Court Opinion

ID: 9671328
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:34:38.066349+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:09.332078
License: Public Domain

Levin, P. J.
{dissenting). The people’s efforts to locate and produce the missing witness, Jerry Wrenn, also known as Danny Hill, whose prelimi*589nary examination testimony was read at McIntosh’s trial, were inadequate. The people should not have been allowed, over McIntosh’s objection, to read Wrenn’s testimony at the trial.
At a pretrial hearing on July 23, 1968, Sergeant Mungeon of the Michigan State Police, testified that on July 18,1968, he spoke to the owner of the gasoline station that was robbed and where Jerry Wrenn used to work. The owner told Sergeant Mungeon that Wrenn’s true name was Danny Hill and he believed he was in prison in North Carolina. The same day Wrenn’s uncle told Mungeon that Wrenn was in Burlington, North Carolina, on Webb Avenue. Mungeon gave this information to Sergeant Donovan of the prosecutor’s office.
Sergeant Donovan also testified at the July 23rd hearing. After hearing from Sergeant Mungeon, Donovan said he telephoned the information operator in Burlington, North Carolina, and learned that no one named Hill or Wrenn who might be living oh Webb Avenue had a telephone listing. He then telephoned the Burlington Police Department and was told that they would check “and if they did come up with a Hill living in or around Burlington, they would advise me. And I have heard nothing from them.” In response to a question from the judge, he said that he had not communicated with the North Carolina correctional authorities to determine whether Wrenn was in prison.
At the conclusion of the July 23rd hearing, the judge ruled, that there had not been an adequate search for Wrenn. The trial was adjourned until October 29, 1968, with the understanding that an effort would be made to obtain something in writing from the North Carolina authorities. The judge offered to assist the prosecutor in bringing about Wrenn’s return to Michigan if he was located.
*590On October 29, shortly before the trial was to begin, Sergeant Donovan testified that following the July 23rd hearing he did not communicate further with the authorities in North Carolina and on October 17th turned the subpoena for Wrenn back to Sergeant Mungeon. Mungeon did not testify on October 29.
Detective Dailey of the Michigan State Police testified that on October 22 he received the subpoena from Sergeant Mungeon. Dailey telephoned the Burlington Police Department and spoke to a woman, Sudja Isley, in charge of the record bureau and told her that he needed a “certified letter” from her stating the whereabouts of Jerry Wrenn alias Danny Hill. She said she would communicate with the chief of police and they would make another check and send a registered letter. The promised letter had not been received. On the day of the trial Dailey made two telephone calls. He spoke with the sergeant on the desk at the Burlington Police Department but he could not find Sudja Isley on the premises. The second telephone call went to Sergeant Corey in Lansing headquarters to determine if a letter from the Burlington Police Department had arrived in the morning’s mail — there was no letter. Although it was his understanding that Wrenn was returned to North Carolina as an escapee, Detective Dailey had made no effort to communicate with that state’s correctional authorities.
In summary, the prosecutor had two leads: (1) Wrenn was in North Carolina prison; (2) he was living in Burlington, North Carolina, on Webb Avenue.
The record does not show that any effort whatsoever was made to communicate with the State Department of Corrections of North Carolina. The *591lead that Wrenn was in a North Carolina prison was not followed through at all.
The record does not show what efforts, if any, were exerted hy the Burlington police to locate Wrenn. We have no way of knowing whether Sudja Isley ever communicated with her chief or checked her files or made any effort to find Wrenn. Her failure to send the promised letter suggests that she may not have been entirely dependable in her work habits.
In arguing before the judge the question of the adequacy of the efforts to locate Wrenn, the prosecutor took the position that all the people were obliged to show was that Wrenn had left the jurisdiction and that the people had no affirmative obligation to seek his return from out-of-state.
However, in Barber v. Page (1968), 390 US 719 (88 S Ct 1318, 20 L Ed 2d 255), the United States Supreme Court declared that, even though local authorities might not honor a request from a foreign jurisdiction to return a witness, the request must be made.1 2*****Thus, if the prosecutor wished to use Wrenn’s preliminary examination testimony he was obliged both to use due diligence to attempt to locate Wrenn and, if he were located, due diligence to attempt to secure his attendance, if need be from out-of-state, at McIntosh’s trial.2
*592The prosecutor’s mistaken understanding of the scope of his obligation may explain his total inaction between July 23 and October 22. He left himself barely seven days — from October 22 to the scheduled trial date of October 29 — to attempt to locate Wrenn.
Recently in People v. Nieto (1971), 33 Mich App 535, our Court ordered a new trial on the ground that the prosecutor’s efforts to produce a witness had been inadequate on these facts: the witness, a long-haul truck driver, lived in Chicago, Illinois. The efforts to produce him consisted of telephone calls to his family in Illinois and the mailing of a subpoena to the Chicago Police Department with the request that it render assistance. We declared: “Weighed against the defendant’s right of confrontation the attempts by the prosecution in this case to secure the witness’s presence falls short of the good faith effort required in Barber”3
In the present case, one telephone call to North Carolina between July 23 and October 29 is not an adequate effort to locate a missing witness. Sudja Isley may have forgotten to speak to the chief of police. She may have done nothing. In all events, no effort was made to determine from the North Carolina correctional authorities whether Wrenn was, indeed, imprisoned 4 or, if not, discharged on *593parole and, if so, who was his parole officer. The failure of Sudja Isley to respond within one week does not establish either that Wrenn was not in a North Carolina prison or that he could not be found with reasonable exertion of effort or that North Carolina was unwilling to respond to inquiries from Michigan or to extend other needed cooperation.5

 In Barber v. Page the United States Supreme Court held that the absence of a witness from the jurisdiction would not justify the use at trial of preliminary hearing testimony unless the State had made an adequate effort to secure the witness’s presence. That ruling was given retroactive effect in Berger v. California (1969), 393 US 314 (89 S Ct 540, 21 L Ed 2d 508).

 See In re Montgomery (1970), 2 Cal 3d 863 (87 Cal Rptr 695, 471 P2d 15); Satterfield v. State (1970), 248 Ark 395 (451 SW2d 730).
Moreover, in 1937, North Carolina adopted the Uniform Act to Secure the Attendance of Witnesses from Without a State in Criminal Proceedings (Laws 1937, ch 217, 56 GS §§ 8-65 to 8-70). Before the commission of the offenses charged in this case, Michigan had adopted similar provisions for the attendance of witnesses in criminal cases both in this and other states. See MCLA §§ 767.80, 767.81 *592(Stat Ann 1954 Rev §§ 28.1020, 28.1021); repealed by PA 1970, No 232, which enacted substitute provisions in conformity with the uniform act which can be found in MCLA 1971 Cum Supp § 767.91 et seq. (Stat Ann 1971 Cum Supp § 28.1023 [191] et seq.). See, also, People v. Nieto, supra.

 Barber v. Page, supra.

 Where the people fail to pursue leads that might, if diligently pursued, lead them to a missing witness they may not use preliminary examination testimony of the witness at the defendant’s trial. People v. Redd (1969), 273 Cal App 2d 345 (78 Cal Rptr 368); Satterfield v. State, supra. Cf. State v. LaFernier (1969), 44 Wis 2d 440 (171 NW2d 408).
See, also, Newton v. State (Okla Crim, 1965), 403 P2d 913, 916, where the Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma declared:
*593“Due diligence implies more than partial notice, and last-minute activities. Had the county attorney been more attentive to the issuance of his subpoenas when the matter was set down for trial, the sheriff would have been provided more opportunity to locate the witness. But, in this case, it is obvious that the search for the witness took place at the last minute, which is not due diligence.”

 See People v. Crable (1971), 33 Mich App 254 where we held that the trial judge erred in finding due diligence. A physician who had examined the complaining witness in a rape case shortly after the incident was indorsed as a res gestae witness. The process server received the subpoena for the physician about a week before, the trial. He was informed that the physician had left the hospital where he had been employed and was touring the country prior to leaving for Africa as a medical missionary. No further effort was made to locate him or to discover whether he intended to return to the county before leaving the country. We declared:
“To wait until a week before trial to serve the subpoena and then, upon finding the doctor no longer employed at the hospital, to simply accept the word of other employees that the doctor was no longer in the area, does not constitute sufficient effort to satisfy the requirement of due diligence.” Similarly, see People v. Barker (1969), 18 Mich App 544.