Opinion ID: 2592762
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the trial court abused its discretion by excluding the expert testimony

Text: ¶ 39 Before deciding the ultimate outcome of this case, we analyze whether the decision to exclude Dr. Dodd's testimony constituted an abuse of discretion by `exceed[ing] the limits of reasonability.' State v. Hollen, 2002 UT 35, ¶ 66, 44 P.3d 794 (quoting State v. Larsen, 865 P.2d 1355, 1361 (Utah 1993)). We are less likely to find an abuse of discretion `where there has been no showing that the excluded evidence would probably have had a substantial influence in bringing about a different verdict.' State v. Hubbard, 2002 UT 45, ¶ 20, 48 P.3d 953 (quoting State v. Butterfield, 2001 UT 59, ¶ 43, 27 P.3d 1133). Similarly, we find errors by the trial court harmful only if there is a reasonable likelihood that the verdict would have been different had the expert testimony been included. Steffensen v. Smith's Mgmt. Corp., 862 P.2d 1342, 1347 (Utah 1993). If no such reasonable likelihood exists, then the error is harmless and reversal is not warranted. In order to analyze these issues, we review the facts presented in the record. ¶ 40 Tony Fuailemaa, the victim in this case, was shot and killed outside a nightclub following a rap concert. An undercover police officer responded and was told by the victim's girlfriend, Shannon Pantoja, that the shooter was the guy in the red. [23] The officer gave chase and saw several men jump into a Ford Explorer and drive away at high speed. A police pursuit ensued and resulted in the capture of Clopten and three other men. Clopten was in the driver's seat of the Explorer at the time of the arrest. Freddie White, the individual identified by Clopten as the shooter, was in the rear passenger seat. Both Clopten and White are African-American. Clopten was wearing both a red hooded sweatshirt and red pants at the time of arrest, while White was wearing a red T-shirt. Another red hooded sweatshirt was later found in the Explorer near where White had been sitting; the evidence suggested that White had been wearing it earlier in the evening. The handgun was found on the side of a road, having been thrown from the Explorer during the pursuit. ¶ 41 The State was unable to link Clopten to the handgun using fingerprints or other forensic evidence. Instead, the State relied heavily on eyewitness testimony. Pantoja testified that she was standing some fifteen feet away when she saw the man in red shoot Fuailemaa. She was taken by police to the scene of the arrest and there identified Clopten as the shooter. Pantoja also picked Clopten out of a police lineup some thirteen months later and identified him as the shooter at trial. Clopten was also identified by Melissa Valdez, another concertgoer who witnessed the shooting. Valdez testified that she had spoken briefly to a man dressed in a red sweatshirt both before and after the concert at the nightclub. Valdez said that just after speaking to the man in red for the second time, she saw him shoot Fuailemaa in the back of the head. She identified Clopten as the man in red both in a photo array and at trial. The State also introduced testimony given by Christopher Hamby, who accompanied Clopten to the concert and was riding in the Explorer at the time of the arrest. Hamby testified at a preliminary hearing that Clopten was the shooter. Finally, the State called Robert Land, who had been in prison with Clopten following the arrest. Land claimed that Clopten confessed to killing Fuailemaa. ¶ 42 There were significant problems, however, with the State's case. Hamby initially told police that he had not witnessed the shooting. Hamby changed his story after being told by police that Clopten would inevitably be convicted and that he could either be a witness or go to jail for many years. Hamby disappeared prior to trial, leaving the State no alternative but to read his preliminary hearing testimony into evidence. Land's credibility was also attacked since he received a substantially reduced prison sentence in exchange for his testimony. There were also questions about whether Clopten would have been able to have the in-depth discussion that Land described, since the two inmates were housed in different parts of the prison. Given these issues, the testimony of the other eyewitnessesparticularly that of Pantojawere of primary importance. ¶ 43 Pantoja had never met or seen Clopten prior to the night of the murder. She testified at trial that, upon arriving at the nightclub, Fuailemaa recognized Clopten as someone with whom he had previously been incarcerated. Fuailemaa pointed Clopten out to Pantoja, and told her that Clopten had some problems with the homies out in the prison. The murder occurred some two hours later, as Fuailemaa and Pantoja were returning to their parked car. Pantoja spoke to the police on numerous occasions, and she testified at a preliminary hearing and at both trials. ¶ 44 Pantoja's testimony at trial contained numerous inconsistencies when compared to her previous statements. At trial, for example, Pantoja testified that she looked closely at Clopten as she entered the nightclub prior to the shooting. In an interview with police just two days after the shooting, however, she stated that I didn't really look at [Clopten] when I entered the club. In addition, the circumstances under which she saw the shooting and later identified the perpetrator indicate that inaccuracy could have occurred at several points. Just after the shooting, for example, a frantic Pantoja told police that the shooter was the guy in red. She did not identify Clopten by name, even though Fuailemaa had pointed him out by name earlier in the evening. Less than an hour later, a still-distraught Pantoja was told by police that they have some suspects pulled over and that they needed her to go identify these guys. When she demurred, an officer told her to [d]o it for Tony. After being transported to the scene of the arrest, she viewed the four men one at a time at a distance of some thirty-five feet. All four men were handcuffed. Although there was evidence that White had been wearing a red hooded sweatshirt earlier in the night, at the time of the identification only Clopten was wearing such a garment. Pantoja identified Clopten as the shooter, and a short time later picked Clopten out of a photo array. She also identified Clopten in a police lineup approximately thirteen months later and again at trial. When asked by defense counsel how she could identify Clopten in a lineup after so much time had passed, Pantoja testified that she picked Clopten out due to his distinctive hairline. Every other eyewitness, however, testified that the perpetrator had a hood pulled up over the top of his head at the time of the shooting. ¶ 45 The testimony of Melissa Valdez presented similar difficulties. Valdez had also never seen Clopten prior to the night of the murder. At trial, she said that she had spoken twice to a man wearing red about getting tickets to the concert. Moments after speaking to the man the second time, Valdez heard shots and turned to see him standing over Fuailemaa with a gun. She later picked Clopten out of a photo array. In a police interview shortly after the shooting, however, Valdez stated that the shooter had not been wearing red pants. This weakened her own identification, contradicted Pantoja's testimony, and suggested that someone other than Clopten (who was wearing red pants when arrested) was responsible. In addition, Valdez's description of the red sweatshirt worn by the shooter varied from the sweatshirt actually worn by Clopten, and may have better matched the sweatshirt later found near White's seat in the Explorer. ¶ 46 Both Valdez and Pantoja witnessed a brutal crime committed by a stranger. They each saw the shooter for no more than a few seconds, from some distance away, at night, and while in extreme fear for their own lives. The shooter's facial features were likely disguised by a hood. The shooter was of a different race than either eyewitness, and the presence of a weapon may have served as a significant distractor. Pantoja's identification may have been biased by her expectations, since Fuailemaa had told her just before the murder that he and Clopten were enemies. Her identification may also have been affected by circumstances that occurred later, such as the fact that Clopten was the only individual wearing a red sweatshirt at the time of the initial show up identification. Pantoja's statement that she was urged by police to go identify a perpetrator for the sake of her murdered boyfriend, at a time when she was still extremely distraught, also creates doubts as to her accuracy. Finally, the fact that Pantoja insisted that she remembered the shooter's distinctive hairline, when others testified that the shooter's head was covered, raises a fair question as to whether Pantoja actually recalled the shooter's hairline, or if she later incorporated that feature into her memory after seeing pictures of Clopten. ¶ 47 In short, the circumstances found in the Clopten trial are exactly those under which the testimony of an eyewitness expert is most helpful to a jury. Dr. Dodd, the proffered expert in this case, could have testified about research into how eyewitness identification of a stranger is affected by stress, disguises, darkness and length of exposure. He could have quantified the impact of factors such as weapon focus and cross-racial identification. Dr. Dodd could also have testified as to the impact that comments made by police officers may have on an eyewitness making an identification. Additionally, he could have discussed a common phenomenon in which witnesses fill gaps in their memory with information obtained later and thus, over time, become more and more certain of identifications that may be inaccurate. All of these factors were present here, and thorough testimony by a qualified expert as to their nature would have significantly assisted the jury in evaluating the accuracy of the State's most important witnesses. In addition, the critical importance of the eyewitnesses here forces the conclusion that the proffered testimony might have had a substantial influence in bringing about a different verdict. It was therefore unreasonable for the trial court to rule that such expert testimony would be superfluous. While we acknowledge that the trial court followed established precedent, we hold that the court of appeals erred in concluding that the exclusion of Dr. Dodd's testimony was not an abuse of discretion. ¶ 48 The court of appeals acknowledged the body of research that supports the admission of eyewitness expert testimony. State v. Clopten, 2008 UT App 205, ¶ 19, 186 P.3d 1004. It then noted that [t]he precise situation in this case is somewhat different because some of the eyewitnesses were not complete strangers to Clopten. Id. ¶ 20. The court of appeals therefore concluded that any error made by the trial court was not prejudicial. Id. We disagree. While Valdez and Pantoja each had brief encounters with Clopten prior to the shooting, both were essentially strangers to him. [24] To say that either eyewitness was acquainted with Clopten, and thus not subject to the vagaries of identifying a stranger, stretches the definition of acquaintance too far. In addition, there is little doubt that eyewitness testimony was of paramount importance in the State's case against Clopten, as there was no other independent corroboration of the shooter's identity. Thus, we cannot conclude that the jury would have convicted solely on the basis of other evidence or testimony from other witnesses. There is therefore a reasonable likelihood that, if allowed to hear Dr. Dodd's testimony, the jury would have questioned the accuracy of the eyewitnesses more rigorously and would not have convicted Clopten. While the trial judge did give a Long instruction, there is no reason to believe this measure was effective in mitigating the error. This is particularly true because the instruction discussed neither the phenomenon of weapon focus nor the lack of correlation between eyewitness confidence and accuracy. Dr. Dodd's testimony would have reached both issues. We therefore conclude that it is necessary to reverse the court of appeals and vacate Clopten's conviction.