Opinion ID: 1822762
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: whether the trial court's admission of alleged hearsay evidence via the taped telephone conversations violated brown's federal and state constitutional rights to confront the witnesses against him.

Text: ¶ 21. Brown asserts that, since Echols did not know the identity of the voices on the tape recording, other than his own, Brown was unable to subpoena these witnesses to testify at trial and thus to confront and cross-examine them; therefore, his rights under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and Article 3, Section 26, Mississippi Constitution (1890) were violated. However, we again note that neither Echols nor the law enforcement officials knew the identity of the voices on the tape, other than Echols, nor did the State or any of its witnesses attempt to state or imply that one of the unidentified voices on the tape recording was Brown's. The State was under no obligation to determine the identity of those persons whose voices were on the tape. If Brown believed that the voices on the tape were those of individuals other than himself and Black, he could have subpoenaed anyone he desired. Brown could have subpoenaed Elmer Little Fudge Armstrong, for the record reveals that both the State and Brown were interested in determining Armstrong's location. Evidently, no one appeared to know the location of Armstrong at the time of the trial of this case. ¶ 22. As we stated in Ahmad v. State, 603 So.2d 843, 847 (Miss.1992): Abdusabr Ahmad urges this Court to find reversible error because his constitutional right to confront his accuser was denied. Abdusabr Ahmad argues that his accuser is his wife and that he was not allowed to confront her. While he is correct that the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees a defendant the right of cross examination, see Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969); Pointer v. Texas, 380 U.S. 400, 85 S.Ct. 1065, 13 L.Ed.2d 923 (1965), Abdusabr Ahmad was not deprived of that right. As the State has pointed out, neither the appellant, nor the court, instructs the State what witnesses that party shall put on the stand or how that party shall present its case. Hickson v. State, 512 So.2d 1 (Miss. 1987). The State in the case at bar could not be required to present every witness, although Abdusabr Ahmad did have the right to cross examine any witness that the State did present. The record reveals that Abdusabr Ahmad was allowed to fully cross examine all State witnesses against him. Rasheedah Ahmad was not a witness at the trial. There is no indication in the record that this wife, Rasheedah Ahmad, ever accused him of felonious child abuse. Id. at 847. ¶ 23. At trial, the State called Jason Chrestman, commander of the Panola County Narcotics Task Force; Kenny Laughter, a narcotics investigator with the Tate County Sheriff's Department; Antonio Echols, the C.I.; Jamie Tedford, a Batesville policeman assigned to the Drug Enforcement Administration; and Teresia Hickman, a forensic scientist with the Batesville branch of the Mississippi Crime Laboratory. The record reveals that each of these witnesses was subjected to cross-examination by Brown, through his attorney. No issue was made of the admissibility of the videotape, which the jury viewed during the course of the trial. Upon consideration of the entire record, including a viewing of the videotape, this Court is firmly convinced that Brown suffered no prejudice, much less substantial prejudice, by the admission of the audiotaped phone conversations. The videotape shows: (1) a white Delta 88 pulling up to Echols in the Wal-Mart parking lot (the driver of the car was later identified as Derrick Brown); (2) Echols walking away from the car, which then pulled out of the Wal-Mart parking lot and traveled across the street to the Rascal's convenience store; (3) a man at Rascals in a red shirt (later identified as Derrick Black) getting into the white Delta 88 on the front passenger side; and (4) the white car, with Brown and Black inside, returning to the Wal-Mart parking lot. ¶ 24. The actual drug buy is not captured on the video, but the events occurring immediately thereafter are. These events include: (1) the drug purchase cash (in denominations of twenties and hundreds) lying on the front passenger seat of the car (where Black was situated); [3] and (2) four cell phones on the front seats and in the console, as well as a Fred's Dollar Store box of sandwich bags, and rocks of what appeared to be (and were later identified to be) crack cocaine. ¶ 25. In sum, Brown suffered no substantial prejudice in that he was not denied his federal and state constitutional rights to confront witnesses based on the admission of the audiotaped telephone recordings of the pre-drug-buy conversations between the C.I. and unknown persons. As the trial judge stated in ruling on post-trial motions, [t]his was a fairly straightforward drug deal. It is a situation where the C.I. was on a cell phone talking to two men who were willing to deliver and sell . . . $1,600 worth of cocaine. If you recall these cases were severed. Two separate trials were conducted by juries which freed these defendants to call witnesses, have a trial without co-defendant having to testify against co-defendant, or any way implicate. ¶ 26. We therefore find this issue is without merit.