Opinion ID: 2371862
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Defense Strategy

Text: Moreover, even if Calderon-Aparicio had properly preserved this issue for our review, we would determine that his argument fails because the record demonstrates that the defense elected to cross-examine the eyewitness identification procedure as part of its defense strategy. Our Supreme Court has held that the failure to object to an in-court identification may be considered to be a defense strategy where the defendant elects to explore the circumstances of the pretrial identification in the presence of the jury by cross-examination. [Citation omitted.] Edwards, 264 Kan. at 189, 955 P.2d 1276. Here, during Edwards' cross-examination at trial, defense counsel explored the circumstances of Edwards' eyewitness identification through cross-examination. Specifically, defense counsel was able to elicit testimony that Edwards was going approximately 55 miles an hour when he saw the alleged incident occur, that Edwards had turned around in his car to watch the men, that he saw the two men for only about 15 seconds before his wife merged into traffic, and that he was about 40 yards away from the man when the man actually put the bag into the drainage pipe. Later, during Calderon-Aparicio's direct examination, defense counsel elicited testimony that Calderon-Aparicio was busy working on the van after it broke down and that he did not know where Barraza-Garcia was during that time. This line of testimony suggested that Barraza-Garcia could have been the one to hide the bag in the drainage ditch. During closing arguments, defense counsel focused on the facts surrounding Edwards' eyewitness identification to argue that the identification was not reliable: If [Edwards] is the passenger going up onto the highway, he is in the far side from it. His wife is here. He is actually having to look past her, through her to see what is going on. He is having to look through things through the compartments and stuff, so he is not going to have a clear sight in any regard. And then you have the fact that he isn't right up next to them. He is on the on ramp heading away at a rapid speed. He is making mistakes with regard to who he sees on here. You see that he cannot identify what the people were wearing. He cannot identify their hairstyle. He cannot identify the men by anything. Oh, he says there is a mustache. That is the only thing he remembers. But you know what? If you have got to  close proximity to one another, you have got confusion there. The thing is he can't remember anything else, anything else about it, not even the most important things. This bag. This bag. That is where eyewitness accounts are very dangerous. He isn't remembering the important facts of the case. Defense counsel then pointed out that Calderon-Aparicio was working on the van when Bloomfield arrived at the scene and that it was Barraza-Garcia, not Calderon-Aparicio, who tried to get back in the van. Based on how the witnesses were cross-examined at trial and defense counsel's closing argument, it is apparent that Calderon-Aparicio employed a trial strategy to challenge the weight to give to Edwards' eyewitness identification rather than to challenge the legal admissibility of the identification.