1 [Counsel confer.] MS. SHEIN: Your Honor, that s all we have for this witness. MR. MALCOLM: Nothing further for this witness, Your Honor. THE COURT: Can this witness be excused? MS. SHEIN: Yes, he can. THE COURT: Any objection? MR. MALCOLM: No, Your Honor. THE COURT: You are free to go, sir. THE WITNESS: Thank you. It will take me just a moment to pack this up. [Witness excused.] [Brief recess.] [WHEREUPON, Petitioner's Exhibits No. and were admitted for the record only.] * * * MR. MALCOLM: Your Honor, the Respondent would call Mr. Rick Chambers to the witness stand. And he s already up there, so I ll swear you in, Mr. Chambers. Would you raise your right hand. Whereupon, RICK CHAMBERS, having been duly sworn under oath, was examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION 1 BY MR. MALCOLM: Q. Go ahead and state and spell your name for the record, please. A. Rick Chambers, R-I-C-K C-H-A-M-B-E-R-S. Q. And how are you currently employed, sir? A. Chambers Consulting & Security. I have an investigating business. Q. Okay. How were you employed prior to your current employment? A. City of Atlanta Police Department. Q. Okay. In what capacity in that City of Atlanta Police Department? A. When I retired, I was a supervisor in Major Crimes. Q. All right. Were you a detective involved directly in the Scott Davis case some years ago? A. Yes, I was. Q. And were you one of the primary detectives who participated in the interview of Scott Davis in regards to the homicide investigation? A. I did. Q. All right. And I believe it was you and Detective Walker? A. That s correct. Q. All right. Do you have a recollection of how the
1 interview proceeded with Mr. Davis? A. Yes. Q. And where is that interview at? A. It was, at the time, the City of Atlanta Homicide Office. Q. All right. And do you recall how that interview -- how you came to interview Scott Davis? A. He became a person of interest in the case when we were looking -- when we were working the homicide of David Coffin. Q. Now was this interview with Mr. Davis recorded? A. Yes, it was. Q. And how was it recorded? A. On a tape recorder. Q. All right. And what kind of tape recorder was it? A. Just your basic cassette recorder. Q. One of the old ones? A. Yes. Q. All right. Now were you present in the interview room with Mr. Davis at all times, or were you in and out of the room? A. We were in and out of the room. Q. And why was that? A. Because we were going to clarify points that Mr. Davis was making in his statement to us.
Q. Was the tape recording ever stopped and restarted by you? 1 A. Not by me. Q. The other detectives? A. Yes, it was by Detective Walker. Q. Okay. And do you recall how many times? A. To my knowledge, once -- Q. Okay. A. -- to turn the tape over. Q. Is it possible that it was stopped and started again for some other reason? A. It s possible. Q. All right. At any point during the interview did you or Detective Walker or any other law enforcement official in the room at the time shut off the recording device and threaten Mr. Davis in any capacity? Q. Was anybody threatening Mr. Davis in regards to he was going to get the death penalty? Q. Did you or any of the other detectives, to your knowledge, alter the actual tape recording of the interview of Mr. Davis? Q. Was there more than one recording device in the
1 interview room? Q. Was there anything on the actual tape that you used or y all used to record the interview with Mr. Davis before y all started recording his interview? A. It was Detective Walker s tape, and I believe he had another interview on there that we taped over. MR. MALCOLM: That s all, Your Honor. Thank you. CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MR. ABT: Q. Good morning, Detective Chambers. A. Good morning. Q. How are you? A. Good. Q. My name is Jay Abt. I m one of the attorneys for Mr. Davis here today. I ll try to be relatively brief, but you indicated that to the best of your recollection the only time the tape was stopped was to turn the tape over? A. That s right. It may have been stopped one time to get Mr. Davis some water or something to drink one time, but other that was it -- other than that. Q. Okay. And do you recall testifying consistently with that at trial, pretrial, and other hearings in this case? A. Yes. Q. And you re saying here today that it is possible that 0
1 you stopped the tape another time to get a drink of water? A. Not for me, for Mr. Davis that s possible. Q. It s possible but you don t know? A. I don t recall. Q. You don t recall today? Q. Do you remember whether you testified at trial about whether there were other stops other than turning the tape over? A. I m not sure. Q. Okay. I m going to ask you to -- I m going to ask if you remember giving -- being asked the following questions and giving the following answers in your trial testimony. And just for the purposes of identification, I m on Page of the trial transcript. Were you asked the following questions? Q. Now several times on the tape it sounded from your comments that the tape had been stopped; do you agree with that? A. Okay. One time the tape was stopped to be turned over. Q. There s another reference to the tape stopping as well; do you recall that? MR. MALCOLM: Your Honor, if I may, essentially what 1
1 he just read is essentially what Mr. Chambers just testified to. MR. ABT: Well, I m going to ask him if he -- MR. MALCOLM: If he doesn t recall it, it s not -- I don t know what the purpose of this is. MR. ABT: I don t know if he can object to a question I haven t asked yet. THE COURT: All right. Go ahead and ask the question, Mr. Abt. BY MR. ABT: [Resuming] Q. Do you recall being asked those questions and giving those answers? A. I do. Q. So your testimony at trial was there were no other starts and stops other than turning the tape over? A. That s true. Q. And do you have any formal training or expertise with respect to audio recordings and analyzing audio tapes? A. I do not. Q. Do you have any specific training with respect to the operation of a tape recorder? A. Other than hitting the button to start it and hitting the button to stop it, no, sir, I do not. Q. Other than that, you have no other training; correct?
1 Q. And it s your testimony here today that you did not alter the tape, you did not -- A. As it was five years ago, as it was at every motion hearing, as it was every time I ve testified in this case, it s -- the answers are still the same. Q. And you never made any erasures? A. Never erased it, never altered it, never had a second recorder, never stopped it, started it, never threatened Mr. Davis, never threatened to shoot Mr. Davis, never threatened to give Mr. Davis the death penalty, never threatened to hit Mr. Davis -- Q. That s not my question. A. We actually took Mr. Davis home that night. Q. That s not my question, sir. A. I m just telling you. We were getting to it, so -- Q. I understand. You re very adamant about that, I understand. Do you -- do you ever communicate by email? A. I do. Q. Okay. Do you have an email address deathtodisloyal@yahoo.com? A. I do not. Q. Okay. A. I do not. My email address is rick@windstream.net. Q. Okay. Have you ever had an email address that sounds
1 familiar to that? A. No, I ve -- the only email address I ve ever had is the one I just gave you and the one I had when I was with the City of Atlanta Police Department. Q. Do you have a Blackberry device or a cell phone? A. I do. Q. Okay. Is it a Blackberry? A. No. Q. In -- what type of cellular device do you have? A. I have an iphone. Q. Okay. Did you have the same iphone in March of? A. Yes. Q. Okay. And what is -- do you mind if I ask you what the cell phone number is? A. 0--. Q. Have you ever -- are you aware that Mr. Davis, Scott Davis, has a website? A. I am not. Q. Okay. And you ve never gone to that web -- A. Never gone to it. Q. You ve never blogged on it? A. Never blogged on it. I don t blog. I ve never blogged. Q. And it s your testimony here today that you do not go by the handle deathtodisloyal@yahoo.com?
1 A. Absolutely. Q. Very good. MR. ABT: One moment, Your Honor. [Counsel confer.] MR. ABT: No other questions, Your Honor. THE COURT: Anything else, Mr. Malcolm? MR. MALCOLM: No, Your Honor. THE COURT: Can this witness be excused? MR. MALCOLM: Yes, Your Honor. THE COURT: Any objection? MS. SHEIN: No objection, Your Honor. THE COURT: You may step down. Thank you. THE WITNESS: Thank you. [Witness excused.] THE COURT: Okay. As I understand it, other than Mr. Morris, we are done with witnesses? MS. SHEIN: That s correct, Your Honor. MR. MALCOLM: Yes, Your Honor. THE COURT: And we re going to proceed now with brief closing arguments? MS. SHEIN: Yes. MR. ABT: Judge, can we have maybe a ten minute break before -- THE COURT: Sure, as much as you want. Ten? Will that do it?