Opinion ID: 1129333
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Undisclosed Contact between Codefendant Johnson and Witness Jones

Text: Smith argues that the circuit court erred in determining that a document showing that Melvin Jones, an eyewitness to the murder, and Derrick Johnson, Smith's codefendant, met in jail was not material under Strickler. Smith claims the document demonstrates that Jones and Johnson collaborated before trial to implicate Smith as the shooter. At retrial, Jones testified that as he walked home that evening, he witnessed the murder, and he identified Smith as the killer. Jones and his wife lived within a block of the murder scene, and both testified that within a short time after the murder, Jones arrived home and told her he had witnessed it. The previously undisclosed internal report shows that in September 1983, the prosecutor requested an investigation into whether Jones and Smith had any contact in jail. [4] The prosecutor's handwritten note reflected that the two were never together and that Johnson first saw Jones on July 11 in a holding cell before a preliminary hearing. At that time, Jones showed Johnson a map of the crime scene and said that he or it would help Johnson at trial. After an evidentiary hearing, the circuit court determined, and in fact the State conceded, that the first two prongs of the Strickler test were met. That is, the State failed to disclose this evidence that could have been used for impeachment. The court, however, determined that Smith failed to show that this evidence casts the trial in such a different light as to undermine confidence in the verdict. We agree. At most, Johnson's statement acknowledging contact was of limited value to support a theory of collusion between Johnson and Jones. First, the evidence from the evidentiary hearing and trial demonstrated that Johnson and Jones did not know each other before the murder and did not discuss the facts of the case during their brief meeting. In fact, Johnson was so unnerved by the encounter with this stranger that he asked to be removed from the cell. Further, the State did not provide Jones with a deal in exchange for his testimony. In addition, at retrial, the defense challenged Jones's credibility in light of his felony convictions and his efforts to make a deal in exchange for his testimony. Smith's theory of defense was that he was not in the cab that night and that Jones and Johnson were lying. The evidence at retrial, however, showed that on the day of the murder, Smith tried to sell a gun to Carolyn Mathis and later that evening told Regina Mathis that he was going to hustle some money because he had none. Before going out on the night of the murder, Smith showed a gun to his friend James Matthews, who in turn showed it to his live-in girlfriend, Priscilla Walker. Smith told Matthews he was going out to get some money that evening. Later that evening, Smith was at a nightclub, where Ernest Rouse saw him place a revolver under a turntable in the disc jockey booth and later retrieve it. Jones and Johnson saw the handgun and saw Smith fire the fatal shot. After the murder, in the early morning hours, Smith returned to his friends' home and admitted to both Matthews and Walker that he had shot someone. To Walker, he said that he shot a cab driver who would not give him any money. He told Matthews he was scared and needed a place to stay. Within twelve hours after the murder, Smith robbed two Canadian tourists, using a handgun. Finally, Smith's uncle testified that his revolver was missing. The descriptions of the gun Smith had immediately preceding, during, and after the murder matched his uncle's gun, which was missing. In addition, a bullet from the victim was consistent with the bullets from Smith's uncle's ten-year-old box of bullets. Finally, Smith made a call from a restaurant telephone, and his fingerprint was found on the phone. A request for a cab was made on that phone at 12:28 a.m. on March 21, 1983, and Smith and Johnson were seen entering the cab that arrived shortly thereafter. Accordingly, the undisclosed evidence of a brief jail contact does not meet the materiality prong of Brady.