Opinion ID: 3046757
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Cocaine Use at the Trailer

Text: Ponticelli also presented evidence to support his argument that the state had violated his right to due process by suppressing evidence, see Brady, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S. Ct. 1194, and by presenting false testimony, see Giglio, 405 U.S. 150, 92 S. Ct. 763, about whether Timothy Keesee had seen Ponticelli use cocaine at the Grandinetti’s trailer on the night of the murders. During the postconviction hearing, Keesee testified that he had lied at trial and had, in truth, seen Ponticelli snort “one line of [cocaine] that was about two matchsticks long” sometime between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m. at the Grandinettis’s trailer on the night of the murders. Keesee testified that, when Williams interviewed him about Ponticelli, he was “positive” that he told her that he, the Grandinettis, and Ponticelli had used cocaine that night. On cross-examination, he admitted that he didn’t “recall 21 Case: 11-11966 Date Filed: 08/16/2012 Page: 22 of 90 [Williams] asking specifically if Ponticelli did cocaine. She said: ‘Did you all do some cocaine.’ And I said, ‘Yes we did; one line.” Keesee testified too that he told Investigator Munster that he left the trailer with his brother because “at the time my brother was in the Navy, and they had coke out, and we had done a line of coke, and I knew my brother was uncomfortable . . . .” Keesee admitted that he told Ponticelli’s trial counsel that no one had used cocaine on the night of the murders because “[o]ne line wasn’t enough to influence me to say that we did coke.” Keesee testified that he had abused drugs at the time of trial and he lied to “get out of the spotlight . . . it would bring more trouble on me if I didn’t cooperate. So I was trying to play ball and just get the past past me.” Keesee testified that Munster had searched his car and found drug paraphernalia. When Munster did not say anything, Keesee believed that Munster would “go light on [him]” in exchange for his cooperation. He also testified that Williams had asked him questions during trial preparation like “Did ya’ll do any coke,” and when he said, “no,” Williams would reply, “Okay, good.” Keesee testified that he “could tell by her response . . . [that he] was helping her case.” Despite his cooperation, Keesee admitted that he was charged with possession of cocaine a month before the prosecution took his deposition in Ponticelli’s case. 22 Case: 11-11966 Date Filed: 08/16/2012 Page: 23 of 90 Investigator Munster testified that Keesee told him he left the Grandinettis’s trailer on the night of the murder because of “cocaine usage” there. Munster included this information in a supplemental report dated December 1987 that stated that Keesee left the Grandinettis’s trailer on the night of the homicides because of cocaine usage taking place there and because of a cocaine deal occurring between Nick, Ralph, and a white male identified as Tony. Munster provided Ponticelli’s trial counsel this report. The prosecutor, Williams, denied that she knew that Ponticelli had smoked cocaine on the night of the murders. Williams acknowledged that she had written a note that stated, “Owed them $300. R and N wanted it. Not physical. No threats. He was making calls to sell coke, collect money, doing cocaine,” but she could not remember who “he” was. Williams also acknowledged that she had written a note on Keesee’s deposition testimony that Keesee “[d]idn’t see them do cocaine. Didn’t tell anyone,” and that she had underlined “Didn’t tell anyone,” and had written in the margin “Told BM. Taped.” She testified that she didn’t remember why she wrote the note, but that she did not believe that Keesee had made an inconsistent statement because “[o]ftentimes I’ll put a question mark next to [an inconsistent statement] and there’s not a question mark.” 23 Case: 11-11966 Date Filed: 08/16/2012 Page: 24 of 90 The trial court determined that Williams’s notes were neither exculpatory nor material. With respect to Williams’s first note about an unidentified individual who had used cocaine, the trial court held that “there is no way of knowing whether [defense counsel] would have gathered from the note[s] that [Ponticelli] was using cocaine at the trailer on the night of the murders,” and in the light of the “overwhelming evidence of Ponticelli’s guilt, no reasonable probability exists that the evidence regarding drug usage found in [Williams’s] interview notes would have changed the outcome of the guilt or penalty phase of Ponticelli’s trial.” Ponticelli III, 941 So. 2d at 1086 (internal quotation marks and alterations omitted). With respect to Williams’s second note about Keesee’s allegedly inconsistent statement, the trial court “found no evidence that the State either knowingly presented, or allowed to be presented, perjured testimony at trial.” Id. at 1090 (internal quotation marks omitted). The court “recognized that Keesee testified adamantly at deposition and at trial that he did not see Ponticelli use cocaine on the day of the crimes, and that references to drug use found in the state investigator’s and [Williams’s] notes are vague.” Id. (internal quotation marks and alterations omitted). The court concluded, “It is understandable that [Williams] and [Munster] could have overlooked vague statements in their notes when faced with this testimony.” Id. 24 Case: 11-11966 Date Filed: 08/16/2012 Page: 25 of 90 The Supreme Court of Florida agreed with the ruling of the trial court that, even in the light of Keesee’s testimony, the prosecutor’s notes were neither exculpatory nor material. The court reasoned that Williams’s note about an unidentified individual who had used cocaine did “not clearly indicate that Ponticelli was the person Keesee witnessed using cocaine on the night of the murders,” and trial counsel could have confronted Keesee with Munster’s report, which “contained substantially the same information as the prosecutor’s note.” Id. at 1087. The court held that the findings of the trial court with respect to Williams’s second note were “supported by competent, substantial evidence. The prosecutor’s notation on Keesee’s deposition testimony does not clearly indicate that the prosecutor knew Keesee was testifying falsely.” Id. at 1090.