Snow v. State

1994 OK CR 39, 876 P.2d 291, 65 O.B.A.J. 1876, 1994 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 41, 1994 WL 231544
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 31, 1994
DocketF-89-638
StatusPublished
Cited by113 cases

This text of 1994 OK CR 39 (Snow v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Snow v. State, 1994 OK CR 39, 876 P.2d 291, 65 O.B.A.J. 1876, 1994 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 41, 1994 WL 231544 (Okla. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinions

OPINION

LANE, Judge:

Appellant, Rocky Dale Snow was tried by jury and convicted of the crimes Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle, After Two or More Felonies; Assault and Battery With Intent to Kill; and Murder in the First Degree in Pontotoc County District Court, Case No. CRF-88-210. The jury recommended sentences of twenty (20) years, ninety-nine (99) years, and death respectively which the trial court imposed. We affirm.

According to the evidence presented at trial Appellant took a reddish-brown company pick-up truck from the Stallings Construction yard in Ada sometime between 10:00 and 10:30 a.m. on December 8, 1988. Appellant’s brother, Allen, worked for Stallings. Appellant drove to the 12th Street Flea Market in Ada. He entered the office where proprietor Betty Bush, her brother-in-law Richard New-lund, and Wayne Russell, a flea market tenant, were warming themselves by a stove and asked to see bedding. Mrs. Bush took him to unit # 10 where bedding was kept. Shortly thereafter, Appellant returned to the office and asked Richard Newlund to come help them. As soon as Newlund stepped inside unit # 10 Appellant attacked him with a knife, slashing his neck, head and hand. Appellant ran away as Newlund called for help. Wayne Russell called the police at 10:47 a.m.. Russell and Newlund found Bush stabbed in the head and chest and wedged between a mattress and box springs. An ambulance arrived and the emergency medical technicians reestablished Bush’s pulse and breathing. She never regained consciousness and died shortly thereafter. Newlund was hospitalized and recovered from his injuries. •

The Stallings truck was seen speeding away from the flea market, running stop signs. Appellant bought himself new clothes and boots, and presents for his girlfriend’s mother. He drove to McAlester to see his girlfriend. He arrived at approximately 1:30 p.m. and took her shopping for boots. After trying unsuccessfully to leave the Stallings truck with friends, he drove it to the Stall-ings yard in Hartshorne, wiped it clean of fingerprints, and left it.

On December 9, the day following the crime, eye-witnesses Newlund and Russell worked with a police artist to create a composite drawing of the attacker. They were consistent in their descriptions. Five days later, on December 13 each independently identified the same man at the police line-up: a Southeastern State University student who was at home with his wife at the time of the crime. The Ada Evening Netvs ran articles on the murder December 14, 15, 16, and 18. Each article reported neither Newlund or Russell identified Snow, who had been picked up as a suspect in the crime. On December 20 the Ada Evening News ran an article with a picture of the appellant next to the composite drawing. The article reported in part:

... Authorities said [Snow] matches witnesses’ description of the murder suspect and claim‘he stole a pickup which resembles the one the attacker drove in his escape from the murder scene.
Newlund and another witness were unable to identify Snow in a police line-up last week, but prosecutors claim Snow disguised his identity in the line-up ...

A few days later Russell told the police Snow was his attacker. Russell identified Snow at the preliminary hearing on the Unauthorized Use charge. After this identification the district attorney filed the murder charge. Both Russell and Newlund identified the appellant at trial. Russell admitted he had seen the December 20 article in the Ada Neivs.

IDENTIFICATION ISSUES

Appellant challenges the line-up procedure, the admission of the in-court identification and the failure of the trial court to give a [295]*295cautionary instruction sua sponte. He also argues defense counsel’s failure to move to suppress the identification or request a cautionary instruction is evidence of ineffective assistance.

Defense counsel filed a motion to enjoin the police from conducting a line-up citing several grounds, including prejudice if the appellant’s brother, Allen, were not included in the lineup. The trial court denied the motion. Appellant challenges the court’s ruling, yet cites no authority to support his position that the trial court erred. Indeed, the authority supports the court ruling for a magistrate has no jurisdiction over police procedures pertaining to a lineup. Moss v. Hicks, 738 P.2d 155 (Okl.Cr.1987).

Appellant next argues his in-court identification was unreliable and should have been suppressed. Recognizing trial counsel did not object to admission of the testimony, or request a cautionary instruction, Appellant takes two tacks: that counsel’s failure to object or request a cautionary instruction amounts to ineffective assistance of counsel and that the trial court should have given a cautionary instruction sua sponte.

Counsel’s failure to request suppression of the in-court identification limits the review of this court to that of fundamental error only. Cole v. State, 766 P.2d 358, 359 (Okl.Cr.1988). An in-court identification tainted by unnecessarily suggestive pretrial identification procedures is admissible only if independent reliability under the totality of the circumstances can be established. Cole v. State, 766 P.2d 358, 359 (Okl.Cr.1988); Weatherly v. State, 733 P.2d 1331, 1338 (Okl.Cr.1987); Chatman v. State, 716 P.2d 258 (Okl.Cr.1986).

Only reliable eye-witness identifications are to get to the jury. Usually reliability is determined by the trial court in an in camera hearing upon objection by defense counsel. In the present case defense counsel did not object to eye-witness identification, and thus did not trigger trial court determination of reliability. Instead defense counsel cross examined the witnesses extensively to weaken their credibility. The failure to object appears to be trial strategy. As such it cannot be a grounds for a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2068, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984).

Continuing his challenge of the in-court identification the appellant argues the trial court should have given the juzy a cautionary instruction sua sponte. Appellant acknowledges counsel’s failure to request the instruction waives the issue on appeal absent a substantial violation of his rights. Cole v. State, 766 P.2d 358, 360 (Okl.Cr.1988). Such a substantial violation will be found if there is a very substantial likelihood of misidentification. Newsom v. State, 763 P.2d 135 (Okl.Cr.1988); United States v. Aigbevbolle, 772 F.2d 652, 653 (10th Cir.1985). Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 113, 97 S.Ct. 2243, 2252, 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977).

Certainly the reliability of the in-court identification by both Newlund and Russell is weakened by the fact each failed to identify the appellant in the police line-up.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1994 OK CR 39, 876 P.2d 291, 65 O.B.A.J. 1876, 1994 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 41, 1994 WL 231544, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/snow-v-state-oklacrimapp-1994.