State v. Zuroweste

The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the circuit court convicting Defendant of possession of a controlled substance - methamphetamine - holding that while the State clearly violated the rules of discovery by failing timely to disclose a recorded statement Defendant made, the discovery violation did not warrant the sanction of excluding the evidence.Here, the State did not disclose the recorded statement at issue until four days before trial. Defendant filed a pretrial motion to exclude the recorded statement from evidence as a sanction for the alleged discovery violation. Defendant did not seek a continuance as a remedy to the discovery violation in her pretrial motion. The circuit court overruled Defendant's motion to exclude the evidence. The jury returned a verdict finding Defendant guilty of felony possession of methamphetamine. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that because a continuance would have remedied any alleged prejudice to Defendant the circuit court did not abuse its discretion in overruling Defendant's motion for sanctions. View "State v. Zuroweste" on Justia Law