Opinion ID: 1237936
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 42

Heading: Revealing Inadmissible Evidence

Text: (86) During cross-examination of prosecution witness Clifford Smith, defense counsel asked whether Smith's decision to defect from the AB and testify against defendant had been motivated by a promise that in return his mother would not be prosecuted for smuggling drugs to him in prison. Smith denied that any such promise had been made and that his mother had ever smuggled drugs to him. On redirect, Smith again denied that his mother had ever smuggled drugs to him. The prosecutor then asked: Where would this come  where did this come from. Do you have any idea at all? Smith answered: Um, come from Curtis Price. Well  I'm assuming. The defense objected and the court struck the testimony and instructed the jury to disregard it. Defendant was not prejudiced by this incident. The point was peripheral at best, the witness admitted he was speculating, and the court instructed the jury not to use the testimony in any way in deciding the case. Shortly thereafter, the prosecutor asked Smith about the risks he was taking in testifying against defendant. Smith testified that the AB leaders had pretty long memories and that there were a whole lot of people on the AB hit list. When the prosecutor asked Smith if he could name some of the people the AB leaders intended to kill, the court sustained the defense's relevancy objection. The prosecutor then asked: Do you know whether or not [Department of Justice investigator] Paul Tulleners is on the Aryan Brotherhood hit list? The trial court again sustained a defense relevancy objection. Defendant contends that the incident demonstrates misconduct because the prosecutor knew from the sustaining of the first objection that the topic was impermissible, because Smith could not have had current knowledge about AB decisions, and because the questions had no legitimate purpose. We disagree. The danger the AB posed to witnesses testifying against an AB member had a significant bearing on the credibility and motives of those witnesses. For this reason, the defense raised no objection to questions about Smith's fears for his own safety. The prosecutor could reasonably conclude that the trial court sustained the first defense objection because the names of persons unconnected with this case would have no relevancy. Because Tulleners had testified, the prosecutor could have believed that inquiry about his status as an AB target would be permitted as bearing on his credibility. Although Smith had defected from the AB, he had done so only after the preliminary hearing in this case, and thus he possessed reasonably current information on the decisions of the AB leadership. No misconduct is shown. (87) During the redirect examination of Michael Thompson, the prosecutor asked about prior statements Thompson had made about the various crimes charged against defendant. The prosecutor then asked how Thompson had obtained information about the Moore burglary and the Hickey murder. Thompson said he had obtained it from Stinson. The prosecutor then asked Thompson if he knew how Stinson had obtained the information. Thompson answered, Yes, Curtis Price. The trial court sustained a defense hearsay objection and instructed the jury to disregard the testimony. Defendant cites the incident as misconduct. He asserts that the question clearly called for inadmissible hearsay and that the defense was severely prejudiced because the answer implied that defendant had confessed to the Hickey murder. We find no prejudicial misconduct. The assertion of severe prejudice is unfounded. No reasonable juror would interpret the statement as an implied confession to the Hickey murder. There was no suggestion that, for example, the information Stinson provided to Thompson included facts about the murder that had not been made public. Indeed, defendant asserts elsewhere in his appellate brief that Thompson was thoroughly inaccurate in every detail he supplied about the Hickey killing. (Original italics.) The stricken testimony showed at most that defendant was aware of the crime, had some knowledge of the circumstances, and realized that the police had or might connect it to the AB. It was undisputed that defendant was acquainted with Hickey, that he had obtained weapons from her in some manner, and that the police had seized these weapons after arresting defendant. Even if defendant had been entirely innocent of the Hickey murder, he certainly knew at the time in question, after his arrest, that Hickey had been killed, that he was at least a suspect, and that the AB would be implicated. Thus, the stricken testimony told the jury nothing it did not already know or could not reasonably have inferred. (88) Defense witness Rebecca Williams testified, on cross-examination, that she had inherited a .22-caliber Jennings semiautomatic pistol from her grandfather before 1975, that she had shown the pistol to defendant, that defendant had suggested she take it to a gunsmith to have it cleaned, that she had done so, and that the gunsmith had refused to work on it because the gun had no serial number. On rebuttal, a police officer for the City of Auburn testified that under his questioning Williams said that defendant had asked her to have the pistol cleaned for him and had told her he would pick it up later. Also on rebuttal, the owner of the corporation that manufactured the pistol testified it was made in 1981 or 1982. The defense lodged a relevance objection and requested an offer of proof when the prosecutor asked this witness to disassemble the pistol. The prosecutor responded: I think he will be able to testify that somebody apparently modified this weapon in the mistaken belief they could turn it into an automatic weapon. The court ruled that the witness could testify that the weapon was inoperable to explain why it was taken to be repaired, without speculating as to the intended purpose of the modification that made it inoperable. Defendant contends that the prosecution committed misconduct by stating in open court that someone had attempted to convert the pistol into an automatic weapon. We find no misconduct. Evidence that someone had tampered with the gun's mechanism was admissible to impeach the testimony of Williams, who claimed to have no understanding of guns and to have never fired this weapon. Although the apparent purpose of the modification may have been irrelevant, the court's action in sustaining the objection was sufficient to avert any possible prejudice on this minor point.