State v. Quinn

549 P.2d 1000, 219 Kan. 831, 1976 Kan. LEXIS 432
Supreme Court of Kansas·Decided May 8, 1976·No. 48,049·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinions

The opinion of the court was -delivered by

Harman, C.:

Jerry Mark Quinn was convicted by a jury of sale of marihuana. New trial was denied, sentence was -adjudged, Quinn was placed on probation -and he now appeals.

Appellant’s principal contention is that he was entitled to a new [832]*832trial by reason of evidence relating to tbe credibility of the prosecutions' principal witness, which evidence was not known to him during the .trial and was disclosed by the prosecution only after the jury had rendered its verdict. The evidence consists of testimony by one Allen Raynor in a companion prosecution concerning statements made at the time of the marihuana sale.

We first summarize the pertinent evidence for the prosecution at appellants1 trial. On November 13, 1973, Raynor, an undercover agent employed by the Riley county police department, Lyle Hildebrand, a Manhattan police officer, and 'two K. B. I. agents, David Ballintine and Dale Finger, were engaged in a drug investigation in Manhattan. About 10:00 p. m. they were in the Aggieville area observing one Thomas Patrick Zeller, who was confined to a wheelchair and was reputed to be involved in drug activities. The agents engaged Zeller in conversation. In a few minutes a car 'drove up and parked near Zellers wheelchair. Willard Hodges was driving the car, appellant Jerry Mark Quinn was sitting on the passenger side in the front seat and appellants cousin, Michael Quinn, was in the back seat. After some conversation between the parties, and the passing 'around of a hand-rolled cigarette which appeared to be marihuana, Hodges told Zeller and the agents he had one lid of marihuana which he would sell for twenty dollars. Officer Raynor said he thought the price was “pretty steep” but he relayed the offer to agent Ballintine. Ballintine similarly expressed belief the price was very high but stated he would buy the lid.

At this point, according to Raynor’s testimony, Hodges began having second thoughts' about making the sale to a stranger, but appellant remarked, “Hell, I’ll do it [make the sale], if you [referring to Hodges] don’t”.

After being assured by Zeller that it was all right to make the sale, Hodges reached down into the glove compartment in the console or in that area and produced a bag of marihuana. Hodges handed the bag to appellant who in turn handed it to Zeller, who passed it to agent Ballintine. Ballintine then gave Zeller a twenty dollar bill which Zeller handed to appellant. At this point Ballintine announced that all three occupants of the automobile and Zeller were under arrest.

Officer Raynor and two of the other .three officers who participated in the incident testified. Neither of these two officers made [833]*833any mention in their testimony of appellant’s statement that he would make the sale if Hodges didn’t.

Appellant did not testify but bis cousin Michael and Hodges did. According to them Hodges dealt directly with Zeller in making ithe sale; Hodges banded the bag directly to Zeller outside, the car and Zeller stuck it under his coat and wheeled' his chair away from the oar over to the agents; Raynor then approached Zeller and asked if he had the drug to sell; Raynor handed Zeller the money and Zeller came back to the oar and attempted to give the money to appellant; appellant said he didn’t want it, so Zeller simply threw the bill inside the oar, at which time the 'arrests were made. Hodges testified he did not hear appellant say that if he didn’t want to sell the lid, then he (appellant) would.

Appellant’s! trial commenced June 19, 1974, and was concluded the following day. After the, jury retired and had been deliberating for some time it requested rereading of the testimony on the passing of the marihuana and the money. This was done and the juiy resumed its deliberations. Later the jury returned into open court and requested a further rereading of officer Raynor’s testimony “. . . where he testified that someone bad made the statement, ‘If you don’t sell it, I will’ ”. This part of the testimony was reread to the jury, it resumed deliberations and within fifteen minutes returned a verdit of guilty of sale of marihuana.

Thereafter appellant filed his motion for new trial on several grounds including that of newly discovered evidence. At the hearing of ¡this motion Zeller, Robert Littrell, Paul E. Miller and officer Raynor testified and these facts appeared: Thomas Patrick Zeller and Willard Hodges were charged with the sale of marihuana as a result of their part in the November 13th incident. Zeller’s preliminary examination was conducted January 3, 1974. He was represented by Robert Littrell. The, state was represented by Paul E. Miller, who was assistant county attorney and who acted as such until his retirement to enter private practice on April 1, 1974. Officer Raynor testified at Zeller’s, preliminary that there, was some hesitation about the marihuana sale in question, whereupon Zeller made the statement to Hodges that if Hodges didn’t make the sale he (Zeller) would. No stenographic record was made of this preliminary hearing. Zeller and Hodges later pled guilty to reduced charges.

Paul E. Miller testified that at Zeller’s hearing he was particularly concerned with the significance of the statement attributed to Zel[834]*834ler in determining whether Zeller was >an agent of the buyer or of the seller. He further testified he interviewed Raynor again in detail in preparation for appellants preliminary hearing and at no time did Raynor ever mention that appellant had made a similar statement in connection with the incident. Mr. Miller testified he had had some disagreement with the then county attorney, James W. Morrison, over the prosecution of appellant; Morrison remained convinced of appellant’s guilt. Appellant thereafter waived his preliminary hearing.

Mr. Miller further testified that after he -learned appellant had been conviabed in June in a -trial in which officer Raynor testified concerning a statement made by appellant, he felt there was a discrepancy and that appellant’s counsel should be notified of Raynor’s testimony at Zeller’s preliminary hearing. Upon his cross-examination by Mr. Morrison this occurred:

“Q. At this time, as I understand what you said, you feel that in your mind Officer Raynor is under an erroneous assumption from what you know, or is absolutely mistaken from what you know and what he told you in preparing for the Quinn case, the Zeller case, and the Hodges case, this is new testimony that you never heard as assistant and therefore either something new that’s been created or something absolutely false, -one of those three as far as you are concerned?
“A. Well, it’s my belief, based upon my recollection and that’s why I got involved in this thing in the first place, because it was my recollection that one of those two- things happened, either Officer Raynor is mistaken as to what the original testimony was, or during the whole time, over that period of time from November until — well, you told me the dates, sometime in March when I last handled any one of these things, he never advised me of the fact that Quinn -also made that statement. I don’t know whether he is mistaken, or whether he didn’t tell me. Alii I know is what he testified at the Zeller hearing.”

Miller further testified he could not say that appellant was just as involved in the. -sale as were the others.

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State v. Quinn, 549 P.2d 1000, 219 Kan. 831, 1976 Kan. LEXIS 432 (kan 1976).

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