State v. Davis

• Citation: 131 A.3d 679
• Decision Date: 05 February 2016
• Docket Number: No. 2013–312–C.A.,2013–312–C.A.
• Parties: STATE v. Miguel DAVIS.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Rhode Island

131 A.3d 679

STATE

v.Miguel DAVIS.

No. 2013–312–C.A.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

Feb. 5, 2016.

Lauren S. Zurier, Department of Attorney General, Providence, for State.

Catherine Gibran, Office of the Public Defender, Providence, for Defendant.

Present: SUTTELL, C.J., GOLDBERG, FLAHERTY, ROBINSON, and INDEGLIA, JJ.

OPINION

Justice FLAHERTY, for the Court.

The defendant, Miguel Davis, appeals from a judgment of conviction entered after a jury found him guilty of three offenses: the murder of Dominique Gay, in violation of G.L.1956 §§ 11–23–1and 11–23–2; using a firearm while committing a crime of violence resulting in the death of Dominique Gay, in violation of G.L.1956 § 11–47–3.2; and carrying a pistol without a license, in violation of § 11–47–8(a). The trial justice sentenced the defendant to two consecutive life sentences on counts 1 and 2 and one ten-year sentence on count 5 to be served concurrently with the sentence on the first count.¹ The defendant filed a timely notice of appeal. This case came before the Supreme Court for argument on September 30, 2015. The defendant advances a host of arguments on appeal, including two claims that the trial justice committed error when he instructed the jury, two claims that the trial justice abused his discretion when he admitted prejudicial evidence, and one claim that the trial justice erred when he denied his motion for a new trial. After a careful consideration of the defendant's arguments and a thorough review of the record, we affirm the judgments of conviction.

Facts and Travel

On March 20, 2009, Dominique Gay was shot and killed in broad daylight while he was walking with two friends, Dean Robinson and Wilson Andujar. Over three years later, defendant, Miguel Davis, was charged with that murder.

The history of the case is replete with conflict between Gay and Davis over the attention and affection of Crystal Dutra, a young woman who is the mother of Gay's child. When Dutra and Gay broke up, they agreed that each could see other people "as long as it wasn't anybody that [either Dutra or Gay] knew." Soon, Dutra began a relationship with defendant. Dutra testified that, in keeping with her agreement with Gay, she asked Davis whether he knew Gay, going so far as to point out several pictures of Gay in her home; however, each time Davis responded that he did not know Gay.

But at some point after Dutra began dating defendant, Gay told Dutra that he did know Davis. Dutra said that Gay told her that defendant was "one of the younger crowd that they hanged [sic ] with." Indeed, Gay was able to describe defendant to her, describing his "long hair, braids and 'Loyalty' [tattooed] on his neck." Dutra rebuffed Gay and told him that he did not know Davis and that he was just jealous that she was dating someone else.

Unfortunately, that did not end the matter. Gay began to confront defendant repeatedly between the summer of 2007 and January 2009, tensions escalating drastically with each encounter. Those incidents included several occasions when Gay challenged defendant to engage in fisticuffs or when defendant was otherwise threatened by Gay. On one occasion, Dutra allowed Gay to spend the night at her house, because he had nowhere else to go. When defendant also needed a place to stay that night, Dutra allowed Gay to stay, while defendant slept in his car outside her apartment. The bad blood continued even after defendant and Dutra ended their relationship and Dutra restarted an intermittent liaison with Gay.

Dutra moved to Boston for almost a year, but when she returned to Providence and resumed her relationship with Gay, she heard about several more incidents between Gay and defendant. Dutra said that Gay's challenges continued into the fall of 2008. She recalled that one day that Gay woke her up after he received a call from Robinson. Gay demanded that she drive him "really fast" to the Domino's Pizza on Broad Street. When they got there, Robinson was holding onto someone and Gay told Dutra to remain in the parking lot while he went inside. Dutra observed as Gay walked to the front of the Domino's and said that "he grabbed [a] kid and * * * lifted the kid in the air by his shirt." She then heard Gay say that he was not there for him, that "his beef was with Miguel." Gay then gave the young man a piece of paper with his phone number and told him to give it to defendant and have him call Gay.

Dutra admitted that she never saw defendant pursuing or looking for Gay and that, during each confrontation, defendant was either running from or avoiding Gay. She said that she understood that Gay was confronting defendant because "it was a respect thing * * * [Gay] said he wanted to fight him."

Another serious incident occurred in early January 2009, when defendant was with his then girlfriend, Lisa.² On that night, Lisa, defendant, and defendant's friend, Juan Arciliares, drove to Arciliares's house. After Lisa parked her car, defendant took her keys and her cell phone, and he and Arciliares went into the building, leaving her behind. Suddenly, Lisa heard the windows of her car shatter from a gunshot, although she was unable to determine the direction from which the shots came. Lisa's rear windshield was smashed, there was a hole through the front windshield on the passenger side, and a bullet was lodged in the grille of the car. After the shots were fired, Lisa began screaming to defendant to bring her keys back so that she could leave. The defendant did not come down immediately, but responded through the window of the apartment, "It wasn't for you, it was for me."

Kevin Santiago, a somewhat younger friend who hung out with defendant and his associates, testified that he was in Arciliares's apartment playing video games when the shooting happened. Santiago testified that defendant told them that "Mike Stokes and Dean—and Dominique were shooting at him."

The Eyewitness

The only eyewitness to Gay's murder who testified at trial was Wilson Andujar.³ Andujar testified that, after moving away, he moved back to Providence toward the end of 2008. At that time, Andujar reconnected with old friends, but met Gay for the first time about a month after returning to Rhode Island. Andujar and Gay became friends; he said that the pair would see each other about two or three times each week.

Andujar testified that on the day of the murder, March 20, 2009, Gay showed up at his house that morning around 9 or 10 a.m., looking for a way to smoke some marijuana. They decided to go to a store to buy a cigar for that purpose and, on their way, Andujar and Gay decided to call on Robinson to see if he wished to join them. After picking up Robinson, the three friends walked to a gas station, bought a cigar, and then went to a restaurant. After they left the restaurant, the group decided to walk back to Robinson's house.

Andujar explained that they walked side-by-side with Andujar in the middle, Gay to his left, and Robinson to his right. Andujar testified that there was an alley behind a laundromat where a dumpster was located. As they approached the alley, he heard "a gravel noise" and then looked to his left and saw defendant standing beside the dumpster pointing a handgun at them. Almost immediately, Andujar said, "Right there where I looked, I heard the first shot. Right when I went to run, I slipped. That's right there, when I slipped [I] heard a second shot. I kept—I started to run." Andujar also testified, on cross-examination, that he saw a black handgun, but that he did not know whether the weapon was a revolver or what caliber it might have been.

Andujar further testified that the assailant was wearing a "hoodie" that covered part of his head but that the hood was not pulled all the way forward. The gunman also had a bandanna that covered part of his face, from the tip of his nose past his chin, so that the only portion of his face that Andujar could see was his hairline, his forehead, his eyes, and part of his nose. When asked if he was able to recognize the person holding the weapon, Andujar responded that it was Miguel Davis. He said that he recognized Davis because he knew him from 2006—three years prior to the shooting and seven years prior to trial—when they were in school together for "a couple weeks."⁴ Andujar identified defendant in the courtroom as the man he had seen with the gun on March 20, 2009; however, when asked at what point he realized that it was Miguel Davis with the gun, Andujar testified that it was not immediate; it was not until later, when "it just * * * clicked in my head who I just saw."

After fleeing from the gunman, Andujar said, he looked over his left shoulder and saw Robinson being chased by another man, whom he eventually identified as Christopher "Ucci" Martinez. Andujar testified that Ucci was not the same person he saw with a gun, that Ucci did not have anything covering his face when he saw him pursuing Robinson, and that he was also wearing "a black hoodie."⁵ When he did not hear any more gunshots, Andujar lay down on the ground and called 9–1–1.

Andujar soon came upon Robinson, who was crying, yelling, and saying, "They got him." From where they were standing, Andujar said, he could see Gay's body, lying on the sidewalk near the dumpster, and he began to cry himself.

Andujar and Robinson were brought to the police station to be questioned. Andujar said he was not cooperative and merely told the police "the simple fact that we got shot at, I didn't see nothing." When asked at trial if that was true, Andujar said no, that "I was just going by the so—called street code and I was * * * fearing for my life of what just happened" and that he feared that he "could be retaliated." He testified that he did not discuss the shooting with Robinson at the police station, but that they did discuss it at Gay's funeral. At that time, he said, he told Robinson that he had seen defendant shoot Gay.

Andujar left the state shortly after the shooting, determined, he said, to turn his life...