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STATE OF MICHIGAN COURT OF APPEALS

PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v RANDY WAYNE SNYDER, Defendant-Appellant.

UNPUBLISHED August 25, 2009

No. 284272 Genesee Circuit Court LC No. 07-020464-FC

Before: Cavanagh, P.J., and Markey and Davis, JJ. PER CURIAM. Defendant was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder, MCL 750.317, and sentenced as a fourth habitual offender, MCL 769.12, to 25 to 50 years' imprisonment. He appeals as of right. We affirm. I. Relevant Facts and Procedural History Defendant's conviction arises from the October 1996 drowning death of William Beauchamp in Genesee County. Defendant was tried jointly with codefendant Danny Thompson, who was convicted by a separate jury of first-degree premeditated murder, MCL 750.316(1)(a). Testimony at trial indicated that Beauchamp visited the Viking Lounge bar in Flint on October 6, 1996. According to the bartender, Julie Vega, Beauchamp was a frequent customer who appeared to be homeless and mentally unstable. Vega testified that defendant and Thompson came into the bar and sat beside Beauchamp. Thompson told Vega that he intended to "take [Beauchamp] out" because Beauchamp had previously robbed Thompson's grandmother. Beauchamp later left the bar with defendant and Thompson, despite Vega's warning not to go with them. Beauchamp's body was discovered the next morning in the Flint River near a fishing site. A forensic examination revealed that he had been struck on the head with a blunt object and there were markings on his body that were consistent with having been dragged across the ground. The examination also revealed that he was still alive when he entered the water. The examiner determined that the cause of death was drowning, and that the manner of death was homicide.

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Lieutenant Kevin Shanlian of the Genesee County Sheriff's Department investigated Beauchamp's death after receiving information from Vega. Shanlian interviewed Thompson, who stated that he had left the Viking Lounge with his wife and that Beauchamp left with another man. The investigation was eventually discontinued until additional information was received in 2006. Robert Thompson (no relation to codefendant Danny Thompson) testified that he was incarcerated in 2006 and met defendant, who was serving a prison sentence for an unrelated offense. Although defendant had been convicted of second-degree criminal sexual conduct for sexually assaulting his nine-year-old niece, that information was not disclosed to the jury. According to Robert, defendant approached him and inquired whether he could receive a "time cut" on his sentence in exchange for coming forward with information about an unsolved crime. Defendant told Robert that he and codefendant Thompson left a bar with a man against whom Thompson held a grudge, and the three of them drove in defendant's truck to a nearby pond. According to Robert, defendant stated that Thompson hit the man on the head with a 40-ounce bottle and asked defendant for a tire iron, but defendant falsely told Thompson that he did not have a tire iron. Thompson then dragged the man's body to the pond. Defendant told Robert that he wanted to come forward because Beauchamp's death "was bothering him a lot." Defendant subsequently admitted to Robert that he helped drag Beauchamp's body to the water, but only because he was afraid of Thompson. Before trial, defendant and Thompson both sought to exclude evidence of their prior criminal history. Thompson moved to exclude evidence of his prior imprisonment and involvement in a prison gang, but did not object to references to his pretrial incarceration in the Genesee County Jail. Defendant moved to exclude evidence of his prior convictions, but did not object to evidence that he had previously been in prison. The trial court granted both motions. At trial, the prosecution called James Newell, who knew both Thompson and defendant when all three men were incarcerated in St. Louis, Michigan, in 1995. Newell stated that he subsequently encountered Thompson in the Genesee County Jail, where Thompson was incarcerated while awaiting trial in this case. Before Newell testified, defense counsel made the following statement on the record: [Newell] will, I understand, give testimony that will impact the defenses of both of the defendants and he will give testimony about statements made by Mr. Thompson I understand that Mr. Snyder may have been present for. Technically, he maybe shouldn't be testifying in front of Mr. Snyder's jury because of the Bruton rule. However, because of our strategy in the case and the fact that we don't mind if the jury knows that Mr. Snyder was incarcerated and was in a gang and those sorts of things, I just want to put on the record, as a matter of strategy, we don't need to have Mr. Snyder's jury excused for any of the testimony. Newell testified that he overheard a conversation between Thompson and defendant in 1995. He heard Thompson say to defendant that "a guy needed to die" because he had done something wrong to Thompson's mother. Newell testified that Thompson's exact words were, "The bitch needs to die." Newell also testified that Thompson told him the history of his

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involvement in Beauchamp's death while they were both incarcerated in the county jail. Thompson told him that he and defendant left the bar with Beauchamp. Newell further stated: [After leaving the bar] [t]hey ended up out to his old fishing spot and he said a little quarrel broke out. Danny told me a little quarrel broke out between him and the guy that got killed and he said that guy had hit him in the mouth, and then he had Randy hit that guy with a blunt object and they took him and threw him in the fishing hole and left him. Thompson told Newell that "he had buffaloed the detectives" and that he "had the detectives believing that he had put it off on [defendant] so they would get off from him." The prosecutor asked Newell what Thompson had said about defendant. Newell asked the prosecutor if she wanted to hear Thompson's exact words. After the trial court briefly conferred with counsel, the prosecutor asked Newell to give Thompson's exact words. Newell replied, "Danny told me if ran

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