Opinion ID: 2356771
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Recantation of Witness Trembly

Text: The appellant claims that he is entitled to a new trial because of the recantation of Ronald Trembly, a State's witness at trial, and that it was error for the presiding Justice to rule otherwise. At trial Trembly testified that he had encountered the appellant a few days after the Mechanic Falls robbery. Trembly stated that on that occasion the appellant handed him a sawed-off shotgun and told him to hide it for him because the cops were looking for it and they thought he had it. Some eleven months after the trial, Trembly signed an affidavit in which he maintained that he had perjured himself during the trial, asserting under oath that he had obtained the shotgun from one Michael Cloutier rather than from the appellant. In State v. McDonough, 1976, Me., 350 A.2d 556, we reiterated the five prerequisites for the granting of a new trial on the basis of newly discovered evidence. A new trial should not be granted on this ground, unless (1) the evidence is such as will probably change the result if a new trial is ordered; (2) it has been discovered since the trial; (3) it could not have been discovered before the trial by the exercise of due diligence; (4) it is material to the issue; (5) it is not merely cumulative or impeaching, unless it is clear that impeachment would have resulted in a different verdict. Id. at 560. After considering the testimony presented at the hearing, the presiding Justice determined that the appellant had failed to satisfy the first prerequisite expressed in McDonough, finding that the recantation of Ronald Trembly would probably not result in a different verdict if the case were retried. This determination by the presiding Justice is one of fact and is binding on the appellate court unless clearly erroneous. State v. Sawyer, 1974, Me., 314 A.2d 830. In the instant case, we must agree with the presiding Justice that Trembly's testimony did not proffer such qualitative evidence as would probably change the result upon a retrial. Indeed, it was unconvincing and entitled to little weight. At first, Trembly could not remember whether he had told the truth at the appellant's trial. He did not recall receiving the shotgun from Lewis. Then, on cross-examination, he ventured to say that he thought he had obtained it from Michael Cloutier. His positive assertion on redirect examination that it was Cloutier and not Lewis who had given him the shotgun did not clothe his statement with absolute verity which the presiding Justice could not downgrade in view of the appellant's previous vacillation. Furthermore, the record reveals that Trembly was not a major prosecution witness at the appellant's trial. Trembly's testimony merely established that the appellant possessed a sawed-off shotgun shortly after the Mechanic Falls robbery and that the appellant asked him to dispose of the weapon for him. In contrast, the three accomplices in the robbery, Sirois, Edwards and St. Pierre, presented testimony which directly and unequivocally implicated the appellant in the crime. They testified that the appellant had supplied them with the shotgun used in the perpetration of the robbery, had driven them to and from Gott's home in Mechanic Falls and had received a share of the stolen money. We believe that the testimony of these three witnesses would probably result in a guilty verdict, even if upon retrial Trembly's recantation were submitted to the jury. The mere possibility or chance that upon a retrial Trembly's recantation might induce a jury to reach a different verdict is not a sufficient basis for the grant of a new trial; in order to support a motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence, it must be made to appear that, in the light of the overall testimony, new and old, another jury ought to give a different verdict; there must be a probability that a new trial would result in a different verdict. State v. Terroni, 1970, Me., 270 A.2d 75, 78; State v. Irons, 1941, 137 Me. 294, 299, 18 A.2d 798, 801; State v. Stain, 1890, 82 Me. 472, 490-491, 20 A. 72, 77. We accordingly hold that the presiding Justice's denial of the appellant's motion for a new trial was not clearly erroneous and that Lewis takes nothing from this point of appeal.