Opinion ID: 1946348
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: state impeaching its own witness

Text: Gray argues that the state's use of prior statements to impeach its own witness, Timothy Page, was improper because it was not shown that Page's testimony took the state by surprise nor that Page was unexpectedly hostile. Moffett v. State, 456 So.2d 714 (Miss. 1984). In Moffett, we affirmed that a party is prohibited from impeaching his own witness with a prior statement when he knows reasonably well in advance that the witness has repudiated the statement. Id. at 718-19. Applying the standard in Hall v. State, 250 Miss. 253, 165 So.2d 345 (1964), we concluded that the state was not genuinely taken by surprise by witness Johnson's repudiation of his prior statement nor was Johnson unexpectedly hostile. Id. In this case, Timothy Page was summoned from Louisiana by the state to testify against Gray about the events from the time of the arrival of the three suspects at Page's Slidell home until his arrest while riding with Gray in Wojcik's white van. On direct examination, Page testified that he noticed Gray had a skinned place on his hand, some bad things on his knuckles and a little blood on his elbow. Gray told Page that he got in a fight with a couple of men in a bar in Mississippi. Toward the end of direct examination, the state asked Page numerous leading questions, to which Page gave unresponsive answers. The state persisted, and Gray's objection to leading questions was sustained. The state asked Page if he remembered giving a statement. Gray objected to the state impeaching its own witness. The trial court sustained this objection and overruled the state's plea of surprise. On redirect, the state returned to the leading form of questioning and pursued the matter of Gray's fight in a bar. Page said that all Gray said was he whipped them. The state asked, Didn't he brag to you about ...?, at which point Gray objected to the state continuing to lead its witness. The trial court sustained the objection and overruled requests to treat Page as a hostile witness. The state asked how Gray was acting, to which Page replied, He was, uh, acting like nothing happened. The state offered to refresh Page's memory with his statement, to which defense counsel objected but the court let the state show Page this statement. Page said he recalled making the statement. Asked to read the statement, Page replied that he could not read. The state then asked Page if he made the following statement. Defense counsel's objection was overruled. The state read Page the following: Q. Was there anything about David that seemed strange? A. Yes, sir. When David handed me a drink of Jack Daniel's from the bottle, I don't remember which arm it was, but he had dried blood on his arm, just below his hand. And the opposite hand, his knuckles were skinned. It looked like to me he had cut his hand, hitting someone in the mouth or teeth. I asked him what had happened. And he said he had got into a fight somewhere in Mississippi with two dudes, and he was bragging about how bad he was ... Q. Anything you would like to add, at this time? A. The dude, David, was real nervous. And when I was looking around, he didn't want me to look around too much inside of the van. Page acknowledged making that statement and admitted that Gray appeared shaky. The state attempted to further question Page regarding his prior statement but the court refused to sustain the plea of surprise, because Page had been in the district attorney's office for two days. The prosecutor responded, I didn't know he would lie. I thought he would testify like his statement. The judge on his own motion told the jury to disregard the district attorney's remarks. In this case the trial court ruled that the state could not treat Page as a hostile witness, but in fact allowed the prosecutor to use Page's prior statement to the police to impeach his earlier assertion that Gray was acting like nothing had happened. Gray contends that there could be no true surprise since the state had two days in which to question Page concerning his statement and did not do so. Gray further complains that after the trial court ruled adversely to the state, the prosecutor accused Page of being a liar in the presence of the jury. Gray contends that the witness's prior statements had a prejudicial effect on his sentencing determination and require reversal under Cannaday v. State, 455 So.2d 713 (Miss. 1984). We will first lay to rest the question of the prosecutor's remark. While the remark was improper, the trial judge corrected the matter instantly by admonishing the jury to disregard the comment. Ratliff v. State, 317 So.2d 403, 405-06 (Miss. 1975); Clanton v. State, 279 So.2d 599 (Miss. 1973). This case can be distinguished from Moffett, supra, on its facts in that this record contains no indication that the witness Page ever informed the state or defense counsel that he would not testify in accordance with the statement he had given the police in Slidell. Indeed, it would have been surprising if the illiterate Page had informed anyone that he intended to testify differently from a statement which he could not read. We look now to Hall v. State, supra , to determine whether the prosecutor was surprised and the witness unexpectedly hostile. In the absence of any indication to the contrary, the state may genuinely not have expected Page to be hostile since he was a friend of Cannaday, not Gray. Page proved to be less than cooperative during his direct examination by the state, and the leading questions were due in part to Page's non-responsive answers. When, on redirect, Page said that Gray was acting like nothing happened, the state may genuinely have been surprised given the strength of his earlier statement that Gray was acting real nervous and did not want Page looking around in the van. Thus the state laid a predicate to impeach Page as an unexpectedly hostile witness. Even were this not so, Page's trial testimony and out-of-court statement both corroborated Gray's version of the story, when Gray himself took the stand and testified. In fact, Page's testimony concerning Gray's fist fight would not have prejudiced Gray but rather bolstered his defense. Gray's assertion that Page's statement that Gray bragged about how bad he was unduly prejudiced the jury pales when compared with his co-defendant's admission, ruled inadmissible on appeal, that she tried to break off Wojcik's head. Cannaday, supra, at 721. We conclude that the state laid a predicate for impeaching Page with his prior statements and, even were this not so, the statements were not so inflammatory as to infect the sentencing phase of his trial. Cannaday, supra, at 724.