David Buckham, Appellant v. State of Delaware, Appellee.

Summary

The court reversed Buckham's convictions and remanded for a new trial because the trial court improperly permitted a prosecution witness to consult privately with counsel during direct testimony and then barred cross-examination about the consultation, and because it upheld an overbroad cell-phone warrant and admitted resulting Facebook messages as plain error. The witness consultation materially affected the credibility assessment in a case dependent on inconsistent eyewitness testimony, while the warrant authorized a search far broader than the probable cause supporting it. The court did not decide whether restricting cross-examination independently violated the Confrontation Clause because reversal was required on other grounds.