77 Hawai'i 72, State v. Reed
| Decision Date | 29 September 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. 16178,16178 |
| Citation | 881 P.2d 1218,77 Hawaii 72 |
| Parties | 77 Hawai'i 72 STATE of Hawai'i, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Isaiah D. REED, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Hawaii Supreme Court |
Andre S. Wooten, on the briefs, Honolulu, for defendant-appellant.
James M. Anderson, Deputy Pros. Atty., on the briefs, Honolulu, for plaintiff-appellee.
Before MOON, C.J., KLEIN, NAKAYAMA and RAMIL, JJ., and BURNS, Intermediate Court of Appeals Chief Judge, In Place of Levinson, J., Recused.
On January 11, 1990, plaintiff-appellee State of Hawai'i (the prosecution) filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of the First Circuit, State of Hawai'i, charging defendant-appellant Isaiah Reed with two counts of promoting a dangerous drug in the second degree, in violation of Hawai'i Revised Statutes (HRS) § 712-1242(1)(c) (Supp.1992) 1 (counts 4 and 5); one count of promoting a dangerous drug in the first degree, in violation of HRS § 712-1241(1)(b)(ii)(A) (Supp.1992) 2 (count 6); and two counts of promoting a dangerous drug in the third degree, in violation of HRS § 1243 (1985) 3 (counts 7 and 8). The charges stemmed from several drug deals that Reed made with an undercover officer of the Honolulu Police Department in December 1989. At trial, Reed's main defense was entrapment. On March 12, 1992, a jury convicted Reed of all counts. On appeal, Reed claims that the trial court committed reversible error by: (1) denying his motion for a bill of particulars requiring the prosecution to detail the charges against him; (2) erroneously instructing the jury on the burden of proof on his entrapment defense; (3) denying his motion for judgment of acquittal, in which he essentially argued that he had established entrapment as a matter of law; and (4) denying his motion for new trial, in which he claimed that his trial counsel rendered constitutionally ineffective assistance. Reed also argues that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury's verdict finding him guilty of count 6, promoting a dangerous drug in the first degree, and that his constitutional right to equal protection of law was violated because he was the victim of a discriminatory prosecution. For the following reasons, we affirm Reed's conviction on all counts.
Reed's jury trial commenced on March 4, 1992. The prosecution's primary witness was Honolulu undercover police officer William Wardell. Wardell testified to the following. On December 18, 1989, he met Reed at a hotel in Waikiki to discuss a drug deal. After some initial discussion, the two left together for another hotel in Waikiki. When they arrived at the second hotel, the two firmed up the details of the deal in the parking lot. Wardell agreed to pay $150 in exchange for one-sixteenth of an ounce of cocaine. Wardell testified that he gave Reed the money and that Reed then went into the hotel. Wardell waited in the parking lot. When Reed returned, he gave Wardell a plastic "zip-lock" bag containing a white powder. 4 Wardell testified that Reed then asked him for some of the drug in the bag. Wardell refused, instead giving Reed $15 "as a tip for his service." On their way back to the first hotel, the two discussed doing other drug deals, and Wardell gave Reed his "beeper" number as a means of contacting him in the future.
Wardell testified that Reed paged him on December 22, 1989 and that he answered the page by phoning Reed. During their telephone conversation, Reed asked Wardell if he wanted to purchase more drugs. Wardell responded that he did not want to buy anything "at that time, [but] that I would get in touch with him after Christmas."
According to Wardell, the next time the two talked was on December 26, 1989, when he telephoned Reed, offering to purchase one-quarter of an ounce of cocaine for $550. Wardell called Reed about purchasing the quarter ounce again the following day. Reed told Wardell to go to a certain hotel in Waikiki and call him from a pay phone when he arrived. Wardell followed Reed's instructions and was met at the phone by Reed's girlfriend, Sheila Williams, and Paul Peralta, who told Wardell that he worked for Reed. Wardell followed the two to the eighth floor laundry room of the hotel. Wardell testified that when they got there Peralta told him that he and Reed felt that a one-quarter ounce deal was "a bit too large," because it carried a "class A" felony penalty if they got caught. He therefore suggested doing a deal "at a smaller level," one-sixteenth of an ounce. Wardell agreed and gave Peralta $150. Wardell waited with Williams at the hotel while Peralta left to go with Reed to obtain the cocaine at another location.
Peralta returned some time later, but without the cocaine. According to Wardell, Peralta explained that he and Reed had come back to the laundry room while Wardell was away making a phone call and, not finding him there, Reed left. Williams subsequently left the laundry room, where Wardell and Peralta continued to wait for Reed to return. Reed did not show, and Peralta eventually agreed to take Wardell to a nearby hotel where he believed they would find Reed and Williams. They found Reed and Williams there, according to Wardell. All four then returned to the first hotel. Upon returning, Reed produced a plastic bag containing several paper "bindles," one of which he gave to Wardell. The bindle contained a white powder. 5 5. 5 Wardell subsequently left the hotel, telling Reed that he "would contact him later to finish or conduct other transactions." Wardell testified that before he left, he tipped Reed $20.
Later that same day Wardell called Reed again. After they discussed another drug deal, Wardell left to meet Reed at the same hotel. This time Wardell was accompanied by eight back-up police officers, who were apparently out of sight.
Reed met Wardell at the pay phone he had used earlier in the day and brought him up to a room on the thirteenth floor of the hotel. Peralta, Williams and an unidentified woman were in the room when they arrived. Reed and Wardell went into the bathroom, where they discussed the specifics of their deal. According to Wardell, he offered to buy four grams of cocaine for $100 per gram, and Reed agreed by accepting $400. Wardell testified that Reed told him that he had only one gram of the drug in his immediate possession and would have to leave the hotel to get the other three. According to Wardell, before Reed left, he gave Wardell one gram of white powder in a paper bindle.
Wardell testified that Reed returned about an hour later with the other three grams. He told Wardell, however, that before turning over the rest of the cocaine, he wanted Wardell to take the gram he had previously given him down to his truck. He explained, as Peralta had earlier that day, that by dividing the transaction into smaller amounts, they would face only "misdemeanor" charges if they got caught. Wardell agreed to that procedure and went to his truck, accompanied by Reed, to deposit the paper bindle containing the one gram. Unbeknownst to Reed, however, Wardell slipped the bindle into his shoe and returned to the hotel room with Reed.
Back at the room, Wardell testified that he convinced Reed to split the remaining three grams into two one and one-half gram portions, rather than three one gram amounts, as Reed had initially suggested. Reed agreed. The two men weighed out a gram and a half of white powder. Wardell testified that, while doing so, Reed showed him a paper bindle containing what Reed described as his own "personal stash" of heroin. After turning over the one and a half gram portion of white powder to Wardell in a paper bindle, Reed returned with Wardell to the latter's truck, where Wardell again slipped the bindle into his shoe. According to Wardell, they went back to the hotel room, and Reed delivered the remaining one and a half gram portion. 6
After receiving the last bindle from Reed, Wardell, under the pretense of calling his girlfriend, telephoned his backup unit, signaling that the transaction had been completed. The officers arrived within minutes and placed Reed under arrest. Peralta and Williams, both of whom had left the hotel room earlier, were apprehended in the parking lot of the hotel. 7
In addition to the three paper bindles that Reed had given to Wardell, the officers seized two plastic bags from which Reed had taken the powder that he had given to Wardell. Later, during a routine inventory/weapons search while Reed was being booked at the police station, police recovered the paper bindle that Reed had told Wardell contained heroin. 8
Reed testified on his own behalf. Although he did not dispute that he provided some cocaine to Wardell, his version of the incident conflicted sharply with Wardell's account. The thrust of his testimony was that he entered into the drug transactions only because Wardell pressured him into doing so by playing on his vulnerabilities and using other unfair methods of inducement.
He testified, for instance, that during their first meeting on December 18, 1989, he told Wardell that he was "in a spot," having no place to live and not enough money to buy food. He testified that he agreed to provide cocaine to Wardell only after Wardell, in return for the "favor," offered to help him and Williams find a place to live. He also said that he overcame his initial reluctance to help Wardell obtain cocaine, in part because Wardell appealed to a common bond: Wardell, Reed claimed, said he needed the cocaine for his drug-addicted girlfriend, and Reed understood Wardell's situation because his girlfriend, Williams, also had a drug habit.
Reed testified that he was also reluctant to provide Wardell with cocaine the second time they met, on the afternoon of December 27, 1989. This time, he said, Williams unexpectedly brought Wardell to him while he was at an apartment of a friend. He testified that Williams told him that Wardell "wouldn't leave her alone and that he had her in...
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