Opinion ID: 1244110
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Denial of the Defendant's Motion for a Mistrial

Text: Art Espinoza, a former employee of the defendant, did not appear at trial pursuant to a defense subpoena. Defense counsel stated that Espinoza had been personally served with a subpoena the day before trial, and that Espinoza was the sole defense witness. The trial judge issued a bench warrant for Espinoza's arrest and continued the trial for an additional twenty-four hours. When it became clear that Espinoza could not be found, the defendant moved for a mistrial and the trial court denied the motion. Defense counsel's offer of proof was that the defendant was at one time a part-time employee at an automobile body shop owned by Espinoza. Espinoza would have testified that the defendant was familiar with the tools of the auto body trade, that he occasionally worked late at night and that it would not be unusual for him to possess a slide hammer and screwdriver at 3:00 a.m. According to the defendant, the trial court's failure to grant a mistrial constituted a denial of his rights to compulsory process and to due process. U.S. Const. Amend. VI and XIV; Colo. Const. Art. II, §§ 16 and 25. We disagree. A defendant's right to compel the attendance of witnesses and to offer testimony at trial is a fundamental element of due process of law. Washington v. Texas, 388 U.S. 14, 19, 87 S.Ct. 1920, 1923, 18 L.Ed.2d 1019 (1967). However, the overlapping guarantees of the compulsory process clause and of the due process right to call witnesses are not absolute. See United States v. Valenzuela-Bernal, 458 U.S. 858, 867, 102 S.Ct. 3440, 3446, 73 L.Ed.2d 1193 (1982). The state has no obligation to produce a witness who, through no fault of its own, has become unavailable because of disappearance, illness, or death. See Taylor v. Minnesota, 466 F.2d 1119, 1122 (8th Cir.1972) (witnesses who could not be found), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 956, 93 S.Ct. 1425, 35 L.Ed.2d 689 (1973); United States v. Rhodes, 398 F.2d 655 (7th Cir.1968) (defense witness who died before trial), cert. denied, 394 U.S. 962, 89 S.Ct. 1311, 22 L.Ed.2d 563 (1969); see also Westen, Confrontation and Compulsory Process: A Unified Theory of Evidence for Criminal Cases, 91 Harv.L.Rev. 567, 595 (1978). Even in an instance where the state is responsible for the absence of a witness, the defendant cannot establish a violation of his constitutional right to compulsory process unless he can make a plausible showing of how [the] testimony would have been both material and favorable to his defense. Valenzuela-Bernal, 458 U.S. at 867, 102 S.Ct. at 3446. The same materiality standard is applied in a due process analysis. Id. at 872, 102 S.Ct. at 3449. Here, Espinoza left the jurisdiction after being subpoenaed, and there is no suggestion that his unavailability was due to any action or omission of the prosecution or the court. The defendant's rights under the fifth and sixth amendments therefore were not violated. Cf. United States v. Ballesteros-Acuna, 527 F.2d 928, 930 (9th Cir. 1975) (the state is `under no obligation to look for' a defendant's `witnesses, in the absence of a showing that such witnesses were made unavailable through the suggestion, procurement, or negligence' of the Government). In the absence of a constitutional violation, it is well-established that the decision to grant or deny a motion for a mistrial is directed to the sound discretion of the trial court. People v. Saars, 196 Colo. 294, 584 P.2d 622 (1978). The trial court's ruling will not be disturbed absent a clear showing of an abuse of discretion and prejudice to the defendant. People v. Haymaker, 716 P.2d 110 (Colo.1986); Massey v. People, 649 P.2d 1070 (Colo.1982). We conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion because the grounds asserted for a mistrial were not substantial and real. See, e.g., People v. Moody, 630 P.2d 74, 79 (Colo.1981); Hamrick v. People, 624 P.2d 1320, 1323 (Colo.1981). While Espinoza's anticipated testimony was relevant to the defense, the offer of proof shows that it was not material or essential to the defendant's claim. Defense counsel admitted that, at the time of the incident in the hospital parking lot, Chastain was not employed by Espinoza, and that he would not have testified to the actions of the defendant on the evening of April 29, 1982. In addition, much of Espinoza's testimony would have been cumulative and was only intended to provide an innocent motive for possession of the tools. The jury became aware of Chastain's familiarity with automobile mechanic tools through the testimony of Lopez. Lopez stated that the defendant was an auto mechanic, and that he had been working on cars during the day of April 29, 1982. In our view, the trial court did not abuse its discretion, and the defendant was not unduly prejudiced by the denial of the motion for mistrial.