State v. Webster

PUDLOWSKI, Presiding Judge.

This is an appeal from a conviction by jury of capital murder. Defendant alleges that the trial court erred in permitting the prosecutor to create an adverse inference in the minds of the jurors by the failure of the defense to call an allegedly “equally available” witness, who had been endorsed by the prosecution as a potential state witness. We affirm.

The evidence adduced at trial tended to show that at approximately 12:00 a.m. on June 4, 1981, Steven Horne, George Baker and Yvonne Harris went to George’s mother’s house in St. Louis. Steven Horne stayed outside…