People v. Ball

821 P.2d 905, 15 Brief Times Rptr. 1352, 1991 Colo. App. LEXIS 302, 1991 WL 190673
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 26, 1991
Docket88CA1711
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 821 P.2d 905 (People v. Ball) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Ball, 821 P.2d 905, 15 Brief Times Rptr. 1352, 1991 Colo. App. LEXIS 302, 1991 WL 190673 (Colo. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge CRISWELL.

Defendant, Raymond Lloyd Ball, appeals the judgment of conviction of conspiracy to commit second degree burglary of a controlled substance, third degree criminal trespass, conspiracy to commit tampering with physical evidence, and tampering with physical evidence, as well as the sentence imposed upon him. We affirm the conviction, but vacate the sentence imposed and remand for re-sentencing.

Defendant’s convictions resulted from a second trial of the charges asserted against him. While he was convicted of the same charges in a first trial, those convictions were later set aside by the trial court because of prosecutorial misconduct.

I.

Defendant first argues that the prosecu-torial misconduct during his first trial required imposition of the double jeopardy bar to retrial. We disagree.

During the first trial, the People called an alleged co-conspirator as one of its witnesses. At a recess in the testimony, however, the prosecutor engaged in a heated exchange with this witness. The trial court found that statements made by the prosecutor constituted a threat to this witness to have the witness’ previously bargained plea set aside. While the trial court denied defendant’s contemporaneous motion for a mistrial, it granted defendant’s post-trial motion for a new trial, based on this and other incidents.

A defendant’s motion for a mistrial generally operates as a waiver of his constitutional protection against retrial under the double jeopardy clause. United States v. Dinitz, 424 U.S. 600, 96 S.Ct. 1075, 47 L.Ed.2d 267 (1976); People v. Baca, 193 Colo. 9, 562 P.2d 411 (1977).

However, if the prosecutorial misconduct is designed to provoke a mistrial, defendant’s motion will not, under such circumstances, result in a waiver. People v. Espinoza, 666 P.2d 555 (Colo.1983). In order for double jeopardy to attach in such cases, the record must support a finding that the prosecutorial misconduct resulted from “improper motivation, bad faith, or overreaching in an attempt to trigger a mistrial.” People v. Espinoza, supra. See People v. Baca, supra.

Here, there was no finding by the court that the conduct engaged in by the prosecutor was designed to provoke a mistrial, nor was there any evidence that the prosecutor was motivated by a desire to inject error into the proceedings. Rather, the prosecutor’s informal comments to the witness were the spontaneous results of the prosecutor’s good faith belief that the witness was not being completely candid in his testimony. Hence, there was no basis to conclude that the prosecutor’s misconduct required dismissal of the charges. See People v. Espinoza, supra.

*908 II.

Defendant next argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained during the investigatory stop of his vehicle. Again, we disagree.

The trial court found that the discovery of a CB radio in the possession of one of the burglary suspects justified the belief by the arresting officers that there was another person involved. In addition, unlike others parked in the vicinity, two vehicles near the burglary had no frost on their windshield, indicating they had not been there long. One of these vehicles was connected to a suspect apprehended at the scene, and the other one belonged to defendant.

These circumstances constituted sufficient information from which a police officer could form a reasonable belief that defendant was connected with the attempted burglary so as to justify an investigatory stop of him. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); Stone v. People, 174 Colo. 504, 485 P.2d 495 (1971).

After defendant was stopped, the contradictory responses he gave to police questioning, combined with the need to obtain a further report on a co-suspect, justified prolonging the detention of defendant for 24 minutes. Thus, the stop was reasonably related to the limited purpose of ascertaining the prior actions and possible involvement of defendant. See People v. Hazelhurst, 662 P.2d 1081 (Colo.1983).

III.

We also disagree with defendant that the use of the co-conspirator’s testimony from defendant’s first trial constituted plain error.

The same witness whom the trial court found had been the subject of threatening statements by the prosecutor in the first trial also testified at defendant’s subsequent re-trial. On cross-examination, defense counsel questioned this witness concerning the attempted prosecutorial harassment, and both counsel questioned the witness concerning any pressure upon him from the district attorney’s office to give favorable testimony for the People.

Defendant argues that, since the grant of a new trial was based, in part, upon the trial court’s finding that the prosecutor improperly attempted to influence this witness in the first trial, his testimony at the first trial was not “voluntary” and, thus, should be barred as untrustworthy.

Under CRE 613, a witness may be impeached with his prior inconsistent statements. There is no requirement that, before permitting counsel to cross-examine a witness about any prior statement, the trial court first determine that the prior statement was “voluntary.”

Here, a proper foundation for the questioning was established by asking the witness if he remembered making the statements before confronting him with them. See Transamerica Insurance Co. v. Pueblo Gas & Fuel Co., 33 Colo.App. 92, 519 P.2d 1201 (1973). The witness testified at some length concerning the circumstances under which his former testimony was given. Thus, he had ample opportunity to explain or deny the validity of his previous statements. We conclude, therefore, that the trial court properly permitted the use of the witness’ former testimony for impeachment purposes.

IV.

Defendant next contends that the trial court erred by allowing the prosecutor to impeach a witness whose testimony was read at trial with prior inconsistent statements that the witness had made to a police detective. Because the witness did not testify at trial, defendant argues, the requirement that he be confronted with his previous statement and offered an opportunity to explain the apparent inconsistency was not met. We disagree.

At defendant’s first trial, one witness testified concerning defendant’s comings and goings from a motel on the night of the burglary. At defendant’s second trial, this witness was unavailable. Hence, pursuant to CRE 804(b)(1), the People, over *909

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Bluebook (online)
821 P.2d 905, 15 Brief Times Rptr. 1352, 1991 Colo. App. LEXIS 302, 1991 WL 190673, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-ball-coloctapp-1991.