Opinion ID: 1781175
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Events of October 3, 1989

Text: Phillips claims that counsel was ineffective for failing to present evidence that would have cast doubt on whether she was with Plaster on the night of the murder, Tuesday, October 3, 1989. At trial, Jimmie Shelton and Linda Dorsey, both employees of the Top Rail Lounge, testified for the State that they saw Phillips and Plaster together at the Top Rail on the night of October 3. Shelton, however, had made a prior statement to the police that he saw Phillips and Plaster together on Monday, October 2. Impeaching Shelton with this statement, Phillips contends, would have changed the outcome of the trial. We disagree. Even if the jury were to believe that Shelton saw Phillips and Plaster together on October 2 rather than October 3, this fact alone would not have provided Phillips with a defense. It does not preclude the possibility that they were together on both the 2nd and the 3rd. Phillips also argues that counsel should have elicited testimony from Dorsey during cross-examination that Phillips stayed at the Top Rail Lounge long after Plaster left and that she stayed until the band stopped playing. The record shows that counsel did elicit testimony from Dorsey during cross-examination that Plaster left at least a half hour before Phillips, so Phillips' trial counsel did essentially what she is claiming he failed to do. Counsel's cross-examination of Shelton and Dorsey was not ineffective. Finally, Phillips argues that counsel was ineffective for failing to call several witnesses during guilt phase who allegedly would have testified that they saw Plaster and Phillips together on Monday, October 2, 1989. In order to show that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to present a witness, a defendant must prove that the witness could have been located through reasonable efforts, that the witness would have testified if called, and that the testimony would have provided a viable defense. See State v. Twenter, 818 S.W.2d 628, 639-40 (Mo. banc 1991). Testimony that Phillips and Plaster were together on Monday, October 2, totally fails to provide Phillips with a viable defense, because, as stated above, they might have been together on the 3rd as well. Counsel was not ineffective in failing to call these witnesses. The motion court did not clearly err in denying these claims.