Opinion ID: 1926802
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Suggestive Identification Procedures

Text: Defendant's pro se brief makes a number of arguments, which boil down to claims that the Vermont State Police used improperly suggestive techniques when asking witnesses to identify defendant and defendant's Corvette from photographs. Defendant points out some inconsistencies among statements made by various witnesses and asserts that some witnesses fail to state some information he thinks important. A number of these arguments were not raised before the trial court and therefore have been waived. Specifically, defendant first takes issue with an alleged error in the search warrant application, which revealed that witness Sam McCormick stated he pumped gas into a blue Corvette on October 17, 1992. [7] Defendant points out that McCormick's written statement does not mention the color blue. This claim was not raised below and therefore has been waived. See Morais v. Yee, 162 Vt. 366, 372, 648 A.2d 405, 410 (1994). Defendant also argues that McCormick's identification of defendant's Corvette was the result of an impermissibly suggestive identification procedure. The crux of his claim is that the police should have shown witnesses pictures of several Corvettes of different colors. We can find no support for his claim, either within Vermont or elsewhere. Courts that have considered such a claim have rejected it. See Commonwealth v. Simmons, 383 Mass. 46, 417 N.E.2d 1193, 1196 (1981) (danger of fundamental unfairness greater with personal identification, since identification of property is only indirect proof of guilt and tangible objects are rarely unique); Commonwealth v. Carter, 271 Pa.Super. 508, 414 A.2d 369, 373 (1979) (identification of real evidence does not carry enormous probative weight of personal identification, and therefore does not require same precautions; any suggestiveness goes to weight of evidence, not admissibility); Inge v. Commonwealth, 217 Va. 360, 228 S.E.2d 563, 567 (1976) (one-on-one identification of a vehicle presents questions of weight and credibility, not an admissibility question of constitutional dimensions), upheld in pertinent part by Inge v. Procunier, 758 F.2d 1010 (4th Cir. 1985). Therefore, we decline to create a rule requiring police to provide a photo array of an object such as a car. Next, defendant argues that the identifications of witnesses John Alexander and Michael Bruno should have been excised because the tinted windows of defendant's Corvette would have prevented them from seeing inside the car. Alexander saw the Corvette at midnight, pulled off the road near Kenworthy's home. Bruno saw the Corvette at about 3:00 a.m., being driven away from Kenworthy's area at high speed. This issue was not raised below and is waived; additionally, defendant failed to assert that the false statement was made knowingly, intentionally or with reckless disregard for the truth. See State v. Demers, 167 Vt. 349, 353, 707 A.2d 276, 278 (1997). Defendant further claims that Alexander's and Bruno's identification of defendant's Corvette was prompted by the suggestive procedure of showing each witness a single picture of defendant's car. This claim is meritless, as explained above. Finally, defendant takes issue with the use of statements by witness Timothy Matthews in the warrant application. Matthews saw a man and a car in a parking lot near Kenworthy's home. Matthews described the man as wearing a long coat, boots and a watch cap. He described the car as a light-blue Corvette with Florida license plates, bearing the number ZAZJ29. [8] Defendant argues that Matthews did not know whether the man and the car were connected and therefore did not establish probable cause. A finding of probable cause is based on the totality of the circumstances, not on a single piece of evidence or a single witness's observations. See id. at 355, 707 A.2d at 279. Matthews's observations were but a part of the evidence provided to establish probable cause and, taken in conjunction with the other sightings of the Corvette as well as a man matching defendant's description, the application did show probable cause.