Opinion ID: 853071
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Allegedly False Testimony

Text: At Azania's 1982 trial, James McGrew identified Azania as the man McGrew saw place a pistol and jacket in some bushes not far from the scene of the robbery. McGrew also testified that when a police officer pursuing Azania approached McGrew, McGrew told the officer, I believe that the guy you're looking for is over there, and pointed in the direction Azania had gone. McGrew testified that when the officer returned about a minute later, with Azania now face down in the back of a patrol car, McGrew positively identified Azania as the man who placed the objects in the bushes. In a 1995 deposition in preparation for Azania's penalty phase retrial, McGrew recanted his earlier testimony and identification. In a 2001 videotaped deposition prepared for Azania's successive post-conviction proceeding, McGrew claimed that he had never been able to identify Azania as the man he saw place the objects in the bushes, and that he told this to police and prosecutors, but that they pressured him to make the identification at trial anyway. McGrew claimed that when he was interviewed at the Gary police station, he saw a photograph of Azania and Azania's name on a bulletin board behind the officer who interviewed him, and that the officer pointed to the picture and told McGrew that Azania had killed a police officer. McGrew also testified that in 1982, while waiting in a room adjacent to the courtroom and preparing to testify, an armed man McGrew assumed to be a bailiff pointed Azania out to McGrew through the room's doorway. McGrew claimed he felt threatened by the armed man's action and the trial atmosphere, and was afraid that if he did not identify Azania his own life would be in jeopardy. McGrew testified that he could not otherwise have identified Azania, since he never saw the face of the man who placed the objects in the bushes. Former Lake County Deputy Prosecutor James McNew, who assisted in the 1982 prosecution of Azania, testified that he was never aware that McGrew allegedly could not identify Azania. McNew denied directing anyone to coerce McGrew into identifying Azania, and testified that he did not consider Azania's identity a problem at trial in light of the other evidence of Azania's guilt, including security camera photographs from the bank and clothing evidence. McNew testified that to present a complete story to the jury, the State would have asked McGrew on direct examination if he could identify Azania even if the State knew McGrew could not do so. Captain Michael Nardini interviewed McGrew the day after the murder in an interview room at the Gary police station. Nardini testified that McGrew told him McGrew could identify the man who placed the objects in the bushes. Nardini also testified that there was no bulletin board in the interview room, that he did not remember a photograph of Azania being posted anywhere in the station at the time of the interview, that at the time of the interview he did not know that Azania was a suspect in the case, and that he did not tell McGrew that Azania killed a police officer. Allen County Deputy Sheriff Jerry Fruchey served as a bailiff during Azania's trial and closely meets McGrew's description of the armed man who allegedly pointed Azania out to McGrew. Fruchey testified that he did not remember ever speaking with McGrew, did not tell him to identify Azania, did not point out Azania, and did not in any way threaten McGrew. The successive post-conviction court considered all this evidence and held that McGrew's deposition testimony was not credible and accordingly did not satisfy the nine-prong test for newly discovered evidence mandating a new trial. See Carter v. State, 738 N.E.2d 665, 671 (Ind. 2000). Substantial evidence contradicts McGrew's recantation of his trial identification. First, as is true of all recanted testimony, McGrew's 1982 trial testimony directly contradicts his current claims. Second, his current claims contradict his statements to police at the time of Azania's apprehension and to Nardini the next day. Third, his claim that he was intimidated by an armed man is contradicted by Fruchey. This issue turns on credibility of witnesses. The successive post-conviction court viewed McGrew and the other post-conviction witnesses and found that his recantation was not credible. That finding is not clearly erroneous, and is accordingly affirmed.