Opinion ID: 853338
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Raise Trial Counsel's Cross Examination of Hood

Text: Timberlake also challenges the handling of State witness Roy Hood. Hood was a passing motorist who claimed to have seen a man fitting Timberlake's description shoot Greene. Before trial, Hood made several inconsistent statements about the incident. At the postconviction relief proceeding, Hood testified that when he saw Greene, he had already been shot. Also, at the postconviction relief hearing, a coworker of Hood's testified that Hood had told specific lies to him and was a liar with a bad reputation in the community. The postconviction court again addressed this issue only in terms of ineffective assistance of trial counsel: [T]rial counsel was intimately familiar with the State's case and witnesses and manyif not allsignificant witnesses were deposed by trial counsel. Petitioner cannot show that trial counsel performed deficiently in this regard. Because appellate counsel did not raise this issue on appeal, it again presents a Bieghler type two issue. Therefore, Timberlake must show from the information available in the trial record or otherwise known to appellate counsel that appellate counsel failed to present a significant and obvious issue and that this failure cannot be explained by any reasonable strategy. Ben-Yisrayl, 738 N.E.2d at 260-61. This issue does not appear to be a significant and obvious one. In any event, it would not have established trial counsel ineffectiveness. Although Hood was not questioned at trial about all the inconsistencies discovered by postconviction investigation, trial counsel did cross-examine Hood on several discrepancies in his statements. As we noted in the direct appeal: As defendant made clear during his cross-examination of Hood, there were inconsistencies. However, the basic points of his testimony remained the same and were corroborated by others. Timberlake, 690 N.E.2d at 253 n. 1. We cannot say that the postconviction evidence unmistakably and unerringly points to a conclusion contrary to the postconviction court's on the issue of trial counsel's performance in this respect. Furthermore, Timberlake has not established that appellate counsel was deficient based on the information available to her which did not include information on Hood's reputation for dishonestyat the time of the direct appeal. Because Timberlake has established neither deficient performance nor prejudice on this point at the trial level, this issue was not an obvious one which appellate counsel was deficient for failing to raise.