Opinion ID: 2201645
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Extent of Independent Evidence

Text: This case presents the sort of circumstances contemplated by the Tillman-Garris standard articulated above. The risk that the jury would improperly determine from the existence of the conflicting defenses alone that both appellants were guilty was minimal, precisely because the extent of independent evidence offered against appellants was so substantial as to go beyond that required to survive a motion for judgment of acquittal. See Lemon v. United States, 564 A.2d 1368, 1372 (D.C. 1989); Ready, supra, 445 A.2d at 987. Gregory Scott, the victim, testified that he had identified both appellants at several line-ups and photo arrays on the day after the robbery and later. Further, he provided a direct eyewitness identification of both appellants, of which he was confident enough to say he was positive he had correctly identified them as the robbers. His identification testimony was unwavering, consistent, and unchallenged on cross-examination. Moreover, Gary Evans, a witness who lived in the area of the crash, testified without challenge that he heard the collision, immediately went to the window, and saw Reynolds running through Evans' yard from the direction of the car which crashed in front of his house. He identified Reynolds in a line-up some 30 minutes later by his body size, height, and the clothing he was wearing, although it appears he did not see appellant's face. Finally, David Nichols, the government's materials analysis expert, testified at length that glass fragments removed from Reynolds' head matched those from the car's windshield, [4] and that it wouldn't make sense for one sample to come from the windshield and the other from a bottle, as Reynolds claimed. We have no trouble concluding that such direct eyewitness, circumstantial, and scientific evidence, taken together, constitute sufficient independent evidence of Reynolds' guilt within the Tillman-Garris line of cases. [5] Indeed, in Tillman itself the court held that [t]he testimony of the complainant... without more would have provided the necessary independent evidence as to all three appellants. Tillman, supra, 519 A.2d at 171. While that opinion did stress that there was corroborating eyewitness testimony, it nonetheless indicated that the strength of one eyewitness' testimony [6] may alone be sufficient to overcome the danger of prejudice from conflicting defenses. Id. at 171-172 (citing Ellis v. U.S., supra, 395 A.2d 404 at 409 (D.C. 1978)); see also Ready, supra, 445 A.2d at 987-988; Sweet v. United States, 438 A.2d 447, 451 n. 2 (D.C.1981) (at the time that the trial court became fully aware of the nature of the conflict [in defenses], he was aware of the weight of the government's case and could therefore conclude that a jury conclusion of guilt would not have resulted from the defense conflict alone). Appellant likens his case to Johnson v. United States, 398 A.2d 354 (D.C.1979), where a panel of this court found grounds for reversal in the trial judge's refusal to sever defendants where the judge took the erroneous legal position that the fact of irreconcilable defenses was no reason for granting a severance. [7] Not only does the trial judge's legal error separate Johnson from the case before us, but the cases are also quite different on their facts. In Johnson, the testifying codefendant did not merely testify against appellant; he in effect became the star witness against him. Id. at 368. Since there was so much independent evidence here and since Gartrell's testimony, if anything, merely corroborated some of it, it is difficult to see how, even if implicating Reynolds, Gartrell became a star witness against him. Thus, Johnson does not mandate severance in the case before us here. See Mitchell v. U.S., supra, 569 A.2d 177 at 182 (D.C.1990) ([a]ppellant's general denial was not contradicted solely or even primarily by [codefendant's] defense even though codefendant's counsel became a second prosecutor; no abuse of discretion in refusal to sever); Ready, supra, 445 A.2d at 987 (although defendant claiming alibi actually implicated by codefendant claiming innocent presence and placing defendant at the scene of the crime, refusal to sever upheld).