ALBANY – A judge’s attempt to gauge the fitness of a key prosecution witness to testify at trial by interviewing the man in camera without defense counsel present violated the defendants’ rights, the state Court of Appeals held in reversing the murder convictions of two men.
The 5-2 court said that the mental and emotional condition of witness Gary Rose, identified by the appeals court as the prosecution’s star witness, was “inextricably tied to his credibility” and an issue that went to the heart of the defense of Lee Carr and Walter Cates Sr., the men that Rose accused of helping commit the murder.
