Bentley v. State
| Citation | 930 A.2d 866 |
| Decision Date | 11 June 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. 387, 2006.,387, 2006. |
| Parties | Jordan BENTLEY, Defendant Below, Appellant, v. STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff Below, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Delaware |
Court Below: Superior Court of the State of Delaware in and for Kent County, ID # 0409001001.
Upon appeal from the Superior Court. REVERSED AND REMANDED.
Nicole M. Walker, Esq. (argued), Office of the Public Defender, Wilmington, Delaware, for Appellant.
John Williams, Esq. (argued) and James T. Wakely, Esq., Department of Justice, Wilmington, Delaware, for Appellee.
Before STEELE, Chief Justice, HOLLAND, and RIDGELY, Justices.
Appellant Jordan Bentley appeals his Superior Court convictions of Murder First Degree, Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony and Possession of a Deadly Weapon by a Person Prohibited. In this case, the State contended that Bentley acted without any co-conspirator or accomplice in killing Joseph "Lucky" Cox. After a State witness, Tina Creed, changed her testimony about Bentley being the shooter, the prosecution contended in its closing argument that this was because of her romantic involvement with Bentley. Earlier in the trial, Bentley attempted to show that Creed was biased due to her recent romantic relationship with his uncle, Arthur "Joey" Bentley. Bentley also sought to prove facultative impairment of Creed through cross-examination of her about her drug use. At the time of Bentley's trial, Creed and Joey were co-defendants on pending charges involving conspiracy and illegal drugs. Creed asserted her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination to all of Bentley's questions on her relationship with Joey and her drug use. The Superior Court sustained her claim of privilege.
Bentley makes three arguments on appeal. First, he contends that the trial court erred by precluding his cross-examination of Tina Creed on bias and impairment due to her drug use. Second, Bentley contends that the trial court improperly denied his request to instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of manslaughter. Finally, Bentley contends that the trial court erred when it admitted into evidence a video of Bentley spitting on a news camera. We find that the limitation of Bentley's cross examination of Creed, without striking either part or all of Creed's testimony from the record, created at least a substantial danger of prejudice to Bentley's right to a fair trial. In the alternative, the State could have sought use immunity for her testimony under 11 Del. C. § 3506 so that her assertion of her Fifth Amendment privilege would be unnecessary. Creed's testimony was pivotal to the determination of whether Bentley or another person killed the victim in this case. Although a grant of use immunity would have allowed for full cross examination of Creed, the State proffered Creed's testimony without it. Because Bentley has demonstrated at least a substantial danger of prejudice from the denial of any cross examination of Creed on her bias, we must reverse and remand for a new trial. In this opinion, we also will address Bentley's remaining arguments, which we find to be without merit, for the guidance of the parties and the Superior Court at the new trial.
On September 1, 2004, Joseph "Lucky" Cox and Wayne Caldwell went to Hardee's Restaurant in Dover to visit Tina Creed. They arranged to meet after Creed's shift ended, and at that time Lucky gave her a ring he had bought for her. Creed told Lucky that she could not accept the ring and drove both Lucky and Caldwell home. She later discovered that Lucky had left the ring in her car.
Later that day, Creed told her boyfriend, seventeen-year old Bentley, that she had received a ring from Lucky. They tried to return the ring to the jeweler but were unsuccessful. According to Bentley's cousin, Roland "Buddy" Pyle, Bentley then called Lucky and told him that he was coming over and that they had "something to handle." According to Bentley, it was Buddy who suggested that they go talk to Lucky. Buddy wore his steel-tipped Timberland boots that he wears when he plans to fight.
Buddy and Creed testified at trial that they next went to Bentley's home where Bentley picked up a .32 pistol that he had purchased from a friend about a month earlier. They both also testified that Bentley forced Creed to drive them to Lucky's house. Buddy said that he wore a white t-shirt, jeans and brown boots and Bentley wore "a black t-shirt with a white t-shirt underneath, blue jeans and white shoes" the evening of the shooting.
Lucky was shot four times by either Bentley or Buddy. The police were only able to find two casings at the scene of the shooting. Two bullets were found in Lucky's body. It could not be determined whether all the shots came from the same weapon. No physical evidence found at the scene indicated who the actual shooter was. The gun used to kill Lucky was not recovered.
The State did not prosecute this case as a conspiracy or on an accomplice liability theory. The prosecution was premised upon the ground that Bentley intentionally killed Lucky on his own. At trial, the central issue was the killer's identity. Buddy testified that Bentley shot Lucky. Bentley testified that Buddy shot Lucky and that he (Bentley) was unaware that Buddy had a weapon with him when they went to Lucky's home.
Creed told Bentley's counsel before trial that it was Buddy who had the gun. At trial, she changed her story. She first said that she saw Bentley shoot Lucky. On cross examination, Creed admitted that pretrial she told defense counsel Buddy was the shooter. Ultimately, Creed testified that she could not see who shot Lucky because a car blocked her view.
Other witnesses, Joseph Alan Cox ("Joseph Alan"), Lucky's uncle, and a neighbor, Khalilah Harmon, testified without adding clarity to the identity of the killer. Joseph Alan was at Lucky's trailer when Buddy, Bentley and Creed arrived. He testified that he saw a man wearing a white t-shirt yell at Lucky and then shoot him. As stated earlier, Buddy acknowledged at the trial that he was wearing a white t-shirt that day. Ultimately, Joseph Alan testified that he was unable to identify the shooter.
Harmon identified Bentley as the one with the gun, but acknowledged that she might have identified Buddy as having the gun in a statement she made before trial. She further testified that Creed was hunched over in her car when the shooting took place and that Creed's vehicle was separated from Lucky's trailer by another vehicle.
After Lucky was shot, Buddy, Bentley and Creed all fled the scene of the shooting to Millsboro, Delaware where they waited for Bentley's mother. The next morning, Bentley's mother informed the trio that the police were after them. All four of them then drove to Washington, D.C. in Bentley's mother's truck. The following day, Buddy suggested that they go to his father's house in Ohio. The police spotted the group on the Pennsylvania Turnpike while Bentley's mother was driving. A high-speed chase ensued. At some point during the chase, Bentley's mother became hysterical and Bentley took the wheel. The chase went on for more than eighty miles. The truck was finally stopped when the police threw spikes in the road to puncture its tires.
Bentley was indicted on the charges of Murder First Degree, Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony and Possession of a Deadly Weapon by a Person Prohibited and convicted of all charges. After he was convicted of all charges, he was sentenced to life imprisonment plus six years on the weapons offenses. This appeal followed.
Bentley first argues that his rights to confrontation and cross examination were violated when he was not permitted to question Creed on her potential bias because of her relationship with Bentley's uncle, Joey. He also challenges the trial judges ruling precluding cross examination about her ability to perceive the events based on her drug use. We review the Superior Court's evidentiary rulings for abuse of discretion.1 To the extent constitutional rights were violated, we review de novo.2
"A primary interest secured by [the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment] is the right of cross-examination...."3 A trial judge has "wide latitude" in controlling the contours of a cross examination.4 However, "the right of cross examination is not without limits."5 This Court, especially when considering possible bias and motivations of a witness, looks to whether the jury had enough evidence to sufficiently draw inferences about the reliability of a witness and whether "defense counsel had an adequate record from which to argue why the witness might have been biased...."6
After Creed testified on direct examination at trial, defense counsel sought to impeach her credibility by asking her questions about her prior drug use7 and her relationship with Bentley's uncle, Arthur "Joey" Bentley. In compliance with the instruction of the trial judge, Bentley's counsel proffered in writing 35 questions for Creed.8 Defense counsel argued that Creed's history with drugs would cast into doubt her ability to perceive or remember the shooting and surrounding events. Bentley's counsel also argued that Creed's relationship with Joey would establish bias or motive for the changes in her testimony. That is, if Bentley was incarcerated, she would be able to continue her relationship with Joey without interference from her former boyfriend, Bentley. With her own counsel present, Creed refused to answer the questions and asserted her privilege against self-incrimination because of the pending drug related charges against her, including a criminal conspiracy with Joey. After an extensive colloquy, the trial judge barred any inquiry into those matters, explaining "I don't want anything to implicate her as a conspiracy [sic] in these drug charges...."9
The sustaining of Creed's Fifth Amendment privilege is not...
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