Opinion ID: 6108254
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Calling Collings's Stepmother in Penalty Phase

Text: Collings's tenth point on appeal contends the motion court erred in denying his claim that trial counsel were ineffective in failing to call Julie Pickett, Collings's stepmother, as a witness during the penalty phase. Pickett married Collings's biological father when he was eight or nine years old, and he came to live with them in Arkansas when he was 18. As a result, she developed a close relationship with Collings. He argues Pickett would have provided important mitigation testimony highlighting the severity of Collings's alcohol addiction and history of sexual abuse. Collings's trial counsel originally planned to call Pickett as a witness during the penalty phase, but Collings's biological father and brother and two of his adoptive siblings had already testified during the penalty phase about Collings's childhood. Any testimony from his stepmother would have been cumulative to the testimony provided by other members of Collings's family and the testimony from Dr. Draper. Collings's trial counsel's decision to not call Pickett was also a strategic decision based on events of the day of her planned testimony after Collings's biological father, Pickett, and possibly other family members ran into the jury in a hallway at the courthouse and engaged in a verbal exchange. Collings's counsel directed his family from Arkansas be excluded from the courthouse and told an investigator to tell the family members they were no longer needed and to return to Arkansas. This strategic decision was not unreasonable and does not constitute ineffective assistance of counsel. See McLaughlin , 378 S.W.3d at 337 . Because this Court has recognized [f]ailure to present evidence that is cumulative to that presented at trial does not constitute ineffective assistance of counsel, id. at 343 , the motion court did not clearly err in denying this claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.