Opinion ID: 1840229
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the documents relating to the purchase of the vehicle driven by ramos at the time of his arrest

Text: ¶ 29. Allegedly, subsequent to the arrest, the Ramoses discovered that the man who sold them the recently purchased 1981 Lincoln automobile Ramos was driving at the time of his arrest, was a convicted drug smuggler, and was wanted by the police. Prior to trial, and pursuant to reciprocal discovery, a copy of Santana's conviction was provided to the State, along with a Bill of Sale for the automobile. The State was advised that Ramos intended to use this information in trial, and the State, in turn, advised defense counsel that it would not dispute that the transaction took place on the date alleged, and further told defense counsel that all the documents it had relating to the sale of the car had been provided to the defense. The State asserted that it possessed no title or other such documents and had no documents which contradicted the Ramoses' position. ¶ 30. After Mrs. Ramos testified, the State confronted the defense with documents which it had previously claimed it did not have in its possession. The previously undisclosed documents were used to contradict Mrs. Ramos' testimony concerning the date of the sale of the vehicle, the identity of the seller, and the amount of the sale. This information was in the possession of the State from the time the vehicle was confiscated following Ramos' arrest, but was not provided or disclosed to the defense in discovery. [4] The Court of Appeals held: ... . Ramos claims that he was surprised when the State produced this document at trial because the State had previously informed him that they did not have any documents pertaining to the sale of the car. While the State should have provided the documents in discovery and the judge should have granted a continuance, the error is harmless. The Court of Appeals continues that: The Mississippi Supreme Court has stated on numerous occasions that the purpose of Rule 4.06 is to avoid unfair surprise to either the state or defendant at trial. Ghoston v. State, 645 So.2d 936, 939 (Miss. 1994). Certainly, Ramos cannot claim surprise as the registration of the car was taken from his personal possessions. Ramos' surprise was that the State found the public record to which there could be no rebuttal even if the Appellant had been noticed with the information on discovery. Ramos stated, in the brief of the appellant: Although the State had denied possession of those documents earlier in the day, they magically produced the documents in time to ambush the defendant's wife without warning during her cross-examination. The discrepancies could be explained, but under ambush and with the passage of one and one-half years, it was difficult for the witness to seem credible when called a liar by the prosecutor in the middle of the trial. This evidence was allowed into evidence over the objection of the defense that it was a further violation of discovery and improper impeachment. ¶ 31. The cases and analysis applied to the first discovery violation also apply to this second issue and discovery violation, and this error compounded by the previous error constitutes reversible error.