Bellard v. State
| Decision Date | 31 August 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 1281 Sept. Term, 2014,1281 Sept. Term, 2014 |
| Citation | 145 A.3d 61,229 Md.App. 312 |
| Parties | Darrell Bellard v. State of Maryland |
| Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
229 Md.App. 312
145 A.3d 61
Darrell Bellard
v.
State of Maryland
No. 1281 Sept. Term, 2014
Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.
Filed: August 31, 2016
Argued by: Julia C. Schiller (Paul B. DeWolfe, Public Defender on brief) all of Baltimore, MD, for Appellant.
Argued by: Todd W. Hessel (Brian E. Frosh, Attorney General on brief) all of Baltimore, MD, for Appellee.
Panel: Nazarian, Reed, Robert A. Zarnoch, (Retired, Specially Assigned), JJ.
Opinion by Nazarian, J.
This quadruple-murder case presents, among other things, the question of whether legislation repealing Maryland's death penalty in 2013 also created new rights for defendants facing life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Darrell Bellard was convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County of four counts of first-degree murder, three counts of conspiracy to commit murder, and other related offenses. The court (not a jury) sentenced him to life without parole for the first-degree murders and consecutive life sentences for the three conspiracy convictions.
On appeal, Mr. Bellard claims the circuit court erred by failing to strike the State's notice of intent to seek a sentence of life without parole, by sentencing him on more than one count of conspiracy to commit murder, by permitting the State to offer the testimony of an expert witness who was not timely disclosed in discovery, by admitting evidence of prior bad acts, and by denying his motion to suppress evidence. The State agrees that Mr. Bellard should only have been convicted and sentenced on one count of conspiracy, and because we agree as well, we vacate two of Mr. Bellard's three conspiracy convictions and the corresponding sentences. We disagree, however, that Mr. Bellard was entitled to have a jury determine his sentence, and we affirm his convictions and sentence in all other respects.
I. BACKGROUND
On August 6, 2010 at 2:42 a.m., Officer Hong Park of the Prince George's County Police Department responded to an address in Lanham, where he was flagged down by a witness and directed to an apartment over a two-car garage. When Officer Park entered the apartment, he saw a woman lying face-down on the ground in a pool of blood and three more bloody bodies—another woman and two children—on a bed in one of the bedrooms. All had suffered (and died) from gunshot woundsto the head. After surveying the apartment, which took about five minutes, Officer Park left and saw a man, later identified as Mr. Bellard, walking up the steps. Officer Park stopped him and asked him why he was there. Mr. Bellard responded that he was coming back to check on his friends.
Officer Park asked Mr. Bellard to "step down." Mr. Bellard walked down the steps, followed by Officer Park, proceeded to the yard, and came to rest near a big tree. Officer Park asked, "Just in case we need to talk again, can you just stand by for a second?" Mr. Bellard indicated that there was no problem, and Office Park left Mr. Bellard by himself; he was not placed under arrest or restrained in any way, and no one guarded him.
Sometime around 3:45 a.m., Officer Stephen Campbell responded to the scene and, shortly thereafter, saw Mr. Bellard leaning against a car. Officer Campbell asked Mr. Bellard his name and why he was there, and "told him that because he was there, we needed to talk to him and, if he would, I would like to take him down to our office and speak with him there." Mr. Bellard agreed to go to the station. Before being transported to the criminal investigation division ("CID"), Officer Donny Hacker told Mr. Bellard he needed to "stand by ... [because they] just needed to talk to him." Mr. Bellard asked Officer Hacker if he could get his cigarettes from his car. After getting permission from a supervisor, Officer Hacker retrieved the cigarettes. For about the next half an hour, Mr. Bellard stayed at the scene, unattended and unrestrained. There were numerous officers present, and several patrol cars
at the scene, but Mr. Bellard only interacted with Officers Park, Detective Campbell, and Officer Hacker.
At approximately 4:00 a.m., Officer Hacker transported Mr. Bellard to CID. He was patted down for weapons before getting in the police car, but sat unrestrained in the front passenger seat, and he seemed calm and cooperative. Upon arriving at CID, officers escorted Mr. Bellard to an interview room, leaving the door open at Mr. Bellard's request after he mentioned that he was claustrophobic.
While Mr. Bellard was being interviewed, Detective Ober interviewed Frank Brooks, a distant relative of Mr. Bellard's by marriage. At approximately 7:30 a.m.,
Detective Campbell learned from Detective Ober that, according to Mr. Brooks, Mr. Bellard was a drug dealer from Texas and that he was mad at Mr. Brooks and his wife, Dawn (Mr. Bellard's brother's sister-in-law), because he had been "ripped off during a prior visit, and [thought] he was ripped off again."
When Detective Campbell confronted Mr. Bellard with this statement, Mr. Bellard admitted to bringing marijuana and a gun with him from Texas. Detective Campbell read Mr. Bellard his Miranda1 rights. Mr. Bellard signed a waiver form and agreed to continue the interview. At no point was Mr. Bellard told that he was under arrest, and at no point did he ask to speak to his lawyer or invoke his right to silence.
Detective Campbell continued the interview, and at approximately 8:55 a.m., asked Mr. Bellard about the car he had driven to Maryland, then told Mr. Bellard that he would like to get a DNA sample and look in the vehicle. Detective Campbell read consent forms to Mr. Bellard and advised him that he did not have to sign them, that it was "strictly voluntary." Mr. Bellard signed a written consent for both the DNA sample as well as for the search of his car. An officer then searched Mr. Bellard's car and recovered a cell phone.
Detectives continued to interview Mr. Bellard for the next several hours. At approximately 1:00 p.m., as Detective Kerry Jernigan began interviewing Mr. Bellard, it became apparent that Mr. Bellard's colostomy bagwas leaking. They made several attempts to obtain a new colostomy bag, but none were successful until a detective obtained one from a hospital at approximately 3:30 p.m.
While Mr. Bellard was being questioned, detectives were simultaneously tracking down other potential witnesses, including Mr. Bellard's girlfriend, T'Keisha Gilmer, who implicated Mr. Bellard in the quadruple homicide. Detective Jernigan confronted Mr. Bellard with this accusation and told him that he needed to "think through what he needs to say" and "to think about where this is going." Mr. Bellard became agitated and began yelling for "T'Keisha to tell the whole truth." Mr. Bellard later told the detectives that he and Ms. Gilmer had observed the homicides, and that a hit man from Texas had come to kill Dawn. Detective Anthony Schartner read Mr. Bellard his Mirandarights again, and again Mr. Bellard waived his rights. He then made a statement, which was recorded, that he and Ms. Gilmer had observed the hit man commit the murders, after which they cleaned up the crime scene and disposed of their clothes and some shell casings. Detective Schartner responded that the clothes they were wearing while cleaning up the crime scene could possibly "assist him with proving that he was innocent." So Mr. Bellard agreed to leave CID to show the detectives where he had disposed of the clothes and the shell casings.
But when the trip to the alleged location of the clothes and shell casings revealed nothing, Mr. Bellard admitted to committing the murders. They returned to CID where Mr. Bellard was questioned again, and again admitted that he had shot the four people, and acknowledged that he had given the statement voluntarily. This interview was recorded as well.
Mr. Bellard was charged with four counts of first-degree murder, four counts of conspiracy to commit murder, and four counts of use of a handgun in the commission of a felony or
crime of violence. On August 28, 2012, the trial court held a motions hearing during which, among other
things, the court quashed Mr. Bellard's subpoenas for internal Prince George's County Police records relating to the case and a group of named officers. A hearing on a motion to suppress evidence was held on December 2 and 3, 2013, and the court denied that motion. A jury trial began on April 8, 2014, and lasted eight days.
The testimony at trial revealed that Mr. Bellard had traveled to Maryland from Texas in June 2010 with a large quantity of marijuana to sell, but the marijuana had been stolen from his hotel room. He made a second trip in August 2010, this time with Ms. Gilmer, with approximately sixty pounds of marijuana. On August 6, Mr. Bellard met Ms. Brooks and her children, broke up the marijuana in Ms....
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