Opinion ID: 1207047
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Preliminary Hearing Testimony of Steve Terry

Text: (9a) Defendant contends he was denied his right of confrontation by the use of one Steve Terry's preliminary hearing testimony at trial. Terry was an employee of Stuckey's in Oklahoma where defendant had used one of the victim's credit cards. He had testified that defendant ran out of the store before approval for the credit card purchase could be obtained. Terry notified the police and gave a description of defendant and the vehicle. It was this call that ultimately led to defendant's arrest. Terry had been a cooperative witness. The district attorney's investigator had been in regular touch with him and had served him with a subpoena by mail. His last contact with Terry was July 15, 1980, when he advised Terry that the August 12, 1980, trial date had been continued. The investigator learned two weeks before trial that Terry was no longer employed by the Stuckey Corporation, that he and his wife had separated and that he had left the town of Marietta, Oklahoma. An Oklahoma sheriff's department employee testified that she had attempted unsuccessfully to locate Terry. She had checked with the post office, the electric company and had attempted to contact Terry's wife's parents. Defendant contends the trial court erred in finding that the prosecution had exercised due diligence since it never used the Uniform Act to Secure Attendance of Witnesses. He relies on People v. Blackwood (1983) 138 Cal. App.3d 939 [188 Cal. Rptr. 359], where the Court of Appeal held that the trial court had erred in finding a witness unavailable when the prosecution had made vigorous efforts to find the witness but had not attempted to use the uniform act. The present situation is distinguishable from that in Blackwood where the witness had been located but refused to cut short an Alaskan vacation to appear at trial. In Blackwood, the prosecutors had made no effort to use the uniform act to obtain interstate process because they thought it unlikely that Alaska would have issued a subpoena because of the undue hardship on the witness. Here, by contrast, the prosecution had a cooperative witness who unexpectedly disappeared two weeks before trial. (Cf. People v. Masters (1982) 134 Cal. App.3d 509 [185 Cal. Rptr. 134] [prosecution unjustified in relying on uncooperative witness's promise to appear].) Since Terry could not be located after his unexpected disappearance, it would have been pointless to have used the uniform act. (See Ohio v. Roberts (1979) 448 U.S. 56 [65 L.Ed.2d 597, 100 S.Ct. 2531].) In any event, any error in admitting Terry's preliminary hearing testimony was clearly harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. (See People v. Blackwood, supra, 138 Cal. App.3d at p. 947.) Terry's testimony was peripheral and could not have affected the verdict.