Opinion ID: 1175565
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: permitting testimonial evidence to go to the jury room

Text: On the cross-examination of Larry Lascano, defense counsel asked whether he had gone over his testimony with the police and the prosecuting attorney. He later questioned the boy about some discrepancies between his testimony on direct examination and his testimony at appellant's preliminary hearing. In order to rehabilitate his witness, the prosecutor offered the written statement that Lascano had given the police on the evening of the alleged crime. The trial court properly admitted that statement over appellant's objection as a prior consistent statement offered to rebut an implied charge of recent fabrication or improper influence, as permitted by W.R.E. 801(d)(1)(B). Rather than letting the jury examine the exhibit at the time, however, the trial court indicated it would permit them to view it in the jury room. Appellant's failure to object when the trial court announced that plan demands that we again apply the plain error standard of review described above. Appellant has failed to meet the threshhold requirement of that standard. The record does not show that Lascano's statement was taken to the jury room. Even were we to assume that happened, appellant has not shown that the trial court violated a clear and unequivocal rule of law. This court's decision in Schmunk v. State, 714 P.2d 724 (Wyo. 1986), expresses our concern that such a practice effectively allows for the repetition of testimony which might cause a jury to unduly overemphasize that evidence. In Schmunk, however, we were faced not only with the peculiar dangers posed by the repeated viewing of videotaped testimony, but with a videotape containing inadmissible material. Id. at 732-33, 744. Although we have ruled upon the propriety of taking videotaped testimony to the jury room, we have never expressly prohibited that practice with regard to written statements. As an alternative to presenting the evidence in open court, videotaped testimony has been permitted to go to the jury room upon stipulation of the parties and where the trial court supervises the playing of those tapes. Chambers v. State, 726 P.2d 1269, 1275-76 (Wyo. 1986). Where the exhibit is merely a brief and undetailed summary of testimony properly admitted in open court, as here, it is not necessarily plain error to permit that exhibit to go to the jury room. As a general rule, such matters are left to the discretion of the trial court. See Stone v. State, 745 P.2d 1344, 1349-50 (Wyo. 1987). Additionally, appellant is not prejudiced where the exhibit is otherwise admissible and where the state has presented a significant amount of other evidence to support the guilty verdict. Id. Here, Lascano's more detailed and vivid testimony on the witness stand was corroborated by two additional eyewitnesses. The rather sketchy statement that purportedly went to the jury room could have had only a negligible additional impact upon the verdict. No plain error occurred with respect to that statement.