Opinion ID: 1987342
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure to Investigate and Impeach Henry Cole

Text: Williams alleges that the motion court clearly erred in denying his claim that trial counsel was ineffective for not investigating several of Henry Cole's family members and for not obtaining expert testimony to establish that Henry Cole was mentally ill and dishonest. Williams alleges that Cole's family would have testified that Cole is dishonest. To prevail on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to call a witness, a defendant must show that: (1) trial counsel knew or should have known of the existence of the witness; (2) the witness could be located through reasonable investigation; (3) the witness would testify; and (4) the witness' testimony would have produced a viable defense. Hutchison v. State, 150 S.W.3d 292, 304 (Mo. banc 2004). Counsel's decision to not call a witness is presumptively a matter of trial strategy and will not support a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel unless the defendant clearly establishes otherwise. Id. Nearly all of the alleged testimony that Mr. Cole's family members could have offered involved prior misconduct such as domestic violence and drug and alcohol abuse. Williams argues that this Court's decision in State v. Long, 140 S.W.3d 27, 30 (Mo. banc 2004), allows the admission of testimony from Mr. Cole's family to impeach his testimony. However, the Long decision did not abrogate the rule that extrinsic evidence of prior witness misconduct is generally inadmissible. To the contrary, Long expressly upheld the rule that extrinsic evidence of prior, specific acts of misconduct is generally inadmissible and held only that a witness may be impeached with extrinsic evidence in some cases where the prosecuting witness has made prior false allegations. Id. at 31. Mr. Cole was neither a victim nor a prosecuting witness. Therefore, as the motion court found, any testimony regarding Cole's prior, unrelated misconduct was not admissible to impeach his trial testimony. Trial counsel was not ineffective for declining to investigate and introduce inadmissible evidence. State v. Ferguson, 20 S.W.3d 485, 507 (Mo. banc), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 1019, 121 S.Ct. 582, 148 L.Ed.2d 499 (2000). Williams also contends that counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate Cole's alleged mental illnesses in order to have him declared incompetent to testify. Williams' Rule 29.15 motion alleged that Cole had previously been treated for drug addiction and mental illness and did not specify any information in his records that would have established Cole's incompetence to testify. From this assertion, Williams concludes that the information in Cole's records would have caused the trial court to find Cole incompetent to testify. Williams' allegations are speculative conclusions, not facts, and the motion court properly dismissed this claim without an evidentiary hearing.