Opinion ID: 2679982
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Second Motion for a New Trial

Text: [¶23] On January 5, 2012, Twardus filed a second motion for a new trial. Evidentiary hearings were conducted on April 30, May 11, and May 25, 2012. [¶24] The testimony on the second motion showed that, while Twardus’s first motion for a new trial was pending, the State received notice that an inmate at York County Jail named Kenneth Villella wanted to speak to law enforcement regarding John Durfee. On June 21, 2011, Sergeant Christopher Harriman of the state police directed Trooper Lauren Edstrom to speak with Villella. Villella told Edstrom that he was Durfee’s cellmate, and that Durfee had stated that he “knows how to bury people,” and that if anything happened to Villella, “we can put them in a shallow grave.” Villella also said that Durfee called the victim a “pig” and a “slut.” The interview terminated with Villella saying that he wanted to be treated fairly in his pending case, and had nothing further to say until he spoke with his lawyer. [¶25] That same day, Edstrom orally reported the substance of her interview with Villella to Harriman, and Harriman orally relayed that information to the prosecutor. The prosecutor received Edstrom’s written report summarizing the interview on October 17, 2011, and mailed it to the defense on October 21, 2011, 14 by which time the court had denied Twardus’s first motion for a new trial and sentenced Twardus. The defense was not otherwise informed of Villella’s statements. In the meantime, in August 2011, Durfee had died. [¶26] In August 2011, after the first Villella interview but before the report summarizing the first interview had been prepared and transmitted to the defense, Villella indicated that he wanted to speak with the state police again. Zabarsky interviewed Villella on October 5, 2011. During that interview, Villella reported that Durfee had said that he could “make people disappear,” that he helped “put the body where it was,” that “somebody else put the body there,” that he “didn’t put the body there, he had help,” that “[s]he deserved it,” that Twardus was an “idiot” and a “punk,” that the comforter in which the body had been wrapped belonged to one of Durfee’s daughters, and that “they partied one night.” Villella also said that Durfee called the victim a “slut,” but acknowledged that Durfee referred to all women in such terms. The prosecutor was informed of the substance of the second interview shortly after it was conducted, received Zabarsky’s report and a recording of the interview on December 6, 2011, and forwarded the report and recording to the defense on December 8, 2011. The prosecutor, Zabarsky, and Harriman all testified that the delay in the preparation of the reports and their transmission to the prosecutor was not unusual. 15 [¶27] At the hearings on his second motion, Twardus also presented evidence that, in January 2012, after Twardus’s conviction, Degreenia had pled guilty in New Hampshire to felony domestic violence assault on his then-girlfriend. The conviction was based on an incident in March 2011, in which Degreenia choked his girlfriend for several seconds. As part of Degreenia’s sentence, he was ordered to complete a batterers’ intervention program. Degreenia and his girlfriend were married the day of his release. The State first learned of the charges against Degreenia from Twardus’s attorneys in August 2011, and declined their request that the State procure the relevant records, noting that they knew of the conviction before the State did and had equal access to the records. [¶28] On November 29, 2012, the court denied Twardus’s second motion for a new trial. The court found that Twardus had not established a violation of the requirements of Brady or of his due process rights, and therefore applied the more stringent Rule 33 analysis for newly discovered evidence. Although it recognized that the statements Villella attributed to Durfee were of potential exculpatory value to Twardus, the court noted that Twardus presented those statements through the testimony of Edstrom and Zabarsky; Villella did not testify at the hearing. Without being able to observe Villella testify, the court concluded that the officers’ hearsay statements of what Durfee said to Villella did not warrant a new trial. With respect to Degreenia’s assault conviction, the court concluded that it would not probably 16 change the trial result, as only the fact of Degreenia’s conviction would be admissible at a new trial, and Degreenia had already been impeached on the basis of his prior felony convictions at trial.