Flamer v. State

• Citation: 490 A.2d 104
• Parties: William Henry FLAMER, Defendant Below, Appellant, v. STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff Below, Appellee. . Submitted:
• Decision Date: 24 June 1982
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Delaware

Page 104

490 A.2d 104

William Henry FLAMER, Defendant Below, Appellant, v. STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff Below, Appellee.

Supreme Court of Delaware.

Submitted: June 24, 1982.

Re-submitted Following Supplemental

Briefing: Dec. 6, 1982.

Decided: Feb. 7, 1983.

Opinion on Death Sentence Submitted

Following Supplemental Briefing

and Argument: May 7, 1984.

Decided: Sept. 20, 1984.

Upon appeal from Superior Court. Affirmed except as to sentence of death. Jurisdiction is reserved as to death sentence. Mandate withheld.

Dana Reed, Deputy Atty. Gen., Dover, John A. Parkins, Jr. (argued), Deputy Atty. Gen., Wilmington, and Gary A. Myers (argued), Deputy Atty. Gen., Georgetown, for plaintiff below, appellee.

Dennis A. Reardon and Richard E. Fairbanks (argued), Asst. Public Defenders, Dover, for defendant below, appellant.

Before HERRMANN, C.J., McNEILLY, QUILLEN, HORSEY and MOORE, JJ., constituting the Court en Banc.

McNEILLY, Justice:

At approximately 8:00 A.M. on a snowy February 7, 1979, Arthur Smith, thirty-five year old son of Alberta and Byard Smith, walked across the street to his parents' home and found them sprawled on the living room floor obviously murdered in cold blood. ¹ The ensuing police investigation led to the arrest, separate jury trials, convictions, and mandated death sentences for Andre Deputy and William Henry Flamer. In this appeal, we are concerned only with the convictions and sentences of William Henry Flamer and the record of the suppression hearing held before the Court prior to the severance for trial of the charges against the two individuals, Flamer and Deputy.

William Henry Flamer appeals his convictions and sentences on four charges of Murder in the First Degree, one charge of Robbery in the First Degree, one charge of Possession of a Deadly Weapon During the Commission of a Felony, and one charge of Misdemeanor Theft. As to the four counts of Murder in the First Degree, the jury in a separate hearing following the guilt phase of trial mandated the death penalty. Defendant asserts fifteen separate grounds for reversal, and we consider each ground as we find it to be applicable to the guilt phase or death penalty phase of trial. For the reasons herein elaborated upon, we affirm.

As Arthur Smith approached his parents' home that morning, he first noticed the car In response to Mr. Smith's call received at Troop 5 in Bridgeville, State Police officers Daral Chaffinch and Raymond P. Callaway, Jr. proceeded to the victims' home, a small two-story house just west of the Harrington town limits fronting on State Highway Route 14. Entrance into the home was gained through a side door which opens into the kitchen. On the highway side of the kitchen there was a living room and a small unused front room. The victims' bodies were found on the floor of the living room with apparent stab wounds in the throat and chest areas. Byard Smith's trouser pockets were turned inside out, chairs were overturned, bags of frozen food were strewn about the kitchen floor, and there was what appeared to be blood on the floor around the victims and on the couch next to the body of Alberta Smith. A sofa cushion also had apparent cut marks around the blood stained area.

was gone. Receiving no acknowledgment of his presence, Arthur entered the house and saw his dead bloody parents lying on the floor. He noticed that their television was missing, but without further investigation he went to a garage across the street and called the police.

Earlier that morning, Clara Green of Felton, Delaware was awakened by the flashing lights of a four door car parked on the opposite side of the road from her home on Church Street near the town limits of Felton. She went back to sleep but sometime between 7:30 and 8:00 A.M. she awakened again and noticed the car still there with its lights flashing and motor running. After breakfast, she saw a man walking toward downtown Felton with a suitcase and something else under his arm. The man she saw was dressed in dark clothes and cap, and appeared to be a black man. At that time, the car was not running and the lights were out.

At approximately 10:30 A.M., the investigating officers received a call from Troop 3 that one of their officers had recovered the Smiths' vehicle on Church Street just north of the town limits of Felton. Upon receiving that information, the officers proceeded to Felton and interviewed possible witnesses. Among those interviewed was Mrs. Green and a William Wooters, who at approximately 7:30 that morning had opened the Felton Hardware Store where he worked. Within an hour or so, a man entered the store and asked to use the phone. Wooters later that morning gave the police a description of that man which led to the identification of defendant, William Henry Flamer, by a daughter of the victims who knew Flamer because of their family ties. Flamer's mother was a half-sister to Alberta Smith, one of the victims, and both families had always lived in close proximity to each other.

The police then went to the Flamer residence at 147 Mispillion Street in Harrington, approximately two hundred yards distance from the victims' home. Mrs. Florence Benson, grandmother of defendant Flamer, answered the door, and after informing Detectives Chaffinch and Callaway that Flamer was not at home, asked them in to look for themselves. The house is a two-story four room house heated only by a wood stove in the living room. At the time the detectives entered, no one appeared to be downstairs except Mrs. Benson and a man identified as William Johnson, Flamer's father. ² Mrs. Benson asked the detectives if they wanted to go upstairs. They replied in the affirmative, and as soon as they walked into Flamer's bedroom, a cardboard box was observed containing frozen food packaged in bags of the same type as those strewn about the victims' kitchen floor. Downstairs they found a bayonet on a stand in the kitchen with what appeared to be dried blood stains on the blade. They also found a suitcase and, in the kitchen closet, a television set which was identified a short time later by Arthur Smith as the television set missing from his parents' home. Armed with this evidence While at Court 6, information was received that Flamer was at the Blue Moon Tavern, south of Woodside on Route 13. Detective Callaway, Corporal Porter, Detective Brode, and two Harrington police officers were dispatched to the location for the purpose of apprehending Flamer. Corporal Porter volunteered to join the group because he was a lifelong resident of Harrington and had known Flamer for a long time. Flamer, Andre Deputy, and Ellsworth Coleman were apprehended walking near the Tavern and were taken to Troop 5 at Bridgeville. Coleman was soon released; Flamer, of course, had been arrested; and Deputy was detained for further questioning. Corporal Porter had become suspicious of Deputy because he gave his name as Ray Anderson, a resident for one year of Harrington, and Porter had a feeling that if Anderson was, in fact, a year long resident of Harrington he would have known him by name or sight since Harrington is a small town of approximately twenty-five hundred people. In addition, Corporal Porter felt Deputy was being evasive, and he was not sure of Deputy's connection with Flamer and the murders. In any event, at Troop 5, Corporal Porter for his own safety patted down Deputy and discovered in his coat pocket two watches, folded money, a black wallet containing victim Byard Smith's Delaware driver's license with the victim's picture on it, an automobile registration card in the name of Byard Smith, a newspaper coupon, thirty-nine dollars, and Byard Smith's Social Security card.

the detectives went to Justice of the Peace Court 6 in Harrington and obtained a warrant for Flamer's arrest for Murder in the First Degree.

The questioning of Flamer and Deputy, sometime separately and at least once together, continued from approximately 4:00 o'clock in the afternoon until 7:30 or 8:00 o'clock in the evening. During the interrogation, Detective Chaffinch noticed what appeared to be blood around the cuticles of the fingernails on both hands of Flamer. Likewise, there appeared to be blood on the sleeves of Flamer's coat and fresh scratches on his neck and chest. When questioned about the blood on and about his person, Flamer stated that at Deputy's request he had gone to the victims' home with Deputy after the murder and had gotten blood on his coat and hands by moving frozen food packages. Testifying in his own defense, Flamer stated on direct examination that he also had gotten blood on his shoes, specifically stating:

Because there was blood all over them from the floor. Like the area, the place was all bloody and messy and stuff and I had blood on my shoes so I wiped it off.

When confronted with Deputy's claim that he (Flamer) had given Deputy the victim's wallet and watches, Flamer vehemently denied the truthfulness of Deputy's claim, and continued to deny it when Deputy repeated the claim in a face-to-face confrontation during the initial police interrogation. Corporal Porter testified that during this interrogation of Flamer, Flamer told him that he, Deputy and an individual by the name of Johnny Christopher went into the victims' home, that Johnny had been the one who did the stabbing, and that he had gotten blood on his coat as a result of Christopher going into the house and handing out the frozen food and other property. Corporal Porter also testified that it was at this time Flamer whispered to him that Ray Anderson was really not Anderson but was, in fact, Deputy who was wanted for an unrelated murder in Wilmington.

Throughout the interrogation on the afternoon of the seventh, the police were given irreconcilable stories by both Flamer and Deputy, each accusing the other of the murders. Finally, between 7:00 and 7:30 P.M., interrogation ceased for the night. Flamer was placed in the troop cell for...