Opinion ID: 2306140
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Expert Witness Testimony Exclusion

Text: At trial, Johnson sought to call Dr. Edward Friedlander to opine that Wellman likely died from injuries caused by defendant Clark punching Wellman and by Wellman's subsequent fall to the ground, both of which occurred before appellants kicked Wellman. Both appellants argue that the trial court erred in excluding this testimony because it bears directly on appellants' culpability. Even assuming, arguendo, that the exclusion of the defense expert was error, it was harmless under Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 765, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946). The probative value of Dr. Friedlander's testimony was minimal at best. First, before trial, Dr. Friedlander told the government that he had agreed with the autopsy report attributing Wellman's death to the combination of injuries, rather than to a single blow, and admitted to being unfamiliar with the facts surrounding Wellman's death. Second, Dr. Friedlander conceded that he had not even attempted to speak with the neurosurgeon who had treated Wellman throughout his nearly four-week hospitalization; that Wellman's abrasions had healed to some degree during his hospitalization; that a single impact site might be caused by several blows; and that glancing blows (rather than more direct) ones would not leave marks. In addition, Dr. Friedlander conceded at trial that there were numerous errors in his resume; that he was not a forensic pathologist or neuropathologist; that he was not a member of any forensic pathological associations; that despite claiming to have conducted [a]t least 20 homicide autopsies during a period ending in the mid-1990s, he had actually conducted only nine such autopsies; that he had no experience whatsoever in conducting autopsies involving homicides due to blunt head trauma; that he had been found unqualified to testify in at least two cases, including one in which he had attempted to attribute a child sex abuse victim's injuries to diaper rash; and that he had repeatedly given himself poor ratings regarding his judgment. Moreover, because the actus reus of second-degree murder under a theory of aiding and abetting is merely that the defendant, with guilty knowledge, assisted or participated in the commission of the homicide, Tyree v. United States, 942 A.2d 629, 636 (D.C.2008), even if Clark had inflicted the attack's lethal blow at the beginning of the altercation, his having done so would not negate appellants' actus reus of assisting or participating in the crime of second-degree murder, wherein they repeatedly kicked Wellman after Clark punched him, because that crime was not completed until Wellman's death approximately four weeks after the attack. Likewise, as noted above, there was strong evidence that they possessed the requisite mens rea. See Section II.A., supra. Therefore, even assuming, arguendo, that the trial court erred in not admitting Dr. Friedlander's proposed testimony that Wellman died due to a punch inflicted by Clark, we are able to conclude with fair assurance, after pondering all that happened without stripping the erroneous actions from the whole, that the judgment was not substantially swayed by the error, Rorie v. United States, 882 A.2d 763, 776 (D.C.2005), and we thus affirm.