Opinion ID: 1695207
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: was the defendant improperly denied his right to question a defense witness concerning the state's chief witness' use of drugs and relationship with the police authorities in order to show bias, prejudice or motive?

Text: Zenobia Isaac is the defense witness the appellants complain was not allowed to testify concerning Troy Magee's use of drugs and relationship with the police. The defense wanted to show Troy's bias, prejudice or motive against the defendants as his reason for testifying in favor of the State. Zenobia's testimony was initially proffered to the court outside the presence of the jury. The defense sought to have Zenobia testify, as she did in her proffered testimony, (1) that Troy used and sold drugs, (2) that Troy had the motive of setting the defendants up as illustrated by his throwing beer cans into Craft's yard, (3) that Troy carried weapons, and (4) that Troy held himself out as the police to deter anyone, including Zenobia, from trying to turn him in for an illegal act by alleging that any attempts would be futile. Upon hearing Zenobia's proffered testimony the court made the following ruling: Very well. Insofar as any evidence of any possession, receiving or sale or transfer of drugs, this witness, all of her testimony goes only to things that happened in December, 1990, January, 1991, and then up in March and April of 1991, and there is no testimony that goes toward the, whether the witness had drugs in his possession or used drugs on April 4, 1990. That is the date critical here, so I wouldn't think that any of that would be admissible, and it's true that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and they're not all in Oklahoma. Insofar as any bias of the witness, Troy Magee, toward either of the two defendants, I will permit the testimony as to that, under Rule 616, but all this about that at some time in the past she says that he had a gun  she doesn't really know even apparently what kind it is, and that he at one time said he was the police or something of that sort, that doesn't go toward his credibility at all, and something about she had seen him sell drugs, she doesn't even know what kind she's talking about. I don't know whether it's cocaine or marijuana or pharmaceuticals and so forth, and so it's just too farfetched, and in addition, of course, that would be in violation of Rule 609, because there is no evidence that he has been charged, much less tried, and definitely not convicted, and that's what that would go to. So, if there is anything with reference to bias  this throwing beer cans from a church parking lot at Lucille Craft's trailer, that would go toward showing perhaps bias on the part of the witness, but all the rest of it, I don't know of any rule that would permit her testimony as to all these other farfetched things. Zenobia subsequently testified to the jury only regarding the incident in which Troy threw beer cans into Craft's yard and that Troy told her he did not want her to testify because she knew too much about him. The defense contends that denying Zenobia the opportunity to tell of all of these other incidents prevented them from being able to properly impeach Troy through bias. The defense cites several cases in which the defendant was denied the opportunity to properly cross-examine a witness to show bias, but they are inapplicable to this case. Defendants cite Suan v. State, 511 So.2d 144, 147, (Miss. 1987), in which we held that it was reversible error to prevent a defendant from showing a witness' bias because of favorable treatment the witness was to receive from the prosecution in exchange for his testimony. The record of Zenobia's proffered testimony and of the other witnesses for the State does not indicate or even imply that Troy was testifying favorably in exchange for any favorable treatment by the State, making Suan inapplicable. Likewise, the defense was allowed to question Troy about possibly receiving favorable treatment which he denied. As this Court stated in Johnston v. State, 567 So.2d 237, 238 (Miss. 1990): The relevancy and admissibility of evidence are largely within the discretion of the trial court and reversal may be had only where that discretion has been abused. Hentz v. State, 542 So.2d 914, 917 (Miss. 1989). The record does not indicate that the trial court improperly denied the defendant his right to impeach Troy through limiting Zenobia's testimony, especially since her proffered testimony indicated that she was not going to tell of any favorable treatment Troy might have received. Therefore, the trial court is affirmed in its ruling on this issue as it did not abuse its discretion in this area.