Opinion ID: 2586281
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Impact of the Joint Defense Strategy

Text: Defendant alternatively refers to his understanding with Alvarado on testifying at trial as an agreement and as a trial strategy. To the extent that the defendant implies the existence of a binding agreement, the argument fails. He fails to establish that he formed a binding agreement with Alvarado either by contract or detrimental reliance. [33] The trial court made no findings establishing the existence of a joint defense agreement. To the extent defendant's argument for materiality depends on the existence of a binding agreement, defendant has therefore failed to establish one. In the alternative, defendant describes his agreement with Alvarado as a trial strategy that each codefendant adopted, based on their shared interest in keeping Jimenez's statements away from the jury. [34] Defendant claims that if the prosecution had timely disclosed the Weil report, it would have changed the joint defense strategy because the information revealed in the report would have undercut Jimenez's credibility. He reasons, therefore, that neither he nor Alvarado would have been deterred from testifying because they feared the effect of Jimenez's statements on the jury. Defendant implies the above trial considerations necessitated his adoption of the agreement with Alvarado and corresponding trial strategy. But this strategy was not compelled by necessity, legal or otherwise. Even assuming both codefendants wished to keep Jimenez's statements from the jury, defendant's testifying would not necessarily have caused Alvarado to testify. Alvarado's testifying in response to Jimenez's statements would have been contingent on the nature of defendant's testimony. If defendant's testimony painted Alvarado in a particularly bad light, Alvarado might have testified, in order to shift the blame to defendant. It was also possible, however, that Alvarado would not have testified. Before testifying, Alvarado would have considered the consequences of his testimony: leaving defendant's testimony unrebutted, or taking the stand and risk having the jury hear Jimenez's statements. Alvarado could not make that calculation prior to hearing defendant's actual testimony. Neither could defendant know with any certainty in advance what Alvarado would do. There was no necessary connection between defendant's testifying and Alvarado's testifying. In observing that defendant has not shown the legal necessity of the purported joint defense strategy, we do not hold defendant is required to show legal necessity in order to establish his Brady claim. [35] Nor do we deny defendant presents reasonable strategic considerations that may possibly have been factors in his decision whether or not to testify. But codefendants in many joint trials face difficult tactical choices in deciding how to proceed where multiple considerations are involved. Defendant has shown only the possibility that his decision not to testify was a result of strategic considerations made in connection with Jimenez's statements. In other words, defendant has shown only the possibility that he would have testified had the Weil report been timely produced. To establish materiality under Brady, defendant must do more than establish a possible relationship between the Weil report and a different result; he must establish a reasonable probability of a different result. The mere possibility that an item of undisclosed information might have helped the defense, or might have affected the outcome of the trial, does not establish `materiality' in the constitutional sense. ( United States v. Agurs, supra, 427 U.S. at pp. 109-110, 96 S.Ct. 2392.) Ultimately, defendant's contention that the timely disclosure of the Weil report would have resulted in his testifying is based on speculation and fails to establish materiality under Brady. (Brady, supra, 373 U.S. at p. 87, 83 S.Ct. 1194; Wood v. Bartholomew, supra, 516 U.S. at p. 6, 116 S.Ct. 7.) The People raise the related point that considerations entirely independent of Jimenez's statements caused defendant not to testify, regardless of whether the prosecution had disclosed the Weil report. The People point out that if defendant testified, he could have been subject to impeachment by his own prior statements to the police, and his admissions to jailhouse informant Jorge Flores. In response, defendant attempts to discredit the possible influence of these other impeachment sources. Defendant claims his statements to the police were not preceded by any Miranda warning, were far from a confession, and might have been excluded in any case as being involuntary. It is true that the People have not shown conclusively that these other impeachment factors independently determined defendant's decision not to testify. But neither has defendant conclusively shown these factors could not have done so. The highly speculative nature of any analysis here further supports our conclusion that defendant has failed to establish materiality under Brady.