Opinion ID: 1844186
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Richard Barlow's Testimony

Text: Lastly, Parker contends that the trial court erred by limiting the testimony of former assistant state attorney Richard Barlow, who presented the testimony of Michael Bryant during Cave's 1993 penalty phase to establish that Cave was the shooter. Specifically, Parker argues that the trial court erred in precluding Barlow from testifying both as to what Bryant had told Barlow during their conversations prior to Cave's trial and as to Barlow's professional considerations in evaluating Bryant's statement in conjunction with the medical examiner's evidence. We find no error in the trial court's exclusion of this evidence. Parker asserts that Bryant's statement to Barlow is not hearsay because it was not offered to prove the truth of the statement but rather to show that Bryant's statements to both Barlow and Arthur Jackson were consistent. Essentially, Parker was attempting to bolster Bryant's own testimony, which was subsequently read to the jury in this trial. We have long held that prior consistent statements `are generally inadmissible to corroborate or bolster a witness' trial testimony.'  Chandler v. State, 702 So.2d 186, 197 (Fla.1997) (quoting Rodriguez v. State, 609 So.2d 493, 499 (Fla. 1992)). In addition, because Bryant's prior testimony was read to the jury, any testimony from Barlow about what Bryant said would have been cumulative. See Mendoza, 700 So.2d at 675. Thus, it was within the trial court's discretion to preclude Barlow's testimony on this issue. With respect to the exclusion of Barlow's professional considerations in evaluating the credibility of Bryant's statements, the trial court sustained the State's objection to this line of questioning, ruling that the prosecutor's actual professional thought process in evaluating a witness was not relevant. However, the trial court subsequently recognized during cross-examination that the State had opened the door to Barlow's mental processes and that on redirect Parker would be allowed to question Barlow on this issue. It was Parker's responsibility to reopen this line of questioning, which he failed to do. We therefore conclude that the trial court did not commit reversible error in sustaining the objection to testimony about the prosecutor's evaluation of Bryant as a witness.