Opinion ID: 1260159
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: associate of prosecutor as witness

Text: Defendant argues that the trial court erred in allowing a member of the Pima County Attorney's Office to testify. The defendant generally objected to Deputy County Attorney Paul Banales' testimony concerning Kathy Foreman's story of the crime because of the fear that the jury will consider the testimony of a prosecutor to be more credible than that of the other witness[es]. The context of Banales' testimony here, according to the defendant, renders this fear particularly palpable. Banales testified at trial that Kathy Foreman's story never varied in its particulars before and after he granted her immunity. According to the defendant, Banales' testimony thus had a substantial impact on a key issue in the case  the credibility of the prosecution's eye witness. The defendant did not object at trial to Banales' specific comment regarding the consistency of Foreman's story, and we do not believe that admitting the comment was error. That Foreman was an interested witness is beyond dispute; her immunity from prosecution was contingent on her testifying against the co-defendants, as the jury was advised. The credibility of a witness and the weight and value to be given her testimony are questions for the trier of fact. State v. Spoon, 137 Ariz. 105, 669 P.d 83; State v. Pieck, 111 Ariz. 318, 529 P.2d 217 (1974). The jury would have considered the conditions under which Foreman testified, as well as Banales' comment, in deciding how much credence to give her testimony. We believe on review of the evidence that Banales' testimony had little impact on a jury that assessed first-hand the credibility of a witness subjected both to direct examination and to searching cross-examination by two defense attorneys. Moreover, the jury knew that Banales was involved in the early stages of the instant proceedings, and had made the offer of immunity. It therefore knew that the corroboration implicit in Banales' statement was from a source interested in the outcome of the trial. We believe, therefore, that the jury was able to place Banales' remark in context, and to accord it the appropriate weight. As to the general contention that a prosecutor's testimony is inherently prejudicial to a defendant because of the status of the witness, we have said that the weight and credibility to be accorded to witnesses who are involved in upholding the law are jury matters. See Baumgartner v. State, 20 Ariz. 157, 178 P. 30 (1919); Duff v. State, 19 Ariz. 361, 171 P. 133 (1918). In the instant case it was not the prosecutor who was trying the case who appeared as a witness, but another person from the same office, who was not participating in the trial. The concerns we have about the county attorney also being a material witness in the crime he is prosecuting do not apply in this case. We find no error.