Defense Says Trial Counsel’s Use of Forensic Report Undermined Holbrooks’s Trial; State Calls Evidence Overwhelming

At a post-conviction hearing, defense counsel for Adonis Holbrooks argued that trial counsel George Thompson’s decision to stipulate to and offer a forensic examiner’s report was a deficient tactic that prejudiced Holbrooks’s trial. The defense said the report contained a damaging conclusion — quoted in court from the examiner’s findings — that there was "little evidence to support Mister Holbrook's position" that he believed he was speaking with someone of legal age.

The defense told the court it did not concede other claims of ineffective assistance but focused on the report’s admission as the clearest error. "I think there is prejudice here," defense counsel told the panel, arguing that the report reached the jury immediately after Holbrooks testified and undercut his account. Counsel urged the court to recognize that the trial record shows the parties had expected a redacted stipulation and that trial counsel testified at the post-conviction hearing he did not intend for the report’s most damaging sentence to reach the jury.

Ben Ball, counsel for the state, said the report nonetheless served a useful purpose for the defense by showing the defendant’s theory was technologically plausible — that accounts and devices can appear to be associated with a parent’s device — even if the examiner also concluded there was "little evidence" to support the defendant’s version of events. "The evidence here was frankly overwhelming," Ball said, arguing that photographic and message evidence in the record showed awareness the other participant was a minor and that, even if the single sentence in the report was unfortunate, it did not create the type of prejudice required to overturn a conviction.

Defense counsel told the court there were less risky ways to obtain the helpful portion of the examiner’s findings — for example by using Bond’s analysis to shape cross-examination of the state’s expert or by asking targeted questions about metadata and timestamps — rather than introducing the full report by stipulation. Counsel emphasized uncertainty in the record over how the stipulated report was entered and whether the allegedly redacted language actually reached the jury because the transcript shows the full conclusion in the exhibit before the post-conviction court.

Judges on the panel questioned both sides about whether the report’s language could reasonably be read as saying there was "little" versus "no" evidence and whether the decision to admit it was a tactical one. The state characterized the entry of the report as a reasonable strategy that supported a defense plausibility argument, while the defense said trial counsel’s testimony made clear the outcome was not what counsel intended.

The hearing record shows the forensic report included observations that messages and three FaceTime calls occurred among the devices at issue and concluded the examiner found "little evidence to support" Holbrooks’s claim he thought he was communicating with an adult. The defense argued those limited helpful findings could have been elicited without placing the full report — and its concluding language — before the jury.

The court took a short recess and did not announce a ruling on the post-conviction petition during the hearing.