U.S. v. Pruett, 85-1732

• Decision Date: 22 April 1986
• Docket Number: No. 85-1732,85-1732
• Citation: 788 F.2d 1395
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Jerry Winford PRUETT, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1395

788 F.2d 1395

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Jerry Winford PRUETT, Appellant.

No. 85-1732.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Jan. 14, 1986.

Decided April 22, 1986.

James Delworth, Asst. Federal Public Defender, St. Louis, Mo., for appellant.

David Rosen, Asst. U.S. Atty., St. Louis, Mo., for appellee.

Before LAY, Chief Judge, BRIGHT, Senior Circuit Judge, and ROSS, Circuit Judge.

LAY, Chief Judge.

Jerry Winford Pruett appeals from a jury verdict convicting him of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in violation of 18 U.S.C.App. Sec. 1202(a)(1) (1982). Pruett cites as error the district court's ¹ denial of his pretrial motion for a continuance due to the unforeseen absence of a subpoenaed material witness, Doug Nix. Pruett's counsel requested the continuance on the day of trial, explaining in chambers that Nix would not be appearing at trial because his father had died and Nix was travelling to another state to attend the funeral. The motion was denied for the reason that Nix's testimony was determined by the court to be cumulative. After oral argument on appeal, we remanded the case to the district court for a hearing to determine the materiality of Nix's intended testimony.

Pursuant to our remand, the district court conducted a hearing on February 11, 1986 and issued an order certifying to this court its findings made based upon those proceedings. The district court described Nix's testimony, reaffirmed its earlier conclusion that Nix's testimony was cumulative to the evidence presented to the jury at trial, and found that Pruett was not unfairly prejudiced by the continuance's denial. After review of the entire record, including the district court's findings from the hearing on remand, we now conclude that it was prejudicial error to deny Pruett's motion for a continuance. We reverse and remand to the district court for a new trial.

There is little question that a district court has wide discretion in ruling on motions for continuances, and a court's exercise of that discretion will rarely be overturned. See United States v. Little, 567 F.2d 346, 348 (8th Cir.1977), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 969, 98 S.Ct. 1608, 56 L.Ed.2d 60 (1978) (citations omitted). This court has previously listed five factors which a trial court should balance in ruling on a motion for a continuance, including the nature of the case, the diligence of the party requesting the continuance, the opposing party's conduct, the effect of the delay on both parties, and the asserted need for the continuance. United States v. Bernhardt, 642 F.2d 251, 252 (8th Cir.1981) (per curiam), citing Little, 567 F.2d at 348-49. Though no single factor is dispositive in determining whether a continuance is warranted, it is our view that the district court did not properly balance these factors in the context of the record that was before it when its ruling was made, see United States v. Olson, 697 F.2d 273, 275 (8th Cir.1983), appeal after remand, 730 F.2d 544 (8th Cir.1984), and that it was an abuse of discretion to deny Pruett's continuance request.

The record shows that Pruett's asserted need for the continuance was based on the death of Nix's father immediately before the trial and the materiality of Nix's testimony to Pruett's defense. Sudden exigencies and unforeseen circumstances are facts that militate in favor of a continuance. Little, 567 F.2d at 349. Not only do we believe that the death immediately before trial of the parent of one of the defendant's two material witnesses scheduled to testify is a sudden exigency or unforeseen circumstance, but this court has previously recognized that a personal tragedy may be grounds to grant a motion for a continuance. Cf. Johnson v. Wyrick, 653 F.2d 1234, 1241 (8th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1149, 102 S.Ct. 1013, 71 L.Ed.2d 302 (1982) (defense witness should have been available to testify in murder trial on less than a day's notice, barring a personal tragedy). While not dispositive in determining whether a continuance should be granted, we do not believe that this factor is one to be lightly dismissed.

The factor which weighed most heavily in the district court's determination that denial of a continuance was appropriate was whether Nix's testimony was material to Pruett's defense. The record reveals that the success of the government's case against Pruett relied in part on drawing an inference from the presence of a gun on a table in Pruett's apartment to indicate Pruett's dominion and control over that gun sufficient to constitute constructive possession of the weapon. See 1 E. Devitt & C. Blackmar, Federal Jury Practice and Instructions Sec. 16.07 (3d ed. 1977); Johnson v. United States, 506 F.2d 640, 642-43 n. 4 (8th Cir.1974), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 978, 95 S.Ct. 1404, 43 L.Ed.2d 659 (1975) (elements of constructive possession). Pruett's defense was based on the testimony of two witnesses, Gene Veasey and Nix, who had been at Pruett's apartment the day before the discovery of the gun in Pruett's home. Veasey testified at trial that he owned the gun and that he brought the gun to Pruett's home the day before the gun's discovery pursuant to an earlier discussion between Veasey and Nix, in which Nix had indicated he was considering obtaining a weapon for his wife's use. Nix's intended testimony, as the district court's order indicates, was substantially similar to Veasey's account. Pruett's attorney argued to the district court that Nix's testimony was material because it would corroborate Veasey's version of the facts and enhance the credibility of Pruett's defense against the government's case of constructive possession. We agree.

While it is difficult, if not impossible, to quantify the effect an absent witness's testimony would have had on the jury's deliberations, we note that we are presented here not with the absence of an additional witness when several others have given substantially similar testimony, but with the absence of the only other party to the transaction who could corroborate Veasey's testimony and exculpate Pruett. It is axiomatic that the art of persuasion often turns on the skill of corroboration. Contrary to the district court's evaluation of Nix's intended testimony as cumulative or as mere surplusage to the evidence already presented at trial, we believe that the fact that Nix's testimony tracked Veasey's does not defeat but rather reinforces a finding of materiality. We believe that Nix's testimony was crucial to Pruett's defense, and that it was error for the district court to find that it was not material.

In addition, although there is no allegation that the government's conduct was improper, we also note that there has been no showing by the government that a continuance would have adversely affected the government's prosecution of this case. And although the facts of this case may not appear especially complex, we find that the burden the defendant must shoulder here to rebut the government's constructive possession case when one of two crucial witnesses is unavailable militates in favor of granting an extension of time for trial. Moreover, Pruett's counsel timely informed the court of Nix's absence as soon as he learned of it. We do not believe that under these circumstances a lack of due diligence was demonstrated when Pruett's counsel did not request the trial court to...