Opinion ID: 1743314
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Second Specification of Error

Text: The defendant further contends that the trial court erred in failing to grant a new trial. The grounds were (a) that the testimony identifying the defendant as one of the robbers was weak and unclear and (b) that, at a new trial, the defendant should be allowed to introduce recently-discovered Charity Hospital records to show that, as he had claimed during the first trial and as his mother and brother had testified, he had been shot in the leg a week before the robbery. As to (b), the thrust of the latter testimony was to weaken the identification testimony, on the claim that the defendant was limping badly and could not have been one of the masked robbers. At the trial, the defendant and his mother testified that he had been at work on the day of the robbery, and the arresting police officers testified that he walked normally at the time of the arrest. The issue of his limping or nor because of the wound was fully before the jury. The non-diligent failure to present the corroborating Charity Hospital record at the trial is not, under the circumstance, a cause to grant a new trial. See La.C.Cr.P. art. 851(3). As to the (a) ground, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying a new trial by finding that the identification testimony, although possibly weak, was nevertheless sufficient to support the verdict when accepted by the trial jury. La.C.Cr.P. art. 851(1) and (5).