Opinion ID: 1713477
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Riccie Orebia

Text: ¶ 39. Riccie Orebia was the second witness the State presented to place Armstrong at Kamps' apartment at the time of the murder. [8] Orebia lived at 120 W. Gorham and sat on his porch from shortly after 10:30 p.m. until almost 4 a.m. on the night of June 23 and during the early morning of June 24. Orebia did not have a watch or clock available, but asked a passer-by for the time and was told it was about 11:45 p.m. ¶ 40. Based on that time, Orebia estimated that at about 12:30 p.m., he saw a white car with a black top pass on West Gorham and described the driver as having dark, shoulder-length hair. [9] Orebia saw the car pass a second time and park out of view across the street. ¶ 41. About five or ten minutes later, Orebia saw a person walk from the direction of the parking lot, cross the street, and enter Kamps' apartment building. Orebia described the person he observed as lean and very muscular. [10] About five to ten minutes after that, the same man left the building and headed back the direction he had come. Orebia testified that another five minutes passed, and the same person crossed the street, entered the building a second time, and then, after staying inside another five minutes, left again this time without wearing a shirt. Orebia stated that five more minutes passed, and the same person ran across the street to the building a third time, stayed for about 20 minutes, and then left running very fast, shining as if he were oily. Orebia then observed the black-over-white car speeding away from the parking lot. ¶ 42. Thomas Anderson, another resident in Orebia's building, testified that on the afternoon of June 24, Orebia shared the following description of what he observed the night before: a muscular man with large arms and a flat stomach ran in and out of Kamps' building without a shirt on and that a black-over-white vehicle sped away from the scene.
¶ 43. Several days after the murder and prior to any police identification procedure, Orebia underwent hypnosis to enhance his memory. [11] Dr. Roger A. McKinley performed the hypnosis, and Detective Robert Lombardo of the Madison Police Department was present during the process to provide McKinley with information about important areas to cover. McKinley testified that prior to hypnosis, Orebia gave him a description of the man Orebia observed, indicating that he had shoulder-length hair, a muscular build, and that he was running and sweating when he left the scene. ¶ 44. McKinley testified that during the hypnotic session, Orebia described particular features of the suspect's face, including that the suspect had a long nose and bushy eyebrows. McKinley admitted that if Orebia would not have been able to make out the detail of Armstrong's face because of lighting conditions, then any description he gave of Armstrong's nose, eyebrows, and other features would have to be confabulation. [12] ¶ 45. Photographs of Armstrong and the vehicle were passed between Lombardo and McKinley during the hypnotic session, in front of Orebia. McKinley testified that in his presence Orebia was never shown photographs of Armstrong. However, Lombardo stated that Orebia saw photographs of Armstrong's vehicle when he handed them to McKinley during the session and that Orebia had also seen photos of the car prior to hypnosis. McKinley defended his hypnosis procedure with Orebia as non-suggestive. ¶ 46. At trial, Armstrong was critical of the decision to subject Orebia to hypnosis. Lombardo argued that prior to hypnosis Orebia stated he would have been able to identify the person he had seen. [13] ¶ 47. Armstrong presented the testimony of Dr. John F. Kihlstrom, a psychology professor who testified to the effects of hypnosis on memory. Kihlstrom stated that hypnosis can be used to access memories that are not ordinarily memorable in the wakened state, but the hypnotist also runs an equal risk of confabulation. [14] Kihlstrom stated that precautions to limit the introduction of inadvertent suggestion include keeping the hypnotist blind to the facts of the case, and to conduct the session out of the presence of an investigator who could suggest particular views. ¶ 48. During his testimony, Kihlstrom presented excerpts from the videotaped session between McKinley and Orebia. Kihlstrom noted that Lombardo was in the room during the session, and that Orebia initially described the suspect as being five-feet, three inches to five-feet five-inches tall, but McKinley suggestively inquired about a height of six feet tall until Orebia agreed with that height. Armstrong's attorney stated that Armstrong is six-feet, two inches tall.
¶ 49. In the early morning hours of July 1, 1980, after Orebia had undergone hypnosis, the Madison Police Department arranged a line-up procedure at 134 West Gorham. Armstrong's attorney at the time, Dennis Burke, instructed Armstrong not to cooperate and Armstrong complied with Burke's direction. The police then returned Armstrong to jail. [15] The line-up was rescheduled and held in the early morning hours of July 3, 1980. Again, Burke had instructed Armstrong not to cooperate. Detective Francis McCoy testified that at about 4:00 a.m. on July 3, he requested that Armstrong put on a shirt, a pair of jeans and a pair of cowboy boots to match the other line-up participants, but Armstrong refused. ¶ 50. At the line up, two police officers walked with each of the five line-up participants across West Gorham, up to the porch of Kamps' apartment at 134 West Gorham, and then back the opposite direction. Armstrong was the second person to go and he went limp as soon as he and the two officers accompanying him came into view of the observers standing on the porch of 120 West Gorham. Detective Roger Attoe and a patrolman accompanied Armstrong and dragged him up to the porch of Kamps' apartment and back again. Detective Attoe testified that Armstrong lost his shoes along the way and made the statement, better a little pain now than life imprisonment later. The police took the three remaining participants along the same route. ¶ 51. The five line-up participants were then each held by two police officers in front of a police van and Orebia was brought down to the parking lot to observe. Orebia walked down to view the participants at a distance of about 25 feet. The testimony of the State's witness, Detective McCoy, and the defense's witness, Attorney Burke, differ as to whether Armstrong was slumping or standing at full height at the time Orebia viewed the line-up in front of the van. ¶ 52. At trial, Orebia testified that upon seeing Armstrong's head come into view during the first portion of the line-up, he gasped and mentioned to police officers standing with him that Armstrong was the person he saw leaving the murder scene. ¶ 53. Orebia also stated that he recognized that the other line-up participants, including the first participant, were wearing shoulder-length wigs and mentioned that observation to the officers standing with him. Orebia testified that the police told him that they had a man in custody who would be in the line-up, however, the police also instructed Orebia not to pick anyone unless he was sure. Orebia admitted to telling Attorney Burke that as far as he was concerned, the line-up was fixed.
¶ 54. Armstrong presented Dr. John Fournier, an ophthalmologist, to refute the ability of Orebia to make certain observations. Fournier measured the distances and lighting conditions from Orebia's vantage point on the porch of 120 West Gorham to the route of the person he observed. Fournier testified that night vision acuity is about 1/10 that of daytime vision, and that given the conditions under which Orebia made his observationsa distance of 100 to 134 feet and low illumination from the street lamps with glare in the foregroundit was not physically possible for a person in Orebia's position to make out facial features.
¶ 55. On November 5, 1980, Orebia gave a statement under oath at Armstrong's attorney's office (Attorney Edward Krueger), in the presence of a court reporter and Armstrong's attorney's investigator, Charles Lulling, in which Orebia directly contradicted his identification of Armstrong to the police. In that statement, Orebia said that Armstrong absolutely could not have been the person he saw running in and out of 134 West Gorham. ¶ 56. Orebia gave a second statement in Attorney Krueger's office on November 10, 1980, indicating that he had read through the statement he had given five days prior and that it was true and correct. ¶ 57. However, at trial Orebia recanted his recantation and stated that he was positive that Armstrong was the person he saw enter and leave Kamps' apartment building three times on the night of June 24, 1980. Orebia testified that the statements he gave on November 5 and 10, 1980, were purposely untruthful, told as deliberate lies to undermine his credibility as a witness and to hopefully result in his withdrawal as a witness.