Opinion ID: 2632203
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Eyewitness Identification of Defendant.

Text: {27} Defendant argues that the trial court erred when it denied his pretrial motion to suppress both the out-of-court and in-court identifications of the two eyewitnesses. The witnesses were the two friends, J.G. and K.P., who had been with the victim on the day of her death. Defendant appears to argue that their in-court identifications of him were tainted by their having seen a photograph of him on television. He asserts that the denial of the motion to suppress violated his right to due process. {28} On October 26, 1994, the day after the victim's body was found, J.G. and K.P. met with a police artist to develop a composite sketch of the man who had given the three of them a ride from the mall. In describing Defendant to the artist, both witnesses noted his distinctive ears which they described as being unusually large and folded over. The sketch was then distributed to the media and others to develop leads to the man's identity. In response, an employee of the state penitentiary called to identify the man in the sketch as Shawn Jacobs, an inmate who had been released from prison on October 21, 1994, and gave the police Defendant's address. Additionally, on October 27, 28, and 31, each witness was individually shown three photo arrays. Neither witness could positively identify Defendant from the photo arrays, but one did note at the time that one photograph in the second array resembled the person who had given them the ride. The photograph she singled out was one of Defendant taken in 1992. {29} On the evening of October 31, the two friends were at the home of K.P.'s grandfather watching the evening news when a photograph of Defendant's face was shown. Both women began screaming the moment they saw the photograph and continued until K.P.'s mother told them to be quiet so that they could hear what was being said on the television. J.G. and K.P. explained that the man in the photograph was the man who had given them a ride on October 24. K.P. called the police to identify the televised photograph as being that of Defendant. {30} In reviewing the admissibility of an out-of-court photographic identification, we determine whether the procedure used was so impermissibly suggestive as to give rise to a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification and whether, under the totality of the circumstances, the identification was still reliable. State v. Stampley, 1999-NMSC-027, ¶ 14, 127 N.M. 426, 982 P.2d 477. The relevant factors to be considered in reviewing the totality of the circumstances include the opportunity of the witness to view the criminal at the time of the crime, the witness's degree of attention at the time of the crime, the accuracy of the witness's earlier descriptions of the criminal, the certainty of the witness about the identification, and the time elapsed between the crime and the identification confrontation. State v. Cheadle, 101 N.M. 282, 284, 681 P.2d 708, 710 (1983) (relying upon Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 114, 97 S.Ct. 2243, 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977)). In determining whether there has been a violation of due process in the conduct of a confrontation, we look to the totality of the circumstances. State v. Torres, 81 N.M. 521, 525, 469 P.2d 166, 170 (Ct.App.1970). An in-court identification which is independent of, and not tainted by, the out-of-court identification is admissible. Id. {31} Both witnesses testified at the suppression hearing and at trial that they immediately recognized the televised photograph as being that of the man who had given them a ride from the mall and began screaming in response to seeing him. They each testified that they could not hear what was being said on the broadcast because of their screaming. They also were positive in their in-court identifications of Defendant at trial. Previously J.G. had identified Defendant at the preliminary and suppression hearings and had testified that her identification was based on recognizing him and not because she had seen the photograph on television. Based on the record before us, the trial court could properly have determined that the chance viewing of Defendant's photograph on television was not so impermissibly suggestive as to have tainted the witnesses' later in-court identifications. See Cheadle, 101 N.M. at 284-86, 681 P.2d at 710-12 (holding that identification procedure was not impermissibly suggestive even though the witnesses had seen the defendant on television before making out-of-court and in-court identifications). {32} In addition, a review of the totality of the circumstances supports the reliability of the eyewitness identification. The three women encountered Defendant shortly after 5:00 p.m. when it was still daylight. Both eyewitnesses spoke to him before accepting the ride and noticed the kind of car he was driving. The ride from the mall to the women's homes took about fifteen minutes, during which time both women had ample time to talk to him and to observe what he looked like and what he was wearing. During the ride from the mall, they had commented among themselves about Defendant's ears. The composite sketch prepared by the police artist was accurate enough for an employee of the state penitentiary to identify correctly the man in the sketch as Defendant. The witnesses readily identified Defendant from a current photograph when they saw it on the television broadcast just seven days after their encounter with him. Neither witness displayed any doubt in their in-court identifications. Although the eyewitnesses were initially unable to identify Defendant from any of the photo arrays, they did note in their testimony that his appearance was different in the earlier photographs because he then had a mustache, beard, and longer hair, and his ears did not show in those photographs. They also testified that they had wanted to be certain before singling out any one photograph.