Opinion ID: 1967394
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: testimony read back to jury

Text: The defendants contend that the trial justice erred in declining to have portions of the cross-examination of Ms. Lamoureux read back to the jury in response to the jury's request to hear a specific portion of that witness's testimony. During the course of its deliberations, the jury sent out a note which read as follows: Want initial testimony of Denise Lamoureux to determine which robber, Number one or Number two said this is a stick-up and testimony regarding contact with Burke and Crosby and the St. James on 10/29 and 11/4. Number two, Flo Bell's entire testimony regarding Duff's Cafe and (3) entire testimony of William Daly.    Judge Bourcier, may we please hear the above testimony? Signed,   , Foreman of the Jury. After the requested testimony was read to the jury, counsel for defendant Burke made the following statement: I would suggest to the Court that I am not suggesting the stenographer didn't read it, perhaps I didn't hear it and I would ask the other people in the Court there was a question on my cross-examination of Denise Lamoureux that dealt with the seventy-five dollars and the one hundred dollars and dealt with her at an attempt of impeachment by her admission of lying previously and I do not believe that portion of the cross-examination dealing with the money and the lying was read to the jury. In response, the trial justice noted that he was satisfied that the stenographer read to the jury the testimony it requested. We agree. The defendants cite State v. Dame, 488 A.2d 418 (R.I. 1985), in support of their position that the trial justice erred in not ordering the testimony referred to by defense counsel read back to the jury in response to its above-cited request. Dame, however, involved a situation which differs significantly from that with which we are currently confronted. In Dame, the jury inquired about a fire chief's testimony regarding the time a fire started. The trial justice, in response, read the jury her own notes summarizing only the direct examination testimony of the fire chief with respect to that issue. She declined to read to the jurors cross-examination testimony that pertained directly to the accuracy of the fire chief's estimate of the time the fire started. This court, therefore, held that the trial justice erred in her omission of cross-examination testimony pertaining to the subject matter of the question. Id. at 423-24. In this case, the jury asked for the initial testimony of Ms. Lamoureux concerning a specific point of that testimony. The omitted cross-examination testimony pertained not at all to that point, but instead bore only on the question of the witness's credibility in general. Since the testimony that defendants assert was erroneously not read back to the jury was not testimony relating to the subject matter of the question posed, and was not, in fact, the initial testimony requested by the jury, we hold that its omission does not constitute reversible error.