Opinion ID: 2570573
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Limitation on cross-examination of Jesus Cintron

Text: Leonard claims that the district court improperly limited his cross-examination of Jesus Cintron. We address each of three instances of alleged error in turn. First, the district court sustained the State's objection, on relevance grounds, to the question: Did you transact any business with [the victim]? This question, however, had been essentially asked and answered by Cintron. Defense counsel previously asked whether Cintron had any kind of business relationship with the victim, and Cintron indicated that Cintron did not have a business. Moreover, defense counsel subsequently inquired whether Cintron had told anyone that he had conducted business with the victim; Cintron answered no, reiterating that he did not have a business. Under these circumstances, we conclude that the court did not improperly restrict the defense inquiry. Second, the district court sustained the State's objection to the question of whether Cintron read any paperwork at Leonard's apartment prior to the weekend of January 21-22. Leonard has not demonstrated that the district court restricted the defense inquiry in any way. The court instructed defense counsel to be a little more specific with that question. The prosecutor and defense counsel asked to approach the bench, an unreported bench conference followed, and then defense counsel commenced a new line of questioning. Third, Leonard argues that the district court improperly restricted impeachment of Cintron on the non-monetary benefits that he received from the State. Before Cintron testified, the district court held a short evidentiary hearing outside of the presence of the jury to resolve issues concerning the scope of impeachment. At the conclusion of the hearing, the court decided to permit impeachment of Cintron regarding monetary assistance and benefits he received but declined to permit impeachment in other areas. Specifically, it appears that the State rendered some assistance to Cintron when he had difficulties with the law that arose well after Cintron's initial disclosures to police in this case. Having reviewed the record, we conclude that there are three areas of impeachment that were precluded and that were supported by some evidence: (1) Cintron was released from jail after intervention by the district attorney's office in a prior case; (2) Cintron might have received assistance from the district attorney's office in getting his car back after it was towed; and (3) the district attorney's office intervened on Cintron's behalf on two occasions so that Cintron would have additional time to pay a fine. In denying the defense request to impeach Cintron concerning the extensions of time that Cintron received to pay a fine, the court noted that it was standard for the courts to grant such extensions. The value of the impeachment evidence here is limited. The probative value of the evidence to show bias was substantially diminished by the fact that Cintron came forward and cooperated with the police before he received any favorable consideration. It is unlikely that Cintron came forward with the expectation that the State would afford him special consideration if and when he had subsequent difficulties with the law. Further, the kind of assistance rendered by the State appears to have been minor; for example, the State did not dismiss criminal charges based upon Cintron's cooperation in this matter. Finally, there is no evidence that the assistance Cintron received was contingent upon Cintron's agreement to testify in this case. Given the limited value of the impeachment evidence and the fact that the impeachment would have necessitated reference to Cintron's otherwise inadmissible prior criminal conduct, we conclude that the district court acted within its discretion in restricting impeachment. We recognize that the district court has less discretion to curtail cross-examination where potential bias is at issue. See Jackson v. State, 104 Nev. 409, 412, 760 P.2d 131, 133 (1988); Bushnell v. State, 95 Nev. 570, 572, 599 P.2d 1038, 1040 (1979). Nevertheless, and consistent with the Confrontation Clause, [11] trial judges retain wide latitude to restrict cross-examination to explore potential bias based on concerns about, among other things, harassment, prejudice, confusion of the issues, the witness' safety, or interrogation that is repetitive or only marginally relevant. Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 679, 106 S.Ct. 1431, 89 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986); see also Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 316, 320, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 39 L.Ed.2d 347 (1974); Bushnell, 95 Nev. at 573, 599 P.2d at 1040 (recognizing that an inquiry into a witness's possible bias or motive to testify may be restricted when the inquiry was repetitive, irrelevant, vague, speculative, or designed merely to harass, annoy or humiliate the witness). Moreover, we conclude that any error is harmless even assuming that the district court should have afforded greater latitude to defense counsel in these areas. We reiterate that the impeachment evidence does not call Cintron's credibility into serious question, and we note that there is no persuasive evidence of his involvement in the murder and that his account of his conversation with Leonard was corroborated by the finding of the victim's body under Leonard's bed.