Opinion ID: 2100111
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Failure to Investigate and to Utilize Expert Testimony

Text: Benzel's first claim of ineffective assistance of counsel is that trial counsel failed to adequately investigate in order to develop and utilize expert testimony that would have been helpful to his defense. We agree with the district court's determination that Benzel has failed to establish prejudice with respect to this claim. Benzel's main argument with respect to expert testimony is that counsel could have presented expert testimony that would have supported his version of the events surrounding his shooting of Atkinson and would have discredited Christensen's testimony regarding such events. Both Christensen and Benzel testified at trial, and although their stories were similar in certain respects, they differed in respects that were potentially relevant to whether Benzel was acting in self-defense and whether Benzel attempted to shoot Christensen. In summary, Christensen testified that Benzel was seated next to her on the living room couch when he shot Atkinson, who was standing in the bedroom door. In contrast, Benzel testified that he was heading toward the front door to leave the house when Atkinson raised his shotgun to his shoulder and that Benzel thereafter shot Atkinson. Christensen testified that after Benzel shot Atkinson, he turned the gun on her and tried to shoot her but that the gun did not fire. Benzel denied attempting to shoot Christensen. At the postconviction hearing, Benzel presented expert testimony referred to above which, he asserted, supported his story and disproved Christensen's story. Such testimony concerned, inter alia, the trajectory of the bullet that killed Atkinson and the functioning of the gun. Benzel asserted that trial counsel was ineffective for having failed to adequately investigate and discover such expert evidence and for having failed to present it at trial. The district court determined that Benzel failed to show that he was prejudiced by trial counsel's purported failure to discover and present such expert testimony. After hearing the evidence, the court discounted the reliability of the expert evidence Benzel presented at the postconviction hearing. The court noted that the opinion of Benzel's expert pathologist regarding the trajectory of the bullet was based solely on a review of autopsy reports and photographs and testimony presented at the original trial and that the expert relied on his own speculation rather than the findings of the pathologist who conducted the autopsy. The court also noted that Benzel's expert testified only that the misfiring of the gun when Benzel allegedly attempted to shoot Christensen was highly improbable. The expert conceded that the gun itself would need to be examined to better support either version of events, but Benzel had disposed of the gun after the shooting and it had never been found. The court further noted that the State presented expert testimony at the postconviction hearing regarding bullet trajectory which supported Christensen's story and contradicted Benzel's and that both at trial and at the postconviction hearing, the State presented expert testimony that various circumstances could have caused the gun to misfire as Christensen had described. The court noted the powerful and overwhelming evidence of [Benzel's] guilt that was presented at trial and concluded that Benzel had failed to show prejudice due to trial counsel's purported failure to develop and present expert testimony. [7] Benzel argues, inter alia, that it was not appropriate for the district court to weigh the credibility of the expert testimony he presented in the postconviction hearing, that instead the court should have decided that such evidence should be presented to a jury in a new trial, and that the jury should have been allowed to give whatever weight it chose to the testimony. However, we have held that in an evidentiary hearing for postconviction relief, the postconviction trial judge, as the trier of fact, resolves conflicts in evidence and questions of fact, including witness credibility and the weight to be given a witness' testimony. State v. McDermott, 267 Neb. 761, 677 N.W.2d 156 (2004). Therefore, it was not inappropriate for the district court to assess the credibility and weight of the expert testimony presented in this postconviction evidentiary hearing. Furthermore, the district court considered such testimony in the context of determining whether failure to develop such testimony and present such evidence constituted ineffective assistance of counsel. A defendant claiming ineffective counsel must demonstrate, inter alia, a reasonable probability that but for counsel's deficient performance the result of the proceeding would have been different. State v. McHenry, 268 Neb. 219, 682 N.W.2d 212 (2004). The district court in this case examined the expert testimony presented by Benzel in the postconviction evidentiary hearing and appropriately determined that the expert testimony was not of a nature that it would have caused a different result. We find no error in the district court's determination that Benzel failed to establish prejudice resulting from trial counsel's failure to develop and present such evidence, and we therefore reject this claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.