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State v. Adams6/30/2004
on August 9, 1999, almost one year prior to their submission to defense counsel.
. In any event, the hospital report was significant in that it both challenged the credibility of one of the prosecution's chief witnesses and attacked the alibi of the other primary suspect. As previously indicated, appellant's primary defense was that Roslyn's ex-husband, David, was the real killer. The theory was that David, not appellant, had an ongoing, acrimonious relationship with Roslyn. They had engaged in a significant verbal argument, which culminated in pushing and shoving, at David's house on the actual night of the incident. In fact, due to David and Roslyn's volatile relationship, David was the initial suspect of the police.
. However, an occupant at David's house, Tracy Justice, testified that David sustained an injured hand from punching a door after his altercation with Roslyn. Further, she testified that David and another occupant, Fahim Evans, left for the hospital to seek treatment for David's hand within the period of time that Roslyn was assaulted and left for dead.
. Specifically, the jury heard Tracy testify that, at approximately 5:30 a.m., on August 5, 1999, David left his house with Fahim, allegedly to go to the hospital for treatment of David's hand. She stated that Fahim and David returned to the house at 7:30 a.m. Tracy further testified that David had not received medical attention for his hand because the two hospital emergency rooms he allegedly visited were too busy to provide medical care. According to the coroner, Roslyn's death occurred between approximately 6:00 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., on August 5, 1999.
. The previously mentioned hospital record indicated that David arrived at the hospital at approximately 11:30 a.m. It also indicated that David had informed hospital personnel that he had incurred the hand injury several days earlier.
. On the same day that this hospital report was turned over, defense counsel also received what appear to be statements from a police investigation. Apparently, a police officer was dispatched to David's house on August 6, 1999, for an open-burning complaint. The officer asked David about the cast on his right arm, and David stated, "Roslyn had shattered my arm a couple of days ago with a baseball bat."
. As previously indicated, defense counsel received the hospital report and the statements connected with the open-burning complaint as part of the voluminous discovery turned over just before trial. Thus, this information was apparently overlooked by defense counsel and was never made available to the jury to dispute Tracy's credibility and more importantly, David's alibi. Defense counsel could do little more than speculate to the jury that David was an equally viable suspect.
. The prejudice created by the untimely submission of both the hospital report and David's contradictory statements to police regarding the origin of his hand injury is compounded further by the late submission of the BCI report. It is not until the BCI representative, Cynthia Shannon ("Ms. Shannon"), testified that it became clear that BCI had received, but not analyzed, either the fingernail scrapings or the blood on Roslyn's ring. Ms. Shannon testified that the samples came with instructions, stating that an assault had occurred and to examine the samples for semen. She further testified that she was not informed there were defensive wounds on Roslyn's hands.
. In addition, when Charles Snyder ("Mr. Snyder") of BCI testified, he admitted that he inventoried Roslyn's car and did not send the key discovered in the car's ignition for fingerprints, despite the fact that the car was found
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