Opinion ID: 6107861
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Failure to Call Witness to Testify at Trial

Text: For his fourth point on appeal, Gordon contends that his trial counsel was ineffective by not calling witnesses to testify at trial. Gordon contends that trial counsel was ineffective for not introducing Jones, a codefendant, as a possible witness to the jury, which precluded Jones from being called as a witness. The trial court found that Gordon failed to provide any information as to the testimony Jones would offer and that the decision to call a witness was a matter of trial strategy. At trial, Gordon's trial counsel admitted that Gordon and Jones had shot the victims and did not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence. Gordon , 2015 Ark. 344 , 470 S.W.3d 673 . The defense strategy was to convince the jury that Gordon was not guilty of capital murder but, instead, of first- or second-degree murder. Id. From a review of the record, the colloquy that ensued regarding Jones as a witness focused on the fact that Jones was not introduced to the jury during voir dire as a potential witness and that the purpose in calling him would be to corroborate Gordon's custodial statement. Jones's testimony would not have been used to refute evidence of the offenses but rather to bolster Gordon's statement. Further, even if counsel had been deficient by failing to introduce Jones as a witness to the jury during voir dire, Gordon fails to demonstrate he was prejudiced by the inability to call a witness to corroborate his own custodial statement. Moreover, Gordon fails to provide a summary of Jones's testimony or to show that it would have been otherwise admissible had Jones been permitted to testify. See Wertz , 2014 Ark. 240 , 434 S.W.3d 895 . Accordingly, Gordon has failed to establish that there was a reasonable probability that, had trial counsel properly introduced Jones as a witness to the jury, the outcome of the trial would have been different. Van Winkle , 2016 Ark. 98 , 486 S.W.3d 778 .