RAYMOND IVERY HATCHER, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1990-10-04
No. 89-2469
ERVIN and JOANOS, JJ., concur.
568 So. 2d 472 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1990) Positive Treatment
Cited by 16 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Raymond Hatcher was convicted of leaving the scene of an accident after a jury trial. The Florida appellate court reversed and remanded for a new trial because the trial court erred in allowing the state to call two undisclosed rebuttal witnesses, which constituted procedural prejudice by allowing the state to fundamentally alter its theory of the case after the defendant testified.


Holding

The state's failure to disclose the rebuttal witnesses violated the discovery rule, and the defendant suffered unavoidable procedural prejudice because the state altered its theory of the case after the defendant testified and the defense rested. The conviction must be reversed and the case remanded for a new trial.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court must conduct a full inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the state's failure to comply with discovery rules when it seeks to call an undisclosed witne…

[2] The inquiry into the state's failure to disclose a witness must determine if the defendant was procedurally prejudiced in their trial preparation.

Previewing 2 of 5 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“The disclosure rule includes rebuttal witnesses. Lucas v. State, 376 So.2d 1149 (Fla.1979). Richardson v. State and its progeny require that when the state seeks to call an undisclosed witness the trial court must make a full inquiry into all the circumstances surrounding the state's failure to comply with the discovery rule and determine if defendant was procedurally prejudiced as a result.”

Establishes the legal standard requiring disclosure of rebuttal witnesses and the trial court's obligation to conduct a full Richardson inquiry into prejudice.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Hatcher's left rear tire came off his vehicle on Lem Turner Road and struck an oncoming vehicle, injuring an occupant. Hatcher testified he thought he…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
BARFIELD, Judge.

BARFIELD, Judge.

Raymond Ivery Hatcher appeals his conviction, following a jury trial, for one count of leaving the scene of an accident involving bodily injury. He argues, inter alia, that the trial court erred in allowing the state to call two undisclosed witnesses in rebuttal. We agree, and reverse for a new trial.

The charge of leaving the scene of an accident arose out of Hatcher’s loss of his left rear tire on Lem Turner Road in Duval County. The tire struck a vehicle in the oncoming lane injuring one of its occupants. The theory of the state’s case in chief was that due to the manner in which the accident in question was caused, Hatch-er could not have been unaware of what had happened. Hatcher was the sole defense witness, and he took the stand to testify that he initially thought that his tire had suffered a blow out and that it was not until he stopped the car over one mile later that he realized that he had in fact lost the tire itself. At this point an unidentified man in a pick up truck stopped and said something to him, but Hatcher stated he could not understand him. He denied any knowledge that any accident or injury had been caused until he spoke with the police two days later. He asserted that had he known that he had lost a tire or that an accident had occurred, he would have stopped. On cross examination Hatcher denied that the man in the pick up truck told him that he had just caused an accident.

At the conclusion of Hatcher’s testimony, shortly before the defense rested, the following occurred at side bar:

STATE: Judge, I want to ask him if he was on any kind of medication, or was his judgment affected in any way. THE COURT: Mr. Ferguson. STATE: Yes, sir. THE COURT: Let me ask you this, what do you think he’s going to say? STATE: He’s going to say no. THE COURT: Do you have anything to show that he was? STATE: Maybe in rebuttal. THE COURT: Do you have somebody to say that he was under the influence at the time? STATE: No, sir, not at this point. THE COURT: Well, you’re not going any where, and you know what the answer is. Let’s go. The defense rested, and at another side bar the state advised the court that it had just been supplied the name of a witness which had just been disclosed by the reporting officer. The prosecutor said he did not know who the witness was, but that he had a name, address and telephone number, and had not yet been able to get in touch with the witness. The court advised that it was about to recess for the night anyway, and directed the state to produce the witness in the morning so that the defense could have the opportunity to interview him. Defendant objected that the witness had not been disclosed as required by Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.220 and moved for a mistrial, but was overruled.

The next morning the defense repeated its objection and asked for and was afforded a Richardson hearing.1 The witnesses in question were the man in the pick up truck and his companion. It was established that the defense had had the opportunity to interview the two undisclosed witnesses that morning, and the trial court found that the state’s failure to disclose the witnesses any earlier was not willful. The witnesses were allowed to testify that they stopped Hatcher shortly after he lost his tire and expressly informed him that he had catised an accident. The court did not permit the witnesses to testify that Hatch-er appeared intoxicated at the time. Hatcher was permitted to take the stand again in “surrebuttal” and testified that the rebuttal witnesses were indeed the ones who spoke to him at the time in question, but he denied that they informed him of the occurrence of an accident. The jury found Hatcher guilty as charged.

The record establishes that the state had at least incomplete knowledge of the existence of the rebuttal witnesses the day before trial. It is apparent from the record that the state’s knowledge of the witnesses’ testimony was sufficient for the prosecutor to use it in cross examining Hatcher, prior to it’s disclosure of the witnesses. The court’s conclusion that the failure to disclose the witnesses was not willful is questionable; however, the court’s finding that no prejudice occurred is clearly in error. The disclosure rule includes rebuttal witnesses. Lucas v. State, 376 So. 2d 1149 (Fla.1979). Richardson v. State and its progeny require that when the state seeks to call an undisclosed witness the trial court must make a full inquiry into all the circumstances surrounding the state’s failure to comply with the discovery rule and determine if defendant was procedurally prejudiced as a result. An adequate inquiry addresses whether the state’s failure was willful, negligent or inadvertent, and whether the rule violation was trivial or substantial, and whether defendant was prejudiced in his trial preparation. Smith v. State, 499 So. 2d 912 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986); Wilkerson v. State, 461 So. 2d 1376 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985). The purpose of the inquiry is to determine if procedural, rather than substantive, prejudice occurred. Lee v. State, 538 So. 2d 63 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989). The court’s determination is within its discretion, and will not be disturbed absent an abuse of that discretion. Smith v. State.

Until rebuttal, the focus of the instant case was whether Hatcher was aware of having caused an accident by virtue of how it occurred. The entire defense was that Hatcher was not aware he had lost a tire until he stopped, and was not aware until two days later that someone had been hurt. Upon introduction of the rebuttal testimony, however, the state’s theory ceased to be that Hatcher must have realized what had occurred, and became instead that he had been specifically and expressly informed of having caused an accident. Based upon the undisclosed rebuttal witnesses, the state changed its theory of its case after defendant had taken the stand. Prejudice to the. defendant is unavoidable under these circumstances.

Defense counsel objected promptly, strenuously, and repeatedly, and expressly asserted prejudice due to the late disclosure of these witnesses. There is nothing in the record to indicate any awareness of the existence of these witnesses by the defense any time prior to the state’s tardy disclosure. Although the court made every effort to prevent defendant from being unduly prejudiced by the late disclosure, the procedural prejudice in the state’s alteration of the theory of its case after the defendant has testified and the defense has rested is inherent. The only way the prejudice could have been avoided would have been to exclude the witnesses.

Accordingly, Hatcher’s conviction is REVERSED and the case is remanded for a new trial.

REVERSED.

ERVIN and JOANOS, JJ., concur. . Richardson v. State, 246 So. 2d 771 (Fla.1971).


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Sherwin James Miller v. State, 636 So. 2d 144 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994)
    …s discretionary, and should be disturbed on appeal only upon a clear showing of abuse. A determination whether to impose exclusion depends upon the totality of the circumstances. State v. Tascarella, 580 So. 2d 154, 157 (Fla.1991); Hatcher v. State, 568 So. 2d 472, 477 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990), review denied, 577 So. 2d 1328 (Fla.1991); Lee v. State, 534 So. 2d 1226 (Fla. 1st DCA 1988). The inquiry into the circumstances of a discovery violation should address whether the violation was inadvertent or willful, tri…
  • State v. Muldowny, 871 So. 2d 911 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004)
    …DLE. Clearly, the State’s discovery violation caused prejudice and harm to the defendants’ ability to make a determination of the subject machine’s internal makeup. See, e.g., Miller v. State, 636 So. 2d at 149 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994); Hatcher v. State, 568 So. 2d 472, 475 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990). In this case, the State’s discovery violation prevented the defendants from properly preparing their cases for trial. See, e.g., Duarte v. State, 598 So. 2d 270, 271-72 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992). Accordingly, we answer the second…
  • Thompson v. State, 615 So. 2d 737 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993)
    …86) (new trial is mandated when trial court fails to require state to show that defendant has not been prejudiced by state’s failure to disclose statement of accused to police officer, even though it appeared to be harmless error); Hatcher v. State, 568 So. 2d 472 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990) (failure to disclose rebuttal witness requires full inquiry), review denied, 577 So. 2d 1328 (Fla.1991); Martinez v. State, 528 So. 2d 1334 (Fla. 1st DCA 1988) (reversible error for court to permit state to introduce statement of…

Previewing 3 of 8 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw