Hatcher v. State
| Decision Date | 04 October 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 89-2469,89-2469 |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
| Parties | 15 Fla. L. Weekly D2478 Raymond Ivery HATCHER, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
Barbara Linthicum, Public Defender, and Lynn A. Williams, Asst. Public Defender, Tallahassee, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and Gypsy Bailey, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellee.
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, Hatcher 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:
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 caused an accident. The court did not permit the witnesses to testify that Hatcher 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...
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