State of Washington v. Anthony John Tudor, II, 33769-3

Anthony Tudor was tried for first-degree murder; originally both he and Richard Klepacki were arrested, but Klepacki’s case was severed and Tudor was tried alone.
The State’s theory at trial was that Klepacki was the shooter; Tudor maintained an alibi and advanced misidentification and "other suspect" (Andrew Lankford) defenses.
The defense elicited testimony linking Lankford to the scene: footprints toward his house, cell-phone records undermining his alibi, and that the perpetrator’s description (dark complexion, young) fit Lankford but not Tudor (fair) or Klepacki (in his 50s).
Lankford testified for the State and was available for the jury to view; an eyewitness initially had said a photo “probably” showed the shooter but at trial declined to identify the person in that photograph as the shooter.
The trial court excluded exhibit 101 (a photo of Lankford) because the defense failed to establish it depicted the shooter and because counsel had referenced facts outside the record; the court otherwise permitted other-suspect evidence and did not restrict closing on that theory.
Tudor was convicted; on appeal he argued the exclusion of the photograph violated his constitutional right to present a defense and that closing-argument restrictions were improper.

Issue	Tudor’s Argument	State’s Argument	Held
Whether exclusion of a photograph of Lankford improperly limited Tudor’s right to present an other-suspect defense	Excluding the photo prevented Tudor from presenting direct evidence tying Lankford to the crime	The photo was not properly tied to the shooter and counsel referenced facts outside the record; court lawfully excluded it	Exclusion was not an abuse of discretion and not prejudicial; admission would have been cumulative
Whether any error in excluding the photo was reversible constitutional error	Photo exclusion undermined Tudor’s defense and was harmful beyond harmless-error standard	Any error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt because jury knew of the prior identification, learned the photo depicted Lankford, and saw Lankford testify	Any error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt; no reversible constitutional error
Whether the trial court improperly restricted Tudor’s closing argument	Court prevented arguing Lankford was the shooter	Court allowed argument based on evidence but prohibited argument based on facts outside the record	No improper restriction; Tudor did not seek to identify Lankford in closing and court permitted arguments grounded in evidence
Standard of review for excluding other-suspect evidence	N/A (issue about application)	Trial court decisions reviewed for abuse of discretion	Exclusion reviewed for abuse of discretion; here none occurred

State v. Franklin, 180 Wn.2d 371 (2014) (other-suspect evidence admissible if relevant and not unduly prejudicial; ER 403-type balancing)
State v. Thomas, 150 Wn.2d 821 (2004) (trial court’s exclusion of other-suspect evidence reviewed for abuse of discretion)