Opinion ID: 1095949
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Defendant's Surrebuttal

Text: At the beginning of trial, the witness sequestration rule was invoked. Burrell contends the trial judge erred in refusing to permit Glenda Wedge, his sister, to testify as a surrebuttal witness after she had been sitting in the courtroom during the entire trial listening to the testimony of the other witnesses, including the defendant and his parents. The testimony of Mrs. Wedge was the subject of a proffer. We have examined her proffered testimony with great care and conclude her testimony was merely cumulative of the testimony elicited from the defendant's parents, Dave and Katherine Burrell, during the defendant's case-in-chief. Accordingly, we hold the trial judge did not abuse his judicial discretion in refusing to let Glenda Wedge testify as a surrebuttal witness. Goss v. State, supra, 413 So.2d 1033, 1035 (Miss. 1982); Ford v. State, 227 So.2d 454, 457 (Miss. 1969); Smith v. State, 144 Miss. 437, 110 So. 119 (1926). The witness sequestration rule is embodied in Miss.R.Evid. 615 (1986). The purpose of the rule is to discourage falsification, inaccuracy, and collusion. Moffett v. State, 540 So.2d 1313 (Miss. 1989). The sequestration of witnesses is a matter of right except for the three categories of people identified in Rule 615. Douglas v. State, 525 So.2d 1312, 1316 (Miss. 1988). None of these exceptions apply in this case. Here the testimony of Mrs. Wedge was merely cumulative to that already elicited from Burrell's parents. It would have added nothing to that which already had been made known. While there may be times when either the State or the defendant, in order to prevent manifest injustice, should be allowed to call to the witness stand an unsequestered witness, this case is not one of them. Juries have traditionally decided issues of conflicting evidentiary fact. They have decided this case adversely to the defendant's alibi. We find both substantial and credible evidence in the record to support a finding that Burrell murdered his wife, Lori Burrell, and assaulted Katie Sutton, his stepdaughter. Accordingly, Burrell's convictions and consecutive sentences to life plus twenty years are affirmed. COUNT I: CONVICTION OF MURDER AND SENTENCE OF LIFE IMPRISONMENT IN THE CUSTODY OF THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, AFFIRMED. COUNT II: CONVICTION OF AGGRAVATED ASSAULT AND SENTENCE OF TWENTY (20) YEARS IN THE CUSTODY OF THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, AFFIRMED. SAID SENTENCE TO RUN CONSECUTIVELY WITH SENTENCE IMPOSED IN COUNT I. HAWKINS, C.J., DAN M. LEE and PRATHER, P.JJ., and SULLIVAN, BANKS, McRAE, ROBERTS and SMITH, JJ., concur.