WOODLAND — Attorneys for Woodland murder defendant Samantha Lee Green will get the evidence they’re entitled to under pretrial discovery laws, but prosecutors don’t have to tip their hand in the process, a Yolo Superior Court judge ruled Monday.
Lawyers for Green, who is accused of killing her 3-week-old son Justice Rees in February by leaving him overnight on the bank of a Knights Landing slough, have accused the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office of withholding crucial materials in the case.
Specifically, the defense is seeking the information that led prosecutors to file a murder count against Green a week after initially charging her with involuntary manslaughter. Copies of search warrants and subpoenaed materials are on the defense’s wish list, too.
“All of this is stuff that is material to the case that the defense is entitled to have,” Deputy Public Defender Dave Muller said during a hearing on the issue Monday in Judge David Rosenberg’s courtroom.
Deputy District Attorney Ryan Couzens, who is prosecuting the case, countered that his office has provided the defense with virtually all of the evidence generated thus far in the four-month investigation.
“We’ve given them the world, with the exception of Saipan,” Couzens said, comparing the amount of evidence that hasn’t changed hands to the tiny island near Guam. “What they’re really asking for is not the evidence, but our thought process regarding the evidence.”
Rosenberg responded by instructing prosecutors to continue complying with the rules of discovery as defined in the state penal code, which requires them to provide the defense with information such as witness statements, evidence seized during the investigation, and exculpatory evidence.
“Beyond that, the court will not go,” Rosenberg said, telling Muller he would not “delve into prosecutors’ strategic decision-making, (their) thought processes or deliberations. … It’s a very slippery slope.”
Rosenberg also reiterated an earlier ruling that the DA’s decision to amend Green’s charges based on unspecified “new information” — which occurred a day after the defense unveiled a plan for Green to plead no contest to involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment — did not amount to vindictive prosecution.
Green, 23, is due back in court July 13 for further pretrial proceedings. She remains on a no-bail hold at the Yolo County Jail.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene