record, however, the trial court had already decided to declare a mistrial at the time the conversation occurred. Accordingly, the contact had no impact on the ultimate decision. In the circumstances of this case, the record is sufficient to establish that the trial court exercised sound discretion in declaring a mistrial.

CONCLUSION
Because the evidence presented at the jury-out hearing established a "distinct possibility" that defense counsel had encouraged one of the State's primary witnesses to ignore his plea agreement to testify truthfully, manifest necessity for the declaration of a mistrial existed. It is fundamentally important to the integrity of the administration of justice and critical to the very soul of the judicial system that trials be conducted without the taint of possible witness tampering. The declaration of a mistrialthe State moved to set aside a plea bargain because Murphy did not testify "fully, completely, and truthfully" against defendant, Dale Staggs. Michael Murphy's attorney, Robert Massey, filed a response that the court had no jurisdiction since the motion to set aside the plea agreement came too late. The trial court's judgment denied the motion because there was nothing in the record to indicate that defendant Murphy had agreed to testify.

Portions of the Michael Murphy records are underlined and a handwritten note had been placed on the defendant Murphy's response as follows: "Note: Mike Murphy testified at Dale Staggs' trial he could not remember anything."
A handwritten note was also placed on the court's judgment as follows: "Also note: As mentioned the judgment was first over 120 days old