Opinion ID: 2630333
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Refusal to Permit Testimony of Defense Witness J.G.

Text: {43} A juvenile friend of Defendant made varying pretrial statements to police, including that on the evening Rustvold disappeared, he and his brother had been at the school with Defendant helping him with his cleaning tasks, without seeing anything unusual. Defendant attempted to call J.G. as a defense witness at trial to testify to this account. Before trial, J.G. retained counsel, who advised him to assert his self-incrimination privilege. {44} The trial court held a hearing out of the presence of the jury to determine whether J.G. should be brought before the jury to testify under those circumstances. After determining that J.G. was going to follow the advice of his attorney and invoke his self-incrimination privilege on every issue but his name, the trial court ruled that he could not take the stand to do so before the jury. Defendant argues on appeal that it was error for the trial court to refuse to allow J.G. to invoke his privilege before the jury, and that it was also error for the trial court not to grant immunity to J.G. to override his assertion of privilege. We reject both arguments. {45} The question of allowing J.G. to exercise his privilege in the presence of the jury merits little discussion. The law clearly rejects Defendant's request that the defense witness should have been called before the jury to assert his privilege against self-incrimination for the purpose of having the jury draw inferences from his silence. {46} Rule 11-513 NMRA of the New Mexico Rules of Evidence specifically addresses every aspect of this issue. Section A provides that a claim of privilege is not a proper subject of comment by counsel and no inference can be drawn from the claim. Section C provides that if the jury somehow becomes aware of the assertion of a privilege, a party is specifically entitled to an instruction that no inference can be drawn as a result. The claim of privilege by J.G. was therefore irrelevant to any issue in the case. Section B provides a prophylactic mechanism for avoiding the need for a cautionary instruction by requiring that any such claims should be made without the knowledge of the jury. The court therefore was correct in determining outside the presence of the jury that J.G. would exercise his privilege. {47} The case law of New Mexico also has been clear that it is improper for a party to place a witness on the stand for the purpose of invoking the privilege against self-incrimination. See, e.g., State v. Henderson, 2006-NMCA-059, ¶ 26, 139 N.M. 595, 136 P.3d 1005 (reviewing New Mexico cases on the subject). {48} On appeal, Defendant adds a twist to the argument presented to the trial judge by arguing that the district court should have granted immunity to J.G. so he could have testified without a self-incrimination problem. This argument is also meritless. Defendant made no record below of making a colorable request for an immunity grant. Even if he had, the law of this State would not have supported such a request, as he candidly concedes. {49} Rule 5-116 of the New Mexico Rules of Criminal Procedure provides the only mechanism for granting immunity to overcome a person's assertion of a self-incrimination privilege. The rule specifically limits the power of the district court to situations where there has been a written application of the prosecuting attorney requesting the grant of immunity. Rule 5-116(A) NMRA. It is the prosecutor alone who may decide whether to give a person relief from prosecutorial use of his incriminating statements. There was no such request by the prosecuting attorney in this case. {50} New Mexico case law is consistent on this point. See State v. Brown, 1998-NMSC-037, ¶ 64, 126 N.M. 338, 969 P.2d 313 ([Rule 5-116] requires application of the prosecuting attorney.); State v. Baca, 1997-NMSC-045, ¶ 37, 124 N.M. 55, 946 P.2d 1066 (stating that there is no constitutional provision or statute which allows either the defense or the courts to confer immunity upon a defense witness); State v. Cheadle, 101 N.M. 282, 286, 681 P.2d 708, 712 (1983) (holding that there is no New Mexico authority to demand immunity for a defense witness); State v. Belanger, 2007-NMCA-143, ¶ 6, 142 N.M. 751, 170 P.3d 530 (reviewing New Mexico precedent rejecting defense witness immunity); State v. Sanchez, 98 N.M. 428, 435, 649 P.2d 496, 503 (Ct.App.1982) (Except where coupled with a showing of prosecutorial misconduct, refusal of the prosecution to seek a grant of witness immunity for a defense witness or refusal of the trial court to fashion a remedy to extend use immunity to a defense witness, does not constitute a denial of due process to the defendant.). {51} Defendant has not shown anything in the circumstances of this case that would cause us to consider overruling our precedents. His arguments that the witness did not have a good faith self-incrimination concern and that the State had no good faith interest in preserving its option to use J.G.'s potential testimony against him in a future prosecution are demonstrably unfounded. In his pretrial statements, J.G. had given inconsistent stories concerning whether he had been at the school with Defendant on the evening in question. If he testified at trial that he had been at the school, that testimony, combined with the overwhelming evidence that a bloody and violent killing and evidence cleanup had occurred at that time and place, could have exposed him to prosecution for involvement in some or all of Defendant's crimes. Any account he could have told the jury would also have been of little assistance to Defendant in avoiding conviction, given the overwhelming scientific and other circumstantial evidence tying Defendant in particular to the killing. At the most, J.G.'s testimony placing himself at the scene might have raised the possibility that Defendant had help from J.G. in the tampering cleanup, if not in the killing itself.