Court Opinion

ID: 9536443
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 06:59:57.812118+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:54:29.712824
License: Public Domain

OPINION
LANE, Vice Presiding Judge:
Jim Housley and John C. Stephens were tried together for the crime of Concealing Stolen Property (21 O.S.1981, § 1713) in the district court of Tillman County. Both were convicted after a trial by jury and were sentenced to terms of four (4) years in the custody of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. Appellants have *316brought the instant appeal alleging, among other things, that they were deprived of their right to a fair trial when the prosecu1 tion failed to provide them with the criminal records of the witnesses against them. We agree with this proposition and remand the case for a new trial.
Appellants were charged with having possession of a stolen Caterpillar truck engine. At trial, several witnesses testified about how Appellants obtained the engine and what they did after receiving it. The three primary witness against the two defendants all had previous felony convictions. The witnesses involved were Calvin Nunley, who had been convicted of at least three felonies, Richard Lamb and Earl Wayne Melton, who had each been convicted of one previous felony.
Despite the State’s agreement to provide criminal histories for any witness with felony convictions, the State revealed only that one witness, Calvin Nunley, had a conviction. That conviction had resulted after charges were filed in the present case.
The law is well settled that a criminal defendant is entitled to be provided with information concerning the criminal records of the witnesses against them. Stafford v. State, 595 P.2d 797 (Okl.Cr.1979); Stevenson v. State, 486 P.2d 646 (Okl.Cr.1971), cert. denied 404 U.S. 1040, 92 S.Ct. 724, 30 L.Ed.2d 733 (1972). In this case, the testimony linking Appellants to the stolen engine was developed primarily through the testimony of the three witnesses identified above. Specially, the testimony of Calvin Nunley, critical to the State’s case against both defendants, was the only testimony linking Stevens to the crime at hand. Consequently, the credibility of this witness, as well as the other two, was very important to the defense mounted by Appellants.
“When the reliability of a witness may be determinative of the guilt or innocence of the defendant, nondisclosure of evidence affecting his credibility” requires a new trial. Reed v. State, 657 P.2d 662, 664 (Okl.Cr.1983) cert. denied 464 U.S. 933, 104 S.Ct. 337, 78 L.Ed.2d 307. In the present case, we are faced with a situation wherein the State wholly failed to comply with their duty to provide important information to criminal defendants. This failure was not minor, it involved a majority of the State’s case. Without the testimony of these witnesses, it is very likely that both Appellants would have been acquitted. We cannot find that this was a harmless error. Accordingly, Appellants’ convictions are REVERSED and the case is hereby REMANDED for a new trial.
PARKS, P.J., and BRETT, J., concur.
JOHNSON, J., concurs in result.
LUMPKIN, J., dissents.