The Indiana Court docket of Appeals reversed an East Chicago man’s conviction on Nov. 4 after his protection lawyer by no means noticed the detective’s mobile phone re-recording of the safety video.
Anthony Cobb, 32, might get a brand new trial.
In September 2023, he was sentenced to 12 years for housebreaking and tried arson for allegedly going into his ex-girlfriend’s Gary house in March 2021 and setting the range on hearth whereas she was gone.
In the course of the investigation, a Methodist Hospitals safety supervisor by accident despatched 9,000 nonetheless pictures of the safety footage on a flash drive to Gary Police Det. JerVean Gates. It was turned over to the protection one week earlier than the trial began.
In the course of the two-day trial in September 2023, prosecutors mentioned thrice the video footage was gone — i.e. purged from the hospital’s system.
“Your Honor, that is the State’s finest proof,” a prosecutor advised Decide Salvador Vasquez. “There isn’t any video in existence.”
Vasquez accepted the reason and allowed Deputy Prosecutors Jacqueline Altpeter and Keith Anderson to make use of 5 nonetheless pictures, plus the safety supervisor’s testimony on what he noticed and pulled from the footage.
Court docket information state the 12 minutes of video confirmed a automobile within the alley, then a “mild,” i.e. hearth contained in the house.
However, because the state’s final witness, Det. Gates testified he had recorded a replica on his mobile phone off a monitor, nevertheless it was too giant to switch. He had proven the footage to the sufferer on the police station, who recognized Cobb on it.
Vasquez erred by permitting the 5 photos and testimony when a mobile phone recording of the unique footage nonetheless existed, which was the higher proof, Appeals Decide Dana Kenworthy wrote in a 3-0 opinion.
“(Protection lawyer John Cantrell) by no means noticed the video — earlier than or throughout trial,” Kenworthy wrote.
“This severely restricted his potential to successfully cross-examine the witnesses,” she wrote. “It additionally severely restricted his potential to lodge knowledgeable objections to the admission of secondary proof. That the State offered the protection with a full set of pictures in supplemental discovery makes no distinction. Not solely was there a dearth of proof about how the system produced the pictures, however the State offered the 9,006 pictures solely every week earlier than trial, though the case had been pending for over two years.”
It was “considerably dangerous” to Cobb’s case, she wrote.
“The pictures and testimony concerning the video mixed had been the “smoking gun” that positioned Cobb bodily on the scene someday on the night time of the break-in,” the appeals decide wrote. “The inaccurate admission of the proof was not innocent error. And since this proof was extremely prejudicial to Cobb, we maintain its inaccurate admission constitutes reversible error.”
Indiana Legal professional Normal Todd Rokita’s workplace can attraction to the Indiana Supreme Court docket, or the case can be returned to probably retry in Lake County.
On-line filings don’t present a future courtroom date.
Jail information present Cobb is serving a 5-year sentence for a 2021 gun case. His earliest launch date is in Could 2026.
mcolias@post-trib.com
