Opinion ID: 2751111
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Porky Collins’s Response to the Photo Lineups

Text: ¶75. In his third assignment of error, regarding alleged misstatements by the prosecution, Flowers claims that the prosecutor misrepresented Porky Collins’s response to the photo lineup that included Doyle Simpson’s photograph. The misrepresentation was prejudicial to Flowers’s defense, he claims, because his defense was based partially on the theory that Simpson committed the murders. Collins testified that he did not remember if he had identified Simpson as one of the men he had seen arguing outside Tardy Furniture. Notes taken by an investigator during the photo arrays provided that Collins had said that two of the individuals resembled one of the men but that the “hairline was further back.” Investigator Wayne Miller testified that Collins pointed to Simpson during the photo array and said he looked like the person, but he could not be positive. Collins was shown a second array of photos, and he definitively identified Flowers. 46 ¶76. During closing argument, the State’s attorney said the following about Collins’s identification: “He said the guy ain’t there. They took another six photographs and said look at this second set. He said that’s him right there. . . . You know, see if he is in there. No, he is not. Is he in the second group? Yeah. That’s him right there.” The State correctly reiterated that Collins had identified Flowers in the second photo array as one of the men he had seen arguing outside Tardy Furniture. While the State’s statement that Collins said “the guy ain’t there” was not an accurate representation of Collins’s response to the first photo array, the reality is that Collins did not identify Simpson. He said he could not be sure. He pointed to Simpson’s photograph in the first array and said he “looked like” the man he saw but he “unable to be positive.” However, when Collins saw Flowers in the second array, he was positive. The prosecutor’s statement was slightly inconsistent with the facts, but we cannot say that the comment rose to the level of plain error.