Opinion ID: 2599941
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Use of prior testimony to impeach defense witnesses

Text: Defendant contends the prosecutor improperly was permitted to impeach defense witnesses Adelita Jordon, Pasqual Ledesma, and Ruben Gomez with their testimony at the previous trial. Defendant asserts the prosecutor's ability to impeach these witnesses is attributable to Attorney Parrish's ineffective assistance. In Ledesma I, this court concluded that Attorney Parrish had failed to investigate adequately a diminished capacity defense based upon defendant's drug use. ( Ledesma I, supra, 43 Cal.3d at p. 223, 233 Cal.Rptr. 404, 729 P.2d 839.) As a result of this failure, the witnesses did not testify at the first trial concerning defendant's drug use. Subsequently at the retrial, the prosecutor was able to use these (and other) omissions and inconsistencies between their earlier testimony and their current testimony to imply that their current testimony was fabricated. Defendant cites no authority establishing an absolute bar to the prosecution's use of testimony from a previous trial at which the defendant received ineffective assistance of counsel. Rather, decisions that have addressed such issues have examined the circumstances surrounding the prior testimony and how it was used in the subsequent trial, to determine whether the evidence at issue is attributable to counsel's ineffective assistance and whether its use denied the defendant a fair trial in the subsequent proceeding. (See, e.g., People v. Sixto (1993) 17 Cal.App.4th 374, 21 Cal. Rptr.2d 264 [upholding trial court's denial of motion for certain findings and for exclusion of evidence as means of curing effect of ineffective assistance of counsel at prior trial]; People v. Karlin, supra, 231 Cal.App.2d 227, 41 Cal.Rptr. 786 [the defendant's admissions made at preliminary hearing, when his attorney had a conflict of interest, could not be used at his subsequent trial]; see also Ibn-Tamas v. United States (D.C.1979) 407 A.2d 626 [the defendant's testimony at first trial, after which a mistrial was declared due to ineffective assistance of counsel, could be used at second trial only for impeachment purposes]; People v. Duncan (1988) 173 Ill. App.3d 554, 123 Ill.Dec. 422, 527 N.E.2d 1060, 1062 [because ineffective assistance of counsel colored the entire proceeding, the defendant's testimony at first trial could not be used in second trial except for purposes of impeachment].) Even if the failure of these witnesses to testify at the first trial concerning defendant's drug use may be attributed to prior counsel's ineffective assistance, we do not find that the use of their prior testimony for impeachment purposes denied defendant a fair trial. Defense counsel had a full opportunity to rehabilitate these witnesses and to permit them to explain discrepancies between their prior testimony and their subsequent testimony. Adelita Jordon testified for the defense that after she and defendant separated, he began using PCP and there was a substantial change in his behavior. She remembered that when she served him with marital dissolution papers, he was very shaky and did not make sense. The prosecutor cross-examined her regarding her prior testimony that when defendant came to visit her and her daughters he was polite and pleasant, that she did not recall whether defendant appeared to be under the influence of drugs at the time she served him, and that he appeared to be straight on other occasions when she saw him at her mother's house. When asked about these discrepancies, she said she had been nervous at the prior trial. On redirect examination, she testified that at the previous trial defense counsel did not ask her anything about defendant using drugs and he did not ask her whether he was acting strange. The prosecutor questioned witness Ruben Gomez concerning why he had not mentioned in his previous testimony that Jona Cardona told him in 1979 that she heard defendant did not commit the murder and that someone named Crazy Joe had done so. On redirect examination, Gomez testified that at the first trial defendant's lawyer asked Gomez only a few questions concerning whether defendant was a nice person and did not ask him about drug use. Gomez also explained that he had heard many rumors concerning whether defendant had committed the crime, and that the conversation with Jona Cardona stood out in his mind only because she now had become a witness in the case and had testified differently from what she told him back in 1979. Furthermore, Gomez testified, he mentioned the conversation as soon as defense counsel told him she was a witness. Defendant's brother Pasqual Ledesma testified he never had seen defendant use drugs but he had observed him acting as if he were in a daze, out of contact with reality, and in a state in which he just was not himself. The prosecutor cross-examined defendant's brother concerning his prior testimony, in which he stated he had not seen defendant under the influence of drugs but had only heard rumors about his drug use. Pasqual responded that, not being an expert in such matters, he did not necessarily know whether his brother was under the influence of drugs and that he had not been asked at the prior trial whether his brother seemed to be out of contact with reality. On redirect examination, Pasqual further testified that since defendant's first trial, Pasqual had learned more about drug use and had thought more about his brother's behavior. As demonstrated above, each of these witnesses was able to provide plausible explanations for omissions from their testimony at the first trial, including prior defense counsel's failure to develop the issue. Under these circumstances, prior counsel's ineffective assistance did not deny defendant a fair retrial.