Court Opinion

ID: 9713245
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:11:58.195563+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:17.766583
License: Public Domain

MANDERINO, Justice,
dissenting.
In reliance upon a stipulation as to the time of death, appellant released his expert witness and was unable to rebut evidence later introduced by the prosecution contradicting this stipulation. Appellant is therefore entitled to a new trial.
The majority opinion sidesteps this issue by finding that the additional testimony did not contradict the stipulation but merely made it more precise. This is not so. The original stipulation established the time of death (a crucial point in establishing guilt) to be two to three days prior to the discovery of the body. Appellant’s defense was based *128upon this fact since appellant had an alibi witness for this time period. When the prosecution introduced the new evidence, the time of death was correlated to the victim’s stomach contents. The time of death was then taken out of the time frame to which the parties originally stipulated. Appellant had released his expert and was unable to reschedule this expert to testify prior to the end of the trial. The record does not support that appellant’s reliance on the time of death stipulation was unjustified, and I must dissent.