Opinion ID: 2321068
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Incriminatory Statements

Text: The defendant also argues that he suffered irreparable harm by the state's failure to turn over evidence of what he characterizes as a confession. Gonzalez contends that the trial justice should have declared a mistrial because he was denied the opportunity to litigate the voluntariness of the confession pretrial, and he was not prepared to address this statement during his case in chief. Rule 16(a)(1) requires the state, upon written request, to provide defendant with all relevant or recorded statements or confessions, signed or unsigned, or written summaries of oral statements or confessions made by the defendant, or copies thereof[.] The state's answer referred defendant to an FBI 302 dated August 13, 2003, for any statements of the accused. That report, however, is silent with respect to any admission or statement the accused made about his bedroom, and it certainly did not reflect Det. Douglas's direct examination testimony that Gonzalez had informed us that that was his bedroom. The only reference to the bedroom that the report contained was an indication that Det. Douglas responded to Gonzalez's bedroom on the second floor of the residence. We do not agree with defense counsel that this alleged statement amounts to a confession. [6] However, whether oral or written, this is evidence about the defendant and his bedroomwhere most of the narcotics were foundthat should have been provided to defense counsel. However, standing alone, this violation, although error, was not so prejudicial as to warrant a mistrial, and could have been remedied by an adequate continuance.