Opinion ID: 2087829
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Defendant's Use of Affidavits Outside the Record

Text: The defendant next claims that he expressly forbade his trial attorney from filing a motion to sever his case from that of his codefendant cousin, who had been indicted on similar charges. He also alleges that his trial attorney lied to him by indicating that no such motion would be filed, but his attorney nevertheless filed such a motion anyway. The defendant contends that after he discovered that his trial had been severed from his cousin's trial, his attorney lied to him again by asserting that the trial justicesevered the trials on his own initiative. In support of these allegations, defendant relies in large part upon his own affidavits  filed for the first time with this Court  which he attached to his brief. The defendant further claims that the trial justice's granting of his motion to sever his trial from that of his codefendant seriously undermined his ability to defend himself by depriving him of the opportunity to develop trial strategy and to formulate litigation tactics with his attorney. He asserts that the phantom motion to sever that was filed under bizarre circumstances, was a material stage of the proceeding which had a substantial effect on the defendant's ability to communicate with his attorney, trial strategy and apparent ability to defend against the charges. Significantly, he does not elucidate how his attorney's filing of the motion to sever undermined his ability to communicate with his attorney, and we are at a loss to fathom how this could be so. However, in the next section of his appellate brief, defendant also raises the issue of ineffective assistance of counsel, and alleges that his attorney did not want to try the case against him (despite filing a motion to sever that, if granted, would guarantee that defendant's lawyer would try the case alone). Moreover, defendant contends that if he had received the aggressive trial defense his cousin had received, the result of his trial would have been different. To a large extent defendant bases his argument on his own affidavits, which were signed and witnessed years after his trial when his brief was filed with this Court, and which he has attached as exhibits to his brief. These affidavits, which contain self-serving conclusory statements, are not part of the trial court's record and thus cannot be considered by this Court. American Hoechst Corp. v. Carr, 621 A.2d 710, 712 (R.I.1993) (holding that even when appellate review is de novo, it is limited to the record as developed below). See also Hudson v. Napolitano, 575 A.2d 187, 189 (R.I.1990) (holding that [a]ttempting to cure a defect for the first time in a proffer of evidence before the appellate court is unavailing). In a similar situation to this case, a party submitted an affidavit to this Court in support ofits appellate contentions. In refusing to consider that affidavit, this Court stated that the case must be decided upon the evidence introduced in the superior court. Princess Ring Co. v. Home Ins. Co., 163 A. 181, 181 (R.I.1932). Likewise, we will not consider submissions by defendant that were not introduced or even mentioned before the Superior Court and have no basis in the trial court's record. It is well settled that arguments raised for the first time on appeal are not properly preserved for appellate review. See State v. Donato, 592 A.2d 140, 141 (R.I.1991). None of defendant's objections to the motion to sever was raised below, despite defendant's acknowledgment that he learned that the trial justice granted the motion to sever before trial. Moreover, his own attorney filed the motion, and defendant proceeded to trial without alerting the trial justice that he objected to having his case severed from the charges against his cousin. Finally, the record as developed below indicates that the disparate sentencing between defendant and his cousin had its basis in the different facts and circumstances of each defendant's respective situation. First, the record indicates that defendant filed a motion to sever on January 26, 1994. The defendant was, in fact, tried separately from his original codefendant. However, while defendant blames his harsher sentence on the granting of the requested severance, the record reflects a different reason for defendant's disparate disposition. The prosecutor explained the difference between defendant and his codefendant cousin during defendant's sentencing, as follows: I would like to take a moment to point out, although the co-defendant received a lower sentence than I'm going to ask the Court to impose, it's because the two stand in a different light, it's because it's like night and day between the Defendant and co-defendant, despite what the Defendant's version of events are [ sic ]. The co-defendant, the State's case against the co-defendant was not as strong as the State's case against this Defendant.    This [defendant] was involved in the robberies and I believe he wore a knit hat but nothing concealing his face, and there is strong positive identification of this particularDefendant. The second robbery, it's this Defendant obviously as I referred to earlier that went in the liquor store by himself and robbed that store.    And most notably, the co-defendant I don't believe had the horrific record and history that this Defendant has with the Court system, again not only in Rhode Island but in Massachusetts. I suggest those are key difference [ sic ] between those two individuals and they must be treated differently in that respect. It is only now, after his conviction, that defendant contends that he had no knowledge of the severance motion when it was filed and no communication with his attorney on this score. The defendant also now claims that his attorney did not want to try the case and was unprepared for trial. However, this argument is undermined by the very fact that defendant's counsel filed a motion to sever, thereby guaranteeing that, if the motion was granted, he would assume sole responsibility for trying the case without the assistance of the cousin's attorney.