary hearing and the time of trial, Casanova was incarcerated in a federal prison in Texas. Pursuant to a writ of habeas corpus ad testificandum, [5] federal authorities in Texas transferred Casanova to Tucson so he could testify at trial. Although originally scheduled for October 27, 1990, the trial was continued until late November. The court therefore ordered an extension of the writ until December 15. The trial started on November 20, 1990. Just after the trial began, the prosecutor learned that Casanova was no longer in custody in Pima County. The judge granted the prosecutor's request for a hearing to discuss this predicament. Because the hearing is critical to the issue of unavailability, we reproduce it here: MS. MAYER (For the State): As I indicated last week on the second day of trial when I called the jail in order to facilitate a transport order on Mr. Casanova, my office was informed that he was no longer in custody. Victor Marmion, an investigator with my office, made the requested follow-up phone calls to find out what happened. He was told by jail personnel that the federal agents, the marshalls [sic] from Big Springs, Texas where Mr. Casanova had previously been incarcerated, had come on November 11th to pick him up and take him back. The State had filed a writ in early October, a petition for writ of habeas corpus with Texas for the presence of Mr. Casanova, that writ was signed by the Court and it requested that he be here for the first trial date which was originally set for October 27th. And that he remain here until the 15th of November. When it became clear that we were not going to go to trial on October 27th, we were going to go sometime in November, I asked Your Honor to order the jail personnel to hold him until December 15th so he would be assured to be present when this trial was going to go. Not only did they, did the federal marshalls [sic] come and pick him up in contravention of your direct order, they picked him up in violation of the time parameters set forth in the writ since he had until November 15th to be here. Victor Marmion followed up with Cindy Post from the sheriff's office's extradition unit who indicated it would take at least two weeks to bring him back to Tucson. And that information was corroborated by Ricky Mason who is the extradition person in my office. And I will file with the Court Mr. Marmion's handwritten note about that conversation. Subsequent to that I informed the Court of what was going on and I executed a new writ which Your Honor signed which has been signed by the clerk. However, we can get the writ to the Bureau of Prisons in Big Springs, Texas by Federal Express by tomorrow, and I am informed from Officer Robertson, Walter Robertson who is in charge there that he may or may not be able to release him pursuant to that writ. He said however that he will of course not make any transportation arrangements, the sheriff's office would have to do that. So I contacted the officers in charge of transportation. And I spoke, my office or my secretary spoke to Paul Wilson who said there are no pilots available this week to go to Big Springs, the earliest they are going is next week, even then they don't know when that would be, even then there is no guarantee that the federal authorities would act in accordance with the new writ even if we were to federally express it to them. I think the State's in a position of asking the Court either for a continuance of this matter to next week when we can secure Mr. Casanova's appearance, which even then may not be guaranteed; or to allow the State to proceed with the preliminary hearing testimony of Thomas Casanova.       THE COURT: Fred, do you want to say anything?       MR. DARDIS (For the Defendant): Your Honor, under rule 804 of the Arizona Rules of Evidence, under a case called State versus Robert Edwards, 136 Arizona 177, [665 P.2d 59,] a 1983 case, this witness is not unavailable, for purposes of invoking the 804 exception to allowing the preliminary hearing transcript to be used against Mr. Gonzales Medina. This man can be brought. Everyone knows where this man is. There's no question, we should take it as a given fact, we know this man is in federal custody and that he could be brought here.       MR. DARDIS: [W]e're interested in whether Mr. Medina is going to be able to face and confront under the sixth amendment one of his accusers, and this accuser is going to testify to some very damaging testimony. In this preliminary hearing. Number one, that will not be able to be objected to because it is a cold preliminary hearing record. Number two, at the time the preliminary hearing occurred, Mr. Hippert, who was my partner, who did the cross examination was without benefit of significant investigation, knowledge, research about what the entire case was about, the thrust of the investigation and various other aspects, scientific evidence which will be introduced which should have been gone into at the time Mr. Hippert examined Mr. Casanova. Thirdly, the transcript contains certain hearsay statements by Mr. Casanova which I don't know whether they have been excised. Fourthly, I don't think the government has met its burden of showing that this witness is so unavailable that you should invoke the 804 provisions and therefore I would ask the Court to deny the government's use of the preliminary hearing transcripts.       THE COURT: Well, 804 says if he's unavailable and the proponent, the State is unable to do it by process or other reasonable means it is a clear exception under the hearsay rule. MR. DARDIS: No, I don't think so, Your Honor. The fact is you have a process established, I mean this guy is in federal custody. He's not objecting to coming as I understand it. I don't think there is any evidence that he has put up an objection under the witness provision. That may be. That may be a different situation. All they have to do is, it is their witness, use the extradition procedure, send somebody over there to bring him back. THE COURT: They did. MR. DARDIS: And they took him back and now they can go get him again. THE COURT: Are you objecting to a continuance, too? MR. DARDIS: No, Your Honor. THE COURT: Well, frankly I feel under the circumstances they are entitled to use the preliminary hearing transcript.       THE COURT: The motion to use the preliminary hearing transcript is granted.