Opinion ID: 1533871
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 14

Heading: Fellow Inmate Testified Using an Alias

Text: Appellant next asserts that it was error to permit Jay Wolchanski to testify using an alias, here Jason Banachowski. [25] Appellant argues that the Commonwealth did not want the witness to use his real name because, if he were to do so, the jury might recognize him as a person in the community who is known to have committed several crimes of deception and to have a reputation as a jailhouse or prison snitch. Brief of Appellant at 25-26. Appellant explains that the reputation of the witness was so tainted that any citizen of Philadelphia would have recognized the name as the untrustworthy prison informant, known throughout the community as void of any shred of veracity. Id. Without citation to authority for the position, Appellant, therefore, asserts that Mr. Banachowski should not have been allowed to use an alias because the pseudonym improperly obscured his true reputation from the jury. However, Appellant has failed to advise this Court of the reason the trial court decided to allow the witness to testify using an alias. The Commonwealth explains that it requested and the trial court permitted the witness to testify using another name because it was necessary to protect the safety of the witness and his family. N.T. 9/30/96 at 44. During a pretrial hearing, the Commonwealth informed the trial court that the witness was in custody in the Philadelphia area and that his fellow inmates would learn from the Philadelphia newspapers if the witness testified using his real name and would cause him injury. Id. at 36, 64. The concern of the Commonwealth was not an idle one. A year earlier, prisoners attacked the witness when they learned that he had testified in another unrelated case. Id. at 46. Additionally, the trial court allowed Appellant to cross-examine the witness fully. Counsel for Appellant, in fact, cross-examined the witness with regard to: his past crimes; what he stood to gain by testifying for the Commonwealth; and his drug and alcohol problems. N.T. 10/4/96 at 25. Appellant also challenged each word that the witness attributed to Appellant, questioning whether the witness recorded the statements verbatim and whether he used his own words. See, e.g., N.T. 10/4/96 at 50-51. Appellant claims that the trial court caused him prejudice by allowing the use of an alias because, if the witness were allowed to have testified using his own name, the jury would have known his reputation in the community and rejected his testimony based upon that out-of-court knowledge. We cannot accept this argument. First, we have rules of evidence and voir dire of jurors to ensure that the jurors base their decision only upon the evidence presented in the courtroom. Appellant is essentially claiming that the jury should have been entitled to have access to information about a witness that originated outside of the courtroom. Additionally, because the trial court permitted full cross-examination of the witness, Appellant suffered no prejudice. Although Appellant may be correct in stating that, had the witness testified using his own name some of the jurors might have known about the reputation of the witness, allowing cross-examination afforded Appellant the opportunity to inform all the jurors of the reasons why the witness was not to be trusted. Therefore, Appellant did not have to rely on what the jurors may or may not have known about the witness before they came into the courtroom because Appellant had the opportunity to inform them in court of what he deemed important. Furthermore, the charge the trial court read to the jury made it very clear that it could consider the informer's prior convictions and allow the jury to know if he had anything to gain for his testimony. N.T. 10/7/96 at 89. I charge you now on an informer's testimony. In judging the credibility of Jason Banachowski, who at one time was a resident in the same penal institution in which the defendant resided, you may consider his status as an informer. An informer is one who voluntarily gives information to law enforcement personnel before being interviewed by them. He is a person who secretly accuses or who gives evidence against another person, often for a reward. The law is that when a witness is an informer, you also must consider whether he is acting out of self-interest and what, if any, reward or benefit he may expect for voluntarily supplying information to law enforcement personnel and for testifying. Also, in judging the credibility of Mr. Banachowski, you may consider his convictions for crimes of dishonesty, theft, forgery, attempted burglary and burglary. Id. Thus, even if the decision of the trial court to permit the witness to use an alias was in error, which we do not believe, Appellant suffered no prejudice from the decision because the trial court permitted Appellant to fully cross-examine the witness with regard to matters concerning the credibility of the witness and charged the jury accordingly.