Court Opinion

ID: 9652305
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:22:07.162744+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:50.231886
License: Public Domain

Billings, J.,
dissenting. V.R.Cr.P. 16(a)(2)(E) requires that the State, upon timely request, disclose within a reasonable time the names and addresses of all witnesses to be called at trial. In the case at bar, this admittedly was not done. The State admits that without the testimony of the witness whose name was omitted from the list furnished, there was insufficient evidence to sustain a conviction. Absent anything to cure the error, this is sufficient prejudice to require reversal. State v. Evans, 134 Vt. 189, 353 A.2d 363 (1976).
The admitted error could have been cured either by suppressing the evidence or by granting a continuance. V.R.Cr.P. 16.2(g). The trial court denied the motion to suppress. Initially it offered a twenty-four hour continuance, but withdrew the offer when the defendant objected to the length of time. The court then rushed to trial with the speed of the Concorde. This was an abuse of discretion to an extent clearly unreasonable, the standard mandated by State v. Rickert, 124 Vt. 380, 205 A.2d 547 (1964), and affirmatively shows prejudice as far as the defendent’s rights are concerned, as required by State v. Jackson, 127 Vt. 237, 238-39, 246 A.2d 829 (1968).
The majority opinion attempts to avoid the prejudicial errors by relying on the defendant’s lack of objection to the court’s taking of judicial notice that the deputy state’s attorney mentioned the name of the essential witness at voir dire held a week before trial. A trial court may take judicial notice of its records, but here there was no record, since no stenographic reporter was present at voir dire. In the absence of a record, the trial court could not take judicial notice of the proceedings at voir dire, and in any event, it was not the proper means of complying with V.R.Cr.P. 16, even absent an objection by defendant.
*517This is a case where the State flagrantly violated the rule providing for notification of trial witnesses to defense counsel, and such violation has not been cured in any manner. As a result thereof, defendant’s rights were prejudiced. I would reverse defendant’s conviction.