Opinion ID: 1946760
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Defendant's Second Motion for New Trial Based on Newly Discovered Evidence

Text: The defendant also sought a new trial on the basis of newly discovered evidence that revolved around an alleged recantation by Jane after the trial. As noted above, the trial justice conducted an evidentiary hearing that included testimony from numerous witnesses. The defendant presented testimony from Charlene's daughter Tiffany, her friend Nelsie, Jane, Jane's brother John, and Charlene. Tiffany testified that she and Nelsie were walking home together one day in March, just after the trial. They ran into Jane and John, and the three girls began chatting while John rode his bicycle in circles around them. During this conversation, Tiffany said that Jane admitted to lying at Woods' trial about being molested. When he considered whether defendant satisfied the two-prong test necessary to grant a new trial based on newly discovered evidence, the hearing justice did not make a specific determination with respect to the four parts of the first prong of the Firth test. Rather, he assumed that defendant had met that threshold burden, saying: I am not convinced in the first instance that the defendant crosses the threshold on the four part test, namely, that this was material information that would be of the kind that would probably change the verdict in a new trial. But even if I were to credit you with that test, arguendo, and if I had to reach the issue of credibility  which I must do under these cases if you surmount the first part of the test,    [Tiffany's] testimony here was very, very difficult    to accept. She says early on in her testimony that when [Jane's foster sister] told her what [Jane] had told [Jane's foster sister] about [Woods] inappropriately touching her, Tiffany confronted [Jane] the next day in [Jane's foster sister's] room and, effectively, called her a liar. Tiffany called [Jane] a liar. She fenced with me a little bit as to whether she directly called her a liar to her face, but there is no question that the record will reflect that the words that she used on the stand effectively and essentially was a gauntlet thrown, accusing [Jane] of lying. And, she said that  Tiffany said or claims that [Jane] went along with that accusation; that she changed her story.    And Tiffany, at this point, says she told no one    `Because it slipped my mind.' Later in her testimony she says she never had such a conversation with [Jane]; [Jane] never said that to her in that bedroom with [Jane's foster sister]. So, she's all over the place on this one. There's no issue that she certainly has some predilection to assist [Woods]. She acknowledges on the stand that she didn't want the defendant to get in trouble `because of a little, lying girl.'    She's back and forth like a pendulum on this.  (Emphases added.) Although Tiffany's friend Nelsie repeated the same general story as Tiffany, there were some serious inconsistencies between the two that were noted by the hearing justice. The hearing justice also observed that Nelsie did not remember the conversation until Tiffany telephoned her, just prior to the hearing on the motion for a new trial, to remind her of it. When Nelsie testified about her independent memory of meeting John and Jane, she recalled being told by Jane that Woods molested her and that she warned Jane to be careful, and not to let people touch her like that. In our opinion, the justice did not err when he reasoned that such a warning did not undermine Jane, but instead solidifies, confirms and corroborates her trial testimony. The defendant relies upon State v. Messa, 593 A.2d 957 (R.I.1991), to argue that a new trial should have been granted. In Messa, the defendant was convicted of five counts of second-degree child molestation sexual assault, and one count of second-degree sexual assault. Id. at 958. The defendant was employed as a public school teacher in Providence when the allegations were made. Id. The six complainants, all boys under thirteen years old, were students in the defendant's fifth-grade class. Id. After the Superior Court denied the defendant's motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence, the defendant appealed to this Court. On appeal, this Court reversed the lower court's ruling that the first prong to the test for newly discovered evidence had not been satisfied. Id. at 959-60. But here, unlike in Messa, the trial justice assumed, without deciding, that defendant would be able to satisfy the four parts of the first prong in the Firth test. The hearing justice then denied defendant's motion because he was unable to satisfy the second prong, which requires the Court to exercise its own independent judgment on the sufficiency and credibility of the evidence. See, e.g., State v. Hornoff, 760 A.2d 927, 934-35 (R.I.2000) (upholding hearing justice's finding that the defendant did not meet his burden for a new trial based upon newly discovered evidence because the evidence was not sufficiently credible to satisfy the second prong of the Firth test). In a well-reasoned consideration of the defendant's motion, the hearing justice found that the testimony of the defendant's main witness, Tiffany, was very, very difficult to accept. He noted several inconsistencies in her testimony, and he questioned her motives for coming forward so late in the day, especially because her mother was the defendant's niece and the only defense witness in the first trial. He also found that the other witnesses offered testimony that was consistent with Jane's version of events. The hearing justice properly considered each of the defendant's witnesses and their testimony, and he concluded that the new evidence was insufficient to go before another jury. We hold that the hearing justice was not clearly wrong and did not misconceive the evidence when he said that [t]he bottom line is that [the witness] is unworthy of belief from my point of view as a front row observer.