Opinion ID: 1332784
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Other Common Enumerations of Error

Text: 3. Both defendants Kesler and Crumpler raise the question whether the trial court erred in denying them bonds on the ground that they were thereby unable to aid their attorneys in preparing their case. Normally the denial of bail before trial would be moot after conviction. See Lane v. State, 247 Ga. 387 (276 SE2d 644) (1981). Here, however, the defendants seek a new trial because they say they were unable to assist their counsel in locating and interviewing witnesses. A defendant is entitled to the effective assistance of counsel, but no case or other authority has been cited for the novel proposition that a defendant is entitled to bail in order to personally assist his counsel. We find no error here. 4. Defendants Kesler and Crumpler next enumerate as error the denial of their motion for severance. Only defendant Kesler made such a motion at trial. They first argue that the prosecutor could not indict all three defendants together and then, in effect, without leave of court, sever the trial of Faircloth by a prior grant of immunity without also granting defendant Kesler a separate trial. Immunity was granted to Faircloth by the trial court's order as required by Code Ann. § 38-1715. The rule that indictments returned by the grand jury are not amendable by the district attorney is not violated by the grant of immunity as provided by law. Furthermore, the law contemplates that when indicted for a capital felony when the death penalty is waived . . . defendants may be tried jointly or separately in the discretion of the trial court; in any event either defendant may testify for the other or on behalf of the state. (Emphasis supplied.) Code Ann. § 27-2101. State v. Connelly, 138 Ga. App. 121 (225 SE2d 519) (1976), is not applicable by converse reasoning. In addition, defendant Kesler argues that trying him with defendant Crumpler, against whom there was more evidence, created guilt by association and thereby made it more likely that defendant Kesler would be convicted than if he had been tried separately. We find no abuse of discretion under the criteria set out in Cain v. State, 235 Ga. 128 (218 SE2d 856) (1975), and Orkin v. State, 236 Ga. 176, 193 (223 SE2d 61) (1976), where a conspiracy is shown, where the defenses of the co-defendants being tried are not antagonistic, and where, as here, the jury is carefully instructed on conspiracy and to consider the state's case against each defendant separately. 5. Both defendants also assert as error the failure by the trial court to suppress the telephone records of defendant Kesler and their admission into evidence at trial. These records were obtained from Continental Telephone Company through an order from the superior court at the request of the former district attorney on June 9, 1979, during the investigation of the victim's death. [4] The defendants contend that this seizure of their private records without probable cause was a violation of their fourth amendment rights and that the records should have been suppressed. In so arguing, the defendants seek to distinguish Culpepper v. State, 156 Ga. App. 331 (1) (274 SE2d 616) (1980), which relied on United States v. Miller, 425 U. S. 435 (96 SC 1619, 48 LE2d 71) (1976), in holding that a bank customer has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his bank records to make them protectable under the fourth amendment and thus no standing to challenge a subpoena to the bank requiring their production. The defendants urge that bank records are different because the bank is a party to the transaction and that checks written on one's account are negotiable instruments placed into the stream of commerce with no expectation of privacy. We, however, find United States v. Miller, supra, 425 U. S. 435, and Culpepper v. State, supra, 156 Ga. App. 331, controlling. Like bank records, telephone toll and billing records are not owned or possessed by the defendant, but are business records belonging to the telephone company. United States v. Baxter, 492 F2d 150, 167 (9th Cir. 1973). Katz v. United States, 389 U. S. 347 (88 SC 507, 19 LE2d 576) (1967), urged by the defendants, recognizes the right of privacy in the contents of the telephone conversation, not in the toll and billing records of the telephone company. Thus, neither defendant Crumpler, as one user of the telephone, nor defendant Kesler, as its lessee, have standing to object to the production of these records by the telephone company. We decline to accept the defendant's suggestion that we extend Code Ann. §§ 26-3001, 26-3007, applicable to the content of telephone conservations, to include telephone company records. It follows that the trial court did not err in refusing to suppress them or in admitting them into evidence at the trial. Having so concluded, we find that defendant Kesler lacks standing to challenge the superior court's order and the prosecutor's letter to the telephone company compelling production of these records. Defendant Crumpler also argues error in admitting the telephone records because the state failed to provide these records to him in response to his motion to produce. Code Ann. § 38-801 (g); Brown v. State, 238 Ga. 98 (231 SE2d 65) (1976). The state counters that the telephone records were properly admitted despite its failure to comply with this request because the records were equally accessible to the defense. We note, however, that these were defendant Kesler's telephone records and it is defendant Crumpler who specifically requested this information from the state in his motion to produce. The record reveals that the telephone company's policy is to protect these records from general access except with the consent of the customer or a subpoena. Therefore, there is no merit to the state's argument that these records were otherwise accessible to defendant Crumpler. The state should have provided this information to defendant Crumpler at the commencement of the trial pursuant to his motion to produce. In this instance, however, we find the error harmless because the records were produced during the trial and the court offered Crumpler an opportunity to examine them and because he has not shown how he was prejudiced by the state's failure to produce the information at the beginning of the trial. 6. Under the circumstances, we do not find error, as urged by defendants Kesler and Crumpler, in granting the state's motion to excuse for cause two prospective jurors who were employees of the Heckler Corporation plant where defendant Kesler was the manager, with the power to discharge employees. See Central R. Co. v. Mitchell, 63 Ga. 173, 179 (1879); Atlantic C. L. R. Co. v. Bunn, 2 Ga. App. 305 (2) (58 SE 538) (1907). Although the cases cited were civil cases and the employers were corporations, we find the reasoning of those decisions applicable in criminal cases and to an individual defendant with the power to discharge employees of a corporate employer who serve as jurors. See also Carr v. Carr, 240 Ga. 161, 162 (240 SE2d 50) (1977). On the other hand we do not find that the trial court erred in refusing to excuse juror Hall, who stated her view that she could exclude any opinions she formed from reading newspaper articles on the case. Tennon v. State, 235 Ga. 594 (2) (220 SE2d 914) (1975); Taylor v. State, 235 Ga. 222 (2) (253 SE2d 191) (1979). Furthermore, neither defendant exhausted his peremptory strikes. Bridges v. State, 242 Ga. 251 (3) (248 SE2d 647) (1978); Foster v. State, 240 Ga. 858, 859 (242 SE2d 600) (1978).