Opinion ID: 222406
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admission of Videotaped Testimony of Coleman and Westcomb

Text: Gabrion contends that his right to confront witnesses against him was violated because two government witnesses, Kathryn Westcomb and Linda Coleman, testified by videotaped deposition at trial. Coleman testified that she saw Gabrion at Oxford Lake in June 1987 in an older model blue pickup truck with a boat in the back. He was accompanied by two men and a heavy-set girl with sandy blonde hair, which Coleman, over objection by defense, identified as looking like a photo of Rachel Timmerman. On cross-examination, Coleman stated that she did not call the police after seeing Gabrion's photo as a suspect, and she conceded that she refused to testify before the grand jury. Westcomb testified that in the Spring of 1997, her son Lloyd, who suffers from schizophrenia, told her about a conversation he allegedly had with Gabrion in which Gabrion told Lloyd that he had gotten rid of his girlfriend permanently in a bottomless lake with chains and cement blocks. She stated on cross-examination that she did not tell the police about this conversation with her son until three months after Rachel Timmerman's body was found. Under the Confrontation Clause of the United States Constitution, testimonial, out-of-court statements offered against accused to establish the truth of matter asserted may be admitted only where (1) the declarant is unavailable and (2) where the defendant has had prior opportunity to cross-examine the declarant. Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 68, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004). Here, Gabrion was present with counsel at both depositions and his counsel extensively cross-examined both witnesses. His argument hinges on the unavailability prong of the Sixth Amendment. We review the admission of deposition testimony at trial in place of a live witness for abuse of discretion. United States v. Campbell, 845 F.2d 1374, 1377 (6th Cir. 1988). When the question is one of the health of the witness, there must be the requisite finding of necessity which is case specific in order to dispense with confrontation in open court. Maryland v. Craig, 497 U.S. 836, 855, 110 S.Ct. 3157, 111 L.Ed.2d 666 (1990). When the government is claiming witness unavailability due to illness, the specific inquiry must focus on both the severity and duration of the illness. The court must inquire as to the specific symptoms of the illness to determine whether the witness is physically able to come to the courthouse and testify, and the court must determine whether there is the probability that the illness will last long enough so that, with proper regard to the importance of the testimony, the trial cannot be postponed. Burns v. Clusen, 798 F.2d 931, 937-38 (7th Cir.1986). Here, counsel for the government read a letter into the trial record from the doctor for both Ms. Coleman and Ms. Westcomb in which he explained that both women suffer from advanced chronic lung disease and unstable heart disease. Tr. at 1130. The letter went on to say, It is my professional opinion [that] neither of these women could tolerate cross-examination in open court without seriously jeopardizing their health and safety. It would not be a surprise to me if they were put into an unusual [sic] stressful circumstance for them to either have a heart attack or simply stop breathing. It is therefor my strong opinion that they not be forced to testify in open court.... Id. Ms. Westcomb was wheeled into her deposition on a gurney and Ms. Coleman had an oxygen tank available for her use during the deposition. Tr. at 1134. The government made a sufficient showing regarding the unavailability of both women through its in-court representations and correspondence from their physician. The doctor's letter was specific as to the nature of each woman's illness and very clear in his opinion that the women's health would be jeopardized if they were forced to testify at the trial. Gabrion relies on Stoner v. Sowders, 997 F.2d 209 (6th Cir.1993), to argue that the witnesses were not unavailable for trial. In Stoner, the two elderly witnesses came to a police station near the courthouse the day before the trial to give depositions. Id. at 211-12. The Court there held their unavailability to be a legal fiction and a Confrontation Clause violation. Id. at 212. Here, the depositions were taken in Ms. Westcomb's case several months before trial and in Ms. Coleman's case several weeks before trial. The chronic nature and severity of their health problems was specifically explained to the court. In fact, Ms. Westcomb's health was so poor that she died while the trial was in progress. Because Gabrion was able to, and did, cross-examine both witnesses at their depositions, and because the government sufficiently demonstrated their unavailability to testify at trial, no Confrontation Clause violation occurred. The District Court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the videotaped depositions of Ms. Westcomb and Ms. Coleman.