Massa, J.
Thomas Hale appeals his conviction for dealing in methamphetamine, on the sole grounds that the trial court abused its discretion in failing to grant him, at public expense, depositions of two State’s witnesses. We find that our prior precedent compels us to agree with Hale and reverse his conviction, but take this opportunity to provide guidance as to how trial courts should address such motions in the future.
Facts and Procedural History
Hale was charged with Class A Dealing in Methamphetamine in Huntington, Indiana. Hale requested a public defender on the grounds of indigence, and the trial court appointed him counsel. After learning that two of his potential co-defendants, Amanda Casto and Greggory Fisher, entered pleas with the State, Hale moved to depose them at public expense. The trial court denied Hale’s motion the same day, without a hearing or any findings of fact in support. Casto and Fisher testified at trial, without an objection from Hale. The jury found him guilty, and the trial court sentenced Hale to forty years’ imprisonment.
Hale appealed, and a majority of the Court of Appeals affirmed, finding Hale waived his objection by failing to re-raise it when Casto and Fisher were called to testify. Hale v. State, 44 N.E.3d 130, 133–34 (Ind. Ct. App. 2015). The dissent, however, would have granted Hale’s requested relief on the basis of our decision in Murphy, where this Court held that denying a defendant the opportunity to depose State witnesses at public expense was an abuse of discretion and reversible error. Id. at 134–35 (Mathias, J., dissenting) (citing Murphy v. State, 265 Ind. 116, 120–21, 352 N.E.2d 479, 482–83 (1976)).
We granted transfer, thereby vacating the Court of Appeals opinion below. Hale v. State, 43 N.E.3d 1278 (Ind. 2016) (table); Ind. Appellate Rule 58(A).
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The Trial Court Should Issue Findings When Denying an Indigent Defendant’s Motion to Depose State Witnesses at Public Expense.
Depositions are a routine component of pre-trial practice, both in civil and criminal matters. … Typically, leave of court is not required in order to depose a witness, see Ind. Trial Rule 30(A), but as we noted in Murphy, “inasmuch as the defendant here was an indigent and the cost of such action would ultimately have had to have been paid from public funds, subject to the approval of the court, it was altogether appropriate for counsel to seek prior approval.” …
The Indiana Rules of Trial Procedure came into force in 1970, and just a year later, this Court laid out the following three-part balancing test for addressing a defendant’s discovery request in a criminal case: “(1) Is there a sufficient designation of the items sought to be discovered?”; “(2) Is the item sought to be discovered material to the defense?”; and “(3) Has the State made a sufficient showing of its paramount interest, if any, in non-disclosure?” Dillard v. State, 257 Ind. 282, 291–92, 274 N.E.2d 387, 392 (1971). …
Here, Hale sought to depose two State’s witnesses, after they had pleaded guilty to pending charges and were disclosed as State’s witnesses. … Yet the motion was denied the same day it was filed, without explanation. …
The State argues that Murphy is inapplicable because Hale waived his claim by failing to re-raise his objection to (and, indeed, performed a vigorous cross-examination of) these two witnesses at trial. … It does not appear that in Murphy the defendant raised any trial objection to the witnesses whose depositions he had previously sought. It is also unclear whether the Murphy Court found the pretrial motion was sufficient to preserve the claim on appeal, or whether the Court found the denial of the defendant’s requested depositions sufficiently interfered with due process to constitute fundamental error. …We therefore find it unnecessary to address this ambiguity in appellate posture in detail, as the outcome remains clear: given how closely these facts parallel those in Murphy, which reversed the conviction, it was an abuse of discretion for the trial court to deny Hale his requested depositions, and Hale’s conviction too must be reversed.
That being said, we also wish to give our trial courts further guidance as to how to treat such motions in the future. We have not previously had occasion to revisit Murphy, but we have upheld and more fully developed the three-part Dillard test several times, most recently in Crawford: “(1) there must be sufficient designation of the items sought to be discovered (particularity); (2) the items requested must be material to the defense (relevance or materiality); and (3) if the first two requirements are met, the trial court must grant the request unless there is a showing of paramount interest in nondisclosure.” 948 N.E.2d at 1168 (emphasis added). …
Given these competing concerns, we believe that when the trial court denies an indigent defendant’s motion to conduct a deposition at public expense, the court should issue factual findings addressing each part of the Dillard/Crawford test. The trial judge is ultimately in the best position to consider the sincerity of the parties’ arguments regarding the three-part test, as well as the overall costs associated with the proposed depositions, and potential alternatives that may better promote pre-trial efficiency of the case. But without the benefit of knowing the trial court’s rationale, our appellate courts are forced to presume that “exculpatory or mitigating evidence would have surfaced from the depositions sought.” Murphy, 265 Ind. at 121, 352 N.E.2d at 483. Specific findings by the trial court, however, should resolve that ambiguity going forward.
Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, we reverse Hale’s conviction for Class A Dealing in Methamphetamine and remand for a new trial.
Rush, C.J., and Rucker, David and Slaughter, JJ., concur.