Van Arsdall v. State

Citation486 A.2d 1
PartiesRobert E. VAN ARSDALL, Defendant Below, Appellant, v. STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff Below, Appellee, and Gannett Company, Inc., Intervening Appellee.
Decision Date19 November 1984
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Delaware

Upon appeal from Superior Court. Reversed and remanded for a new trial.

William N. Nicholas (argued), Dover, and John R. Williams (argued) of Prickett, Jones, Elliott, Kristol & Schnee, Dover, for appellant.

Gary A. Myers (argued), Deputy Atty. Gen., Georgetown, for appellee.

Louis J. Finger, of Richards, Layton & Finger, Wilmington, for intervening appellee.

Before McNEILLY, MOORE, and CHRISTIE, JJ.

CHRISTIE, Justice:

This case involves an appeal from a conviction in the Superior Court, Kent County, of murder first degree and possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony.

The defendant, Robert Van Arsdall, was accused of murdering Doris Epps in a friend's apartment, shortly after the conclusion of an all day New Year's Eve party on December 31, 1981. The party, which lasted from approximately 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 midnight, took place in and between two adjacent apartments, one of which was occupied by Daniel Pregent and the other by Robert Fleetwood. It is apparent from the testimony given at trial that various persons had attended the party on and off over the course of the day, and that the defendant was one of those transient guests. The defendant testified that he had stopped in at the party for two brief periods in the late afternoon and early evening; he then returned to the party for a third time at about 11:30 p.m.

The evidence indicated that as the evening wore on, the party lost much of its jovial spirit. Pregent had an altercation with a female guest at one point and had to be restrained. The victim of the homicide, Doris Epps, had passed out by 10:30 p.m., perhaps as a result of excessive use of alcohol. She had been placed in a convertible sofa bed in the living room/bedroom area of Pregent's apartment. A short time later, a second altercation of some kind occurred, this time in Fleetwood's apartment, and this prompted Fleetwood to "close" the party in his apartment to everyone except his two friends, Alice Meinier and Mark Mood.

When the defendant returned to the party for the third time, he entered Pregent's apartment through a back entrance shortly after 11:30 p.m. At that time, only Pregent and the unconscious Doris Epps were present. Fleetwood testified that shortly before going to sleep in his own apartment, he had walked across the hall and looked into Pregent's apartment where he had seen the defendant sitting on the sofa bed next to Pregent's feet. Meinier testified that she, too, walked across the hallway in order to find out what time it was by looking at Pregent's clock, which was located in his kitchen. She stated that when she did this it was 11:53 p.m., and that she saw nothing unusual in the dark living room area of the apartment. Meinier went on to testify that about one hour later, the defendant came to Fleetwood's apartment with blood on his hands and shirt, holding a long, bloody knife.

The police were called and when they arrived a few minutes later, they found Epps' body lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor of Pregent's apartment. Pregent was asleep on the blood-splattered sofa bed in his darkened living room.

Both defendant and Pregent were subsequently arrested and charged with murder first degree. Defendant was tried first. The State relied on the circumstantial evidence outlined above. The defendant took the stand and denied that he took any part in the killing. He testified that he saw Pregent stabbing the victim. He was nevertheless found guilty by the jury. The State did not seek the imposition of capital punishment. Pregent did not testify at Van Arsdall's trial. Pregent was tried later and was found not guilty.

On appeal, the defendant makes many arguments. We find reversible error in one of the trial court's important rulings and, therefore, reverse the defendant's conviction and remand the case for a new trial.

I

The defendant argues that it was error for the trial court to limit his cross-examination of three prosecution witnesses. In the first instance, the defendant contends that the trial court erred by ruling that he could not question Robert Fleetwood about Fleetwood's prior arrest and about a previous occasion on which Fleetwood had been questioned by a detective. The defendant contends that this ruling denied him the opportunity to expose Fleetwood's possible bias in testifying for the State and also deprived defendant of his right to confront the witnesses against him. U.S.Const. amend. VI; Del. Const. art. I, § 7. 1 The defendant argues that the language this Court employed in Weber v. State, Del.Supr., 457 A.2d 674 (1983), makes it clear that we must reverse his conviction. We agree.

It is well established that the bias of a witness is subject to exploration at trial and is "always relevant as discrediting the witness and affecting the weight of his testimony." Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 316, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 1110, 39 L.Ed.2d 347 (1974) [quoting 3A J. Wigmore, Evidence § 940, at 775 (Chadbourn rev.ed. 1970) ]; Weber, 457 A.2d at 680. Moreover, "cross-examination on bias is an essential element of the constitutional right of confrontation." Wintjen v. State, Del.Supr., 398 A.2d 780, 782 (1979). In Weber, we acknowledged the accused's right to a "certain threshold level of cross-examination," and observed that the presumption in favor of cross-examination requires the trial judge to permit inquiry into "any acts, relationships, or motives reasonably likely to create bias." Weber, 457 A.2d at 680, 682.

The trial court may not foreclose a legitimate inquiry into a witness' credibility before the defendant's Sixth Amendment confrontation right has been adequately met. See Weber, 457 A.2d at 681-682; United States v. Mayer, 556 F.2d 245, 250 (5th Cir.1977). In Weber this Court set forth a two-part test for determining whether limitations imposed by the trial judge on a relevant line of cross-examination violate the accused's right of confrontation. Specifically, we said that we would look to the cross-examination permitted to ascertain (1) if the jury were exposed to facts sufficient for it to draw inferences as to the reliability of the witness and (2) if defense counsel had an adequate record from which to argue why the witness might have been biased. Weber, 457 A.2d at 682. See, United States v. Summers, 598 F.2d 450, 461 (5th Cir.1979). Clearly, the trial court's decision to prohibit all questioning concerning the dismissal of charges against Fleetwood for being drunk on the highway prevented the jury from considering facts from which it could have drawn inferences about Fleetwood's testimonial reliability. Under the circumstances, the defense had a right to introduce such testimony.

The State correctly points out that "some topics will be of marginal relevance, and that the trial court in such situations may properly prohibit cross-examination or allow only limited questioning." Weber 457 A.2d at 682. We note, moreover, that under some circumstances a judge may exclude evidence in instances such as these even though bias or prejudice might have been disclosed. Weber, 457 A.2d at 682. See Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 39 L.Ed.2d 347 (1974). The State contends that the defendant's proposed lines of inquiry were only marginally relevant, and that the trial court properly ruled against such cross-examination. However, under the circumstances present in this case, we cannot agree. The question of bias was an important issue before the court and the excluded evidence was central to that issue. 2 We conclude that the trial judge abused his discretion when he ruled that defendant could make no inquiry into Fleetwood's possible understanding that charges pending against him were dismissed in exchange for his cooperation with the State. 3

The State next argues, however, that even if the defendant was deprived of his confrontation right, such error was harmless because Fleetwood's basic testimony was cumulative in nature and unimportant. We noted in Weber that "the standards used to determine if there is a violation of the confrontation clause in the first instance are similar, if not identical, to those used in deciding if the error was harmless." Weber, 457 A.2d at 683. In Reed v. United States, D.C.App., 452 A.2d 1173, 1176-77 (1982), the court stated a test consistent with Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 39 L.Ed.2d 347 (1974), and with our ruling in Weber for determining whether a violation of the confrontation clause is harmless:

Where the record reflects a curtailment of a requested line of bias cross-examination in limine, so that the jury is unable to perform its fact-finding function in inferring bias from the testimony as a whole, we will assess cross-examination errors by a per se error standard. If, however, the trial court has permitted some cross-examination so that the jury has sufficient information from which to infer bias (should it so choose), this Court will evaluate error by application of the harmless constitutional error test of Chapman v. California, supra [386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967) ]. To hold harmless such error in curtailing constitutionally protected cross-examination, it must be clear beyond a reasonable doubt "... that the defendant would not have been convicted without the witness' testimony...." [Citing Springer v. United States, D.C.App., 388 A.2d 846, 856 (1978) ].

We hold that under the circumstances of this case, where the defendant was subjected to a blanket prohibition against exploring potential bias through cross-examination, the trial court committed a per se error. Consequently, the actual prejudicial impact of such an error is not examined and reversal is mandated. See Webb v....

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