Opinion ID: 835782
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Testimony Regarding Petitioner's Confessions

Text: Two of petitioner's friends, Siemens and Dobbins, testified that petitioner had confessed to forcing the victim to have sex at gunpoint. On direct examination, Siemens testified that, in October or November 1996, while traveling to a mutual friend's barbecue, petitioner had told him that he had held a gun to the victim's head and had had sex with her. On cross-examination, Siemens testified that he and petitioner had been drinking beer during that conversation, but that they had not been drunk because they had just started their first drinks. Dobbins testified that in the autumn of 1996, while driving to work together, petitioner had told him that he had held a gun on [a] woman and sodomized her, but that the gun had not been loaded. Dobbins testified that a detective later interviewed him about petitioner, but that he had forgotten to mention petitioner's confession. He called the detective and described the confession in a second interview. On cross-examination, Dobbins said that he had forgotten about the conversation because he had been upset about his recent separation from his wife.