Opinion ID: 2446723
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Police Report Contents

Text: The State voluntarily provided Robinson's defense counsel with police reports and other material relating to the murder of Rafferty. These included a Supplement Report prepared by Detective Diane Smith (Detective Smith), the chief investigating officer, which collected and summarized the individual reports of all officers involved in the investigation. The defense was also provided with some of the individual reports. Names and addresses of certain persons contacted and interviewed by the police were redacted. Among the individual reports forwarded to Robinson's defense counsel was one prepared by Detective Brian Grant (Detective Grant). Detective Grant's fourteen-page report contained summaries of his interviews with six witnesses. Three witnesses' names were redacted and three were not. The first witness interviewed was Witts. Witts' name was not redacted because he was a victim of the robbery. The second person interviewed was Albert Griffin (Griffin), whose name and address were redacted, as were the names and addresses of the next two witnesses. Detective Grant's report reads: [Blacked-out] advised that he is a close personal friend of the victim, Kevin Rafferty. [Blacked-out] advised that on July 18 or 19, 2006 he overheard a cellular phone conversation between Kevin and Timothy [Austin] via speaker phone. During this phone conversation Timothy threatens Kevin. [Blacked-out] could not provide writer with any further details in reference to this incident. In her Supplement Report, Detective Smith summarized Detective Grant's report, beginning with Detective Grant's interview and re-interview of Witts, whose name again was not redacted. Immediately following the re-interview of Witts, as in Grant's report, is a summary of Grant's interview of Griffin: Grant conducted an interview with [blacked-out] who claimed that he was close friends with Rafferty. [Blacked-out] advised that he overheard a phone conversation between Rafferty and Austin sometime around July 18 or 19 where Austin threatened to harm Rafferty. During the cross-examination of Witts, Robinson's defense counsel asked Witts whether he had told police he had heard Austin threaten Rafferty. Witts denied this. When defense counsel produced Detective Smith's report to refresh Witts' recollection, the prosecutor asked to approach the bench. At a sidebar conference, the prosecutor explained that the portion of the report [defense counsel] is talking about is referring to an interview with Albert Griffin. That is not this witness. Robinson's defense counsel said that he assumed the redacted portion was a continuation of the interview with Witts. The judge suggested that Robinson's attorney ask Witts a few questions to clarify that the witness who reported the threat was someone else. This was done when the cross-examination resumed.