People of Michigan v. Dezmen Faqua, 331478

Defendant Dezmen Faqua was convicted after a bench trial of second-degree murder, assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, carjacking, armed robbery, felon in possession of a firearm, and felony-firearm for a fatal Wendy’s drive‑thru shooting in Detroit.
Victims: Christopher Reed (killed) and his two young sons, CJ (9) and CS (8), who were in the car and identified Faqua as the passenger gunman; CJ suffered a thumb gunshot wound.
Additional evidence: the day after the crime Faqua allegedly tried to sell a Rolex matching Reed’s watch; police recovered shell casings of two calibers and a bullet hole in the passenger door.
At trial defense counsel vigorously cross‑examined the children and argued identifications were unreliable, coached, and affected by memory decay and post‑event information, but did not call expert witnesses on eyewitness reliability.
Faqua appealed, arguing ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to investigate and present expert testimony on eyewitness identification; he did not preserve the claim in the trial court or seek a Ginther hearing, so review was limited to errors apparent on the record.
The Court of Appeals affirmed, concluding counsel’s cross‑examination and arguments constituted reasonable strategy and that expert testimony would not likely have changed the outcome given corroborating evidence.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether counsel was ineffective for not presenting expert eyewitness‑identification testimony	People: Counsel’s performance was not deficient and trial strategy adequately attacked identifications	Faqua: Counsel should have investigated and presented experts to undermine the children’s IDs	Court: No ineffective assistance; counsel’s cross‑examination/argument was reasonable strategy and failure to call experts did not prejudice defendant
Whether remand/Ginther hearing required to develop ineffective‑assistance record	People: No remand; defendant failed to preserve and cannot show prejudice from record	Faqua: Remand for Ginther hearing needed to develop expert record	Court: No remand; record shows no reasonable probability expert testimony would have changed outcome

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1975) (two‑part test for ineffective assistance of counsel)
People v. Jackson (On Reconsideration), 313 Mich. App. 409 (2015) (witness‑calling decisions are presumed strategic)
People v. Chapo, 283 Mich. App. 360 (2009) (failure to call witness constitutes ineffective assistance only if it deprives defendant of a substantial defense)
People v. Davis, 250 Mich. App. 357 (2002) (limits review where claim not preserved; review confined to errors apparent on the record)
People v. Payne, 285 Mich. App. 181 (2009) (court will not judge counsel with hindsight)
People v. Ginther, 390 Mich. 436 (1973) (procedure for evidentiary hearing on ineffective‑assistance claims)