Opinion ID: 169079
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The State Prosecutes Trammell for the Crimes

Text: 12 Those three eyewitness identifications led the state to charge Mr. Trammell with three counts of aggravated assault, one count of felony theft, and one count of aggravated robbery. At trial, the three eyewitnesses recounted their photo array identifications and identified Mr. Trammell as the perpetrator in the jury's presence. 2 13 Mr. Trammell's defense proceeded on two fronts. First, his attorney argued that Cross had framed Mr. Trammell for the robberies because he was jealous that Trammell had been dating his ex-girlfriend, Janelle. The two men knew each other through her; Janelle lived with Mr. Cross while she was seeing Mr. Trammell. Second, Mr. Trammell's attorney argued that police officers were negligent in their investigation because — despite Cross's presence at the Econo Lodge when the tow truck was found and the physical resemblance between Cross and Trammell — officers did not include a photo of Cross in the arrays they showed to Loper, Kase, and Eglich. 14 Both theories gained traction when Scott Beckman, Mr. Kase's friend from Minnesota, testified at trial that police officers did not show him a photo array after the attempted Corvette robbery. Instead, the first array he saw was one that defense counsel prepared by substituting Cross's picture for Trammell's in one of the police-prepared arrays. Beckman picked Cross as the robber, testifying he was 70 percent certain of his pick. Id. at 249 15 The jury ultimately convicted Mr. Trammell, but not before posing these questions to the judge during its deliberations: 1. At what point in the deliberation, do we decide that we are a hung jury? 2. What is the outcome of a hung jury? 3. If we can decide on some counts and not on others, is that an acceptable decision? App. to Jury Instr., 40, July 25, 2001. 16 Nearly six weeks after Trammell was convicted, the government realized it failed to disclose that police found the Amoco receipts in Cross's motel room. It revealed its error to Trammell's lawyers, and this late-breaking disclosure led to a motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence. The trial court denied Mr. Trammell's motion and sentenced him to 102 months imprisonment. The Kansas Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction, State v. Trammell, 77 P.3d 1008 (Kan.Ct. App.2003), and the Kansas Supreme Court granted review and also affirmed, State v. Trammell, 278 Kan. 265, 92 P.3d 1101 (2004). It held that Mr. Trammell was not entitled to a new trial because the evidence is not material in the sense that it would have created a reasonable doubt and affected the outcome of the trial. Id. at 1115.