4/25/16 In a recent Division Two case, the Court of Appeals upheld the trial court’s preclusion of a defense alibi witness because the defendant’s disclosure of the witness’s existence was too close to trial.
In State v. Ramos, the defendant was charged in October 2013 with drug prescription forgery offenses. On July 22, 2014, the defendant filed a notice of defenses that said he had an alibi defense and his Father would testify as an alibi witness at the jury trial which was set for August 5, 2014. The Father was going to testify that at the time of the offense the Father and the defendant where coaching a softball team. The State interviewed the Father, however, said that because of the late disclosure of the alibi defense and witness it was unable to contact any other witnesses, such as members of the softball team, who could testify in opposition to the defendant’s alibi defense.
The trial court said defense witnesses and defenses must be disclosed within 40 days of arraignment or 10 days from when the State makes disclosure. The defendant offered no explanation as to why he was disclosing the defense and alibi witness 8 months after arraignment and 2 weeks before trial. Since the defendant did not explain why he was making late disclosure and the State said claimed they had been prejudiced by not being able to timely contact rebuttal witnesses, the trial court said preclusion of the Father as an alibi witness was appropriate and the Father did not testify. On appeal the court of appeals agreed with the trial court’s ruling and upheld the conviction.
The case is at:
https://www.appeals2.az.gov/Decisions/CR20140396Opinion.pdf
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