Opinion ID: 6358387
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Failure to call Janell Gonzalez as a witness

Text: Brown next argues that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to call Gonzalez as a trial witness, as he contends that her description of the shooter would have undermined the descriptions of the shooter provided by Smith and Ellison. To prove that trial counsel provided ineffective assistance for failing to call a witness, a petitioner must demonstrate: (1) the witness existed; (2) the witness was available to testify for the defense; (3) counsel knew of, or should have known of, the existence of the witness; (4) the witness was willing to testify for the defense; and (5) the absence of the testimony of the witness was so prejudicial as to have denied the defendant a fair trial. Washington, 927 A.2d at 599 . In a 2013 affidavit provided to Brown's counsel, Gonzalez indicated that if she had been subpoenaed to testify, she would have done so. PCRA Petition, Appendix, Gonzalez Affidavit, 11/7/2013. She further indicated that her best recollection of the events of the day in question would have been included in the statement she gave to the police. Id.  This ineffectiveness claim fails because Brown does not establish that trial counsel's decision not to call Gonzalez to testify prejudiced him. Gonzalez's testimony would likely have differed from that of Smith and Ellison in the following respects: (1) Gonzalez described the shooter as being five-feet eight inches tall, while Ellison testified that he was five feet ten to five feet eleven inches tall; (2) Gonzalez indicated that the shooter wore a white skully cap, but neither Smith nor Ellison referenced a cap; and (3) Gonzalez said that the shooter was wearing blue jeans, while Ellison testified that the shooter wore camouflage pants. Gonzalez's testimony on these points, however, was substantially identical to that of Sutton, with whom she was walking towards the gas station when the shooting occurred. In her statement to police, Gonzalez described the shooter as a black male, about 19 years old, about your height or a little smaller [five feet eight inches], dark brown skin, wearing a black waist length jacket, blue jeans, a white hat or skullie [sic]. PCRA Petition, Appendix, Gonzalez Police Statement, 12/10/2003. Sutton testified at trial that when she heard gunshots, she saw a man in a white skully and like a black jacket and some blue jeans shoot the victim, and that the shooter was dark skinned and about five feet seven to five feet nine in height. N.T., 5/27/2005, at 16. During closing arguments, trial counsel highlighted the differences between Sutton's testimony regarding a white skully cap, in contrast to Smith's failure to recollect whether the shooter was wearing a hat at all. N.T. 5/31/2005, at 100-03. Because Gonzalez's testimony on these points would have been almost entirely cumulative of Sutton's actual trial testimony, it would have contributed little or nothing to trial counsel's efforts to call into question the discrepancies between the recollections of the various eyewitnesses. Absent any prejudice, this claim fails.