Opinion ID: 1882598
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Failure to Address Presence of Victim's Fingerprints on Suggs' Vehicle

Text: Suggs claims that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to address why the victim's fingerprints were found in his vehicle. Suggs argues that his counsel should have called witnesses who would have testified that the victim was a friend of Suggs and that the victim and Suggs played pool together at the Hitching Post earlier on the day of the murder. In particular, Suggs points to the pretrial depositions of two individuals and the police statements of four other individuals. According to Suggs, if defense counsel had called such witnesses, the jury would have had reason to believe that the victim was in Suggs' vehicle of her own accord. The postconviction court found that Suggs offered no evidence of an alternative explanation for the fingerprints and that Suggs therefore failed to establish a facially sufficient claim pursuant to Strickland. Suggs did not produce any of the witnesses at the evidentiary hearing who allegedly saw Suggs and the victim playing pool together. Suggs also refers to the content of police reports, but such reports were never admitted into evidence. Thus, Suggs offered no evidence in support of his argument. Moreover, at the evidentiary hearing, defense attorney Kimmel testified that an investigation was attempted on this matter but that no evidence was found to prove that the fingerprints were in the car for a legitimate reason. We therefore do not find error in the postconviction court's finding that trial counsel was not ineffective.