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State v. Dixon6/3/2005
was involved in the commission of the crime with which Mr. Dixon is charged. You should consider with caution the testimony of an accomplice."
Dixon relies on Commonwealth v. Ciampa, 406 Mass. 257, 547 N.E.2d 314 (1989), to support his contention the jury should have been instructed that the plea agreement did not guarantee the truthfulness of Hall's testimony. In Ciampa, the government's case depended greatly on the credibility of a witness named DeVincenzi. The jury deliberated for 4 days and asked for further instructions on determining the credibility of witnesses. In Ciampa, unlike the present case, the agreement was admitted into evidence and various provisions of the agreement that spuriously bolstered the credibility of DeVincenzi should have been redacted but were not. Over objection, the prosecutor read the agreement to DeVincenzi and asked him about his understanding of each paragraph. Then, also over objection, the prosecutor introduced DeVincenzi's testimony that his attorney signed a statement representing that DeVincenzi understood the agreement, his attorney had reviewed the agreement with him, and his attorney believed DeVincenzi's decision to enter into the agreement to be an informed and voluntary one. The Massachusetts court concluded that the defendant was prejudiced "from admission of the plea agreement with damaging provisions not deleted and from DeVincenzi's testimony concerning his attorney's involvement with the plea agreement." 406 Mass. at 263. The Massachusetts court further concluded that such prejudice "was not alleviated by the judge's charge." 406 Mass. at 263.
Ciampa is distinguishable from the present case on a number of counts. In this case, the State's case did not depend heavily on Hall's testimony--because Hall did not accompany Dixon during the second burglary of Alicia's apartment, he had no testimony to offer relevant to the cause of the explosion and fire. The questions asked by the jurors in this case include no expression of concern about determining the credibility of witnesses. Neither the plea agreement nor the journal entry of sentencing for Hall was admitted into evidence. There was no implication that Hall's attorney vouched for his truthfulness. Thus, the prejudice found by the Massachusetts court is not apparent in the present case. Because the trial court did not need to alleviate prejudice with cautionary instructions in this case, the instructions deemed necessary by the Massachusetts court in Ciampa are extraneous. In this case, the instructions on the weight and credibility of witness testimony and accomplice testimony, taken together with all the other instructions, fairly stated the law as applied to the facts and a jury could not reasonably have been misled by them. The trial court did not commit error is not giving the requested instruction.
12. WAS THE EVIDENCE SUFFICIENT TO ESTABLISH THAT DIXON WAS CRIMINALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE EXPLOSION AND FIRE?
Dixon contends that the State's evidence showed that he was in Alicia's apartment in the early morning hours of July 29 and that a malfunction of the stove caused the natural gas explosion, but that the evidence did not prove that he caused the explosion. The State's response is that this issue is moot because Dixon was not convicted of aggravated arson. The evidence that Dixon caused gas to leak, which eventually exploded and fueled the fire was the basis for his convictions of felony murder for the deaths of Dana and Gabriel Hudson and of aggravated battery for the five injured victims. Hence, evidence showing that Dixon was criminally responsible for the explosion and fire was essential to the case.
There are several related aspects to Dixon's ar
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