State v. Barnes

804 S.E.2d 301, 421 S.C. 47, 2017 WL 3495793, 2017 S.C. App. LEXIS 70
CourtCourt of Appeals of South Carolina
DecidedAugust 16, 2017
DocketOpinion No. 5509.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 804 S.E.2d 301 (State v. Barnes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Barnes, 804 S.E.2d 301, 421 S.C. 47, 2017 WL 3495793, 2017 S.C. App. LEXIS 70 (S.C. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

I.

Barnes first contends the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion to sever his trial from Young's. Denial of a severance motion is an abuse of discretion if unsupported by the evidence or controlled by an error of law. State v. Spears , 393 S.C. 466, 475, 713 S.E.2d 324, 328 (Ct. App. 2011).

Codefendants in a murder case are not automatically entitled to separate trials. State v. Kelsey , 331 S.C. 50, 73, 502 S.E.2d 63, 75 (1998). They are entitled to a severance "only when there is a serious risk that a joint trial would compromise a specific trial right of a codefendant or prevent the jury from making a reliable judgment about a codefendant's guilt." State v. Dennis , 337 S.C. 275, 282, 523 S.E.2d 173, 176 (1999). See also **52Hughes v. State , 346 S.C. 554, 559, 552 S.E.2d 315, 317 (2001) ; see also Zafiro v. United States , 506 U.S. 534, 540, 113 S.Ct. 933, 122 L.Ed.2d 317 (1993) ("[I]t is well-settled that defendants are not entitled to severance merely because they may have a better chance of acquittal in separate trials."). We will only reverse the denial of a severance motion when it is reasonably probable the defendant would have received a more favorable outcome had he been tried separately. Hughes , 346 S.C. at 559, 552 S.E.2d at 317.

Barnes argues being tried with Young compromised his right to effectively cross-examine Young's girlfriend, Rolanda Coleman. Barnes believes Coleman was a key witness whose credibility was central, as she identified him as the gunman in the gray sweatshirt on the surveillance video, and also testified she had seen him with a gun on another occasion. Barnes claims in a separate trial he would have been able to elicit that Coleman and Young were codefendants in an unrelated pending burglary charge. Barnes believes this would have allowed him to better portray to the jury that Coleman's testimony lacked credibility because she was seeking to protect Young, with whom she shares two children.

The record reveals the trial court only prohibited Barnes from telling the jury Young was charged in the pending burglary case, presumably because to do so would have introduced improper evidence of Young's character and prior bad acts, transgressing Rule 404, SCRE. Nothing stopped Barnes from confronting Coleman about her bias in favor of Young based on their relationship or her willingness to testify in hopes of reducing her exposure to substantial prison time on the burglary charge. In fact, these areas were explored during her testimony. Being tried with Young did not hamper Barnes' right to cross-examine Coleman effectively; consequently, no prejudice accrued to him. Moreover, we do not believe exclusion of this singular point of impeachment prevented the jury from making a reliable judgment about Barnes' guilt. See Dennis , 337 S.C. at 282, 523 S.E.2d at 176. Coleman's testimony was cumulative to other evidence, including Barnes' letter to his mother and his mother's identification of him in the video.

Barnes also claims the joint trial prevented him from cross-examining Young about the statements he made to Alfred D.

**53Wright and Michael Schaefer identifying "Trigg" and "Trap" as his accomplices. Because Young did not take the stand, Barnes maintains he could not confront Young and consequently Bruton v. United States , 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968), required Barnes be granted a separate trial.

This is a closer issue. As we noted in Young , the State's decision to try Barnes and Young together was fraught with risk. It also placed the trial court in difficult positions throughout the almost three week trial. Yet, *305as we concluded in Young's appeal, the trial was fundamentally fair and we can confidently say the jury was not prevented from making a reliable judgment about Barnes' guilt. As more fully explained in Section II, infra , the evidence of Barnes' guilt was overwhelming. The probability Barnes would have fared better in a separate trial is remote. Accordingly, even if the denial of severance compromised Barnes' right to confront Young, the error was harmless. See State v. McDonald , 412 S.C. 133, 142, 771 S.E.2d 840, 844 (2015) ("In some cases the properly admitted evidence of guilt is so overwhelming, and the prejudicial effect of the codefendant's admission is so insignificant by comparison, that it is clear beyond a reasonable doubt that the improper use of the admission was harmless error." (quoting Schneble v. Florida ,

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804 S.E.2d 301, 421 S.C. 47, 2017 WL 3495793, 2017 S.C. App. LEXIS 70, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-barnes-scctapp-2017.