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State v. Adams6/30/2004
lso, appellant asserts that the documents provide that Christina made a second statement to the police which further implicated David in the murder. Thus, appellant contends that if these two pieces of information had been presented to the jury, the outcome of the trial would have been different. We disagree.
. In the instant matter, pursuant to the prosecutor's sealed file, as well as based on the record of the trial court, there is no evidence or testimony which connects David's blue blanket to the crime at issue. Under such circumstances, the state simply would have had no duty to reveal this information because it was not exculpatory in nature.
. In regard to the police officer's summary of Christina's statement, this court would first note that, in addition to the officer's statement, the prosecutor's sealed file also contained transcripts of other interviews Christina gave to the police. Our review of the two transcripts shows that the statements Christina made during the interviews were virtually identical to the statements attributed to her in the police officer's summary. Furthermore, in reviewing the prosecutor's sealed file after oral arguments before us, appellant's trial counsel never stated that he had been denied access to the two transcripts. Thus, even if the state did fail to provide discovery of the summary, appellant could not have been prejudiced because his trial counsel was already aware of the information contained in the summary.
. Second, as to appellant's contention that the police officer's summary further implicated David in the murder, this court would indicate that the statements made in the summary and the two interview transcripts were somewhat inconsistent with the testimony Christina gave at trial. In the summary and the transcripts, Christina stated that she had overheard David telling other people about choking the victim and cutting her feet with a knife. In contrast, Christina testified at trial that she had had a direct conversation with David on the matter. Based upon this, appellant now argues that the information in the police officer's summary shows that Christina actually had two separate conversations with David in which he implicated himself.
. However, the trial transcript readily shows that the state fully cross-examined Christina concerning the inconsistencies between her direct testimony and her prior statements to the police. Our review of Christina's responses to the state's questions establishes that she was referring to the same basic incident to which she had cited in the prior statements; i.e., Christina never stated that her direct testimony concerned a separate incident than to what she had referred in speaking to the police. Taken as a whole, her testimony showed that she merely gave a slightly different version of the same incident.
. In addition, this court would emphasize that the statements Christina attributed to David during her trial testimony were virtually identical to those she attributed to him in the summary and the interview transcripts. Therefore, notwithstanding the discrepancies concerning the manner in which David conveyed his statements during the single incident, it is apparent that the jury heard all relevant testimony Christina could give as to whether David had been involved in the murder.
. In light of the foregoing, we hold that appellant has failed to demonstrate that the prosecutor's sealed file had any previously undisclosed documents containing new exculpatory evidence which appellant could have used in his defense. Even assuming arguendo that the state did fail to provide proper discovery of the three documents cited by appellant, the error was not
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