Opinion ID: 2639434
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Joanna's Ride to Placerville with Joe

Text: At trial, Joanna testified that after she saw petitioner stab Denise, she ran towards the road and got a ride back to Placerville with Joe. In her 1992 recantation, Joanna claimed that in 1987, she told Sergeant Wilson that she lied about getting a ride back with Joe and instead, had ridden home with petitioner the night of Denise's murder. Sergeant Wilson, she said, informed her that this detail was not significant. In both her 1992 recantation and her 1994 reference hearing testimony, she maintained that Joe had not given her a ride back to Placerville that evening. At the 1994 reference hearing, the defense called Joe Shamblin to testify. He stated that he knew Joanna, having met her at Happy Trails in 1983 or 1984. Shamblin testified that he never picked up Joanna hitchhiking in the middle of the night on Mormon Emigrant Trail. He also claimed he contacted law enforcement prior to the original jury trial because his parents had seen a newspaper article in which the police stated they were looking for a person named Joe that fit his description. He said he thought he spoke to an officer named Bill. Sergeant Wilson acknowledged that Detective Harnage had interviewed Joe Shamblin prior to the original jury trial and, afterwards, that he (Sergeant Wilson) informed Joanna that they might have found the Joe who gave her a ride home the night Denise was murdered. But Joanna, he said, told him this was not the right Joe. Joanna said that the person named Joe who gave her a ride had moved to Nevada. Sergeant Wilson stated that he still felt there was [another] Joe who gave Joanna a ride home. He testified that, to his recollection, no report of the Joe Shamblin interview was prepared and the interview was never disclosed to the defense. [4] The referee found that the person named Joe that Joanna described to the sheriffs deputies was, in fact, Joe Shamblin, and that Joanna lied in this portion of her trial testimony. The referee instead concluded that Joanna rode home with petitioner. The referee believed that Joanna's riding back to Placerville with petitioner explained a great deal about Joanna's behavior after Denise was murdered, including her reluctance to come forward. We accept this finding as true.