Opinion ID: 2595083
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Ybarra's drug use

Text: In an effort to show that prosecution witness Ybarra was still using heroin at the time he testified, defense counsel, who apparently noticed Ybarra's sniffling, asked on cross-examination whether he had a cold. When Ybarra blamed the sniffles on the weather, counsel asked if he was still using heroin; Ybarra replied he was not. Counsel then asked if Ybarra got sniffles when he used heroin. The trial court sustained the prosecutor's objection to the last question as argumentative. Three days later, still during cross-examination, counsel asked if Ybarra still had a cold. The prosecutor objected without stating a ground, and the trial court sustained the objection. In sustaining these two objections, defendant argues, the trial court deprived him of the opportunity to undermine Ybarra's testimony by showing that he was using drugs when he testified. We disagree. Ybarra had denied he was using drugs, and the questions by the defense were purely rhetorical, implying that Ybarra's sniffles were a result of drug use, not a cold, and that by insisting on the latter Ybarra was lying. Moreover, even if the trial court should have permitted the questions, the error was harmless, because the jury knew that Ybarra had used drugs in the past, and whether he was using them at the time of trial was only tangentially relevant to his veracity as a witness.