Bey v. State

Citation781 A.2d 952,140 Md. App. 607
Decision Date26 September 2001
Docket NumberNo. 1046,1046
PartiesNasirrudin Abdullah BEY, v. STATE of Maryland.
CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland

George E. Burns, Jr., Assistant Public Defender (Stephen E. Harris, Public Defender, on the brief), Baltimore, for appellant.

Shannon E. Avery, Assistant Attorney General (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Attorney General, Baltimore, and Jack Johnson, State's Attorney for Prince George's County, Upper Marlboro, on the brief), for appellee.

Submitted before DAVIS, KENNEY, and CHARLES E. MOYLAN, Jr. (Ret., specially assigned), JJ.

DAVIS, Judge.

Appellant Nasirrudin Abdullah Bey was convicted by a jury sitting in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County (Johnson, G.R.Hovey, J.) of second degree murder and use of a handgun in the commission of a felony or a crime of violence.1 The court sentenced him to consecutive terms of imprisonment of thirty and twenty years, respectively. Appellant asks the following three questions on appeal:

I. Did the suppression court err in not suppressing his confession because he was not expeditiously brought before a commissioner after his arrest?

II. Did the trial court err in excluding lay opinion testimony by a police officer that appellant was possibly under the influence of PCP [Phencyclidine] at the time of his arrest?

III. Did the trial court err in refusing to instruct the jury that voluntary intoxication is a defense to second degree murder?

We shall affirm the judgments of the trial court.

To place in context the questions raised, we shall provide a brief recitation of the facts as elicited at appellant's trial. In addition, in reciting the suppression hearing facts, we shall emphasize the time of events as that is an important factor in the suppression issue he raises.

During the early morning hours of April 2, 1999, appellant and several friends were "hanging out" in an abandoned house near the Martin Luther King Recreation Center on Church and Piedmont Streets in Glenarden, Maryland. After the group separated, appellant walked alone toward the recreation center when he encountered Kareem Nafu Brooks, the victim. The two had been friends but appellant had recently become angry with the victim, believing that he had betrayed him in some manner. Appellant shot the victim six times and stabbed him twelve times with a knife, causing his death. After killing the victim, appellant encountered two of his friends— John Robinson and David Outlaw—that he had been with earlier. Appellant then left the area.

Approximately two weeks later, on April 14, 1999, Robinson and Outlaw gave separate statements to the police. In their statements, they related that appellant had admitted to having killed the victim.2 The next day, pursuant to an arrest warrant, the police arrested appellant. While at the police station, appellant confessed to killing the victim.

Appellant testified that, during the night of April 1 and the early morning hours of April 2, 1999, he was using PCP with his friends. He remembered being with them at an abandoned house but did not remember anything after that until he awakened the next morning at his girlfriend's house. Appellant also testified that he was under the influence of PCP at the time of his arrest.

SUPPRESSION HEARING FACTS

At approximately 3:55 p.m. on April 15, 1999, the police arrested appellant near an apartment complex in Glenarden, Maryland, pursuant to an arrest warrant. Appellant asked Detective Kevin Curtis, the arresting officer, on what grounds they were arresting him. Detective Curtis told him that, if he had any questions, he should talk to the officer in charge of his case. Although Detective Curtis had a copy of the arrest warrant and the charging document, he did not give appellant a copy of either.

Corporal Michael Straughan, the lead investigator in the homicide investigation, met appellant at the Landover Police Station at 4:10 p.m. Corporal Straughan searched appellant and removed, among other things, several bullets from appellant's coat pocket. Those bullets, upon later testing, matched the bullets recovered from the victim's body. Detective Straughan then placed appellant in an interview room, handcuffed him by the wrist to the wall, and placed ankle cuffs on him.

Corporal Straughan left the room but returned several minutes later and asked appellant some personal information. At approximately 4:55 p.m., Corporal Straughan advised appellant of his rights from an Advice of Rights and Waiver form. Corporal Straughan read the form, which advised appellant that he had, inter alia, the right to remain silent, the right to talk to a lawyer, the right to have a lawyer present while being questioned, the right to have a lawyer appointed to represent him if he could not afford one, and the right to stop answering questions at anytime.

During this time, appellant also told the corporal, upon being asked, that he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time, that he had not been threatened or promised anything by the police, and that he was a 1996 graduate from a local high school. According to Corporal Straughan, appellant did not appear intoxicated in any way—he had no difficulty communicating, he was alert, and he spoke clearly. Appellant had no difficulty walking, understanding directions, and he had no complaints regarding his physical well being. Corporal Straughan found appellant cooperative and appellant appeared "normal, coherent, very calm."

Appellant then placed his initials next to each advisement and signed the form. After signing the form, the corporal asked appellant if he had any questions and appellant replied that he did not. Appellant then indicated that he wanted to make a statement.

After getting appellant a cup of coffee, Corporal Straughan told appellant that he wanted to talk to him about the victim. Corporal Straughan told appellant that he knew that he had gotten into a fight with the victim and killed him and he asked appellant to tell him what had happened. Appellant then

indicated to me that Kareem had crossed him, that he felt Kareem was out to get him, that he felt it necessary to get Kareem before he got him. He had indicated that he thought Kareem was his brother but Kareem was not, that Kareem was evil and that he thought he did what he had to do.

Corporal Straughan spoke with appellant for approximately one hour.

At approximately 8:00 p.m., appellant wrote an eight-page statement, which included a question and answer portion written by Corporal Straughan. The statement was completed at 9:31 p.m. Corporal Straughan asked appellant to read it over, to make any corrections that he wanted, to initial each page of the statement, and to initial each answer he gave in the question and answer section. After completing the statement, Corporal Straughan asked appellant to take him to the locations where he hid the weapons used to kill the victim. Appellant agreed. After giving him something to eat and letting him use the restroom, they set out in a police van with another officer driving.

Appellant directed the officers to several locations approximately a ten minute drive from the police station. He first directed them to a tree in a residential area near the crime scene. At that location, the police found a .38 handgun. Appellant then directed them to the Martin Luther King Recreation Center, which was two blocks away. He pointed to a soda can in the gutter and said the knife was near the soda can. The police recovered a knife. Appellant then directed them to a nearby trash can where he said he had burned his clothes. The police looked in the trash can and saw evidence of a recent fire. They then returned to the police station at approximately 11:00 p.m.

Upon their return, appellant was again placed in an interview room. Detective Nelson entered the interview room and spoke with appellant for approximately five minutes. At approximately 1:00 a.m., Corporal Straughan questioned appellant about the murder of a mini-mart owner in the same area as the victim's murder. Their conversation ended at 2:08 p.m. At 2:10 a.m., appellant consented to giving a saliva sample, which was then taken. Corporal Straughan returned to the interview room at approximately 2:25 a.m. and again spoke to appellant. From 3:11 a.m. until 4:00 a.m., appellant gave a six-page written statement confessing to killing the owner of the mini-mart.

After memorializing the second statement, appellant was released for processing. He was taken before a commissioner at 1:37 p.m. on April 18, 1999. This was approximately twenty-one hours after appellant first arrived at the police station. Corporal Straughan testified that the reason he did not take appellant before a commissioner upon his arrest was because he wanted to interview him. While Corporal Straughan was with appellant, appellant was "alert, awake, at times emotional," meaning "at times crying, at times he was remorseful, at times he was very descriptive, very articulate, very adamant in recalling details of the incident, and basically very informative in reference to what had happened in both cases." No one other than appellant and Corporal Straughan were present in the room when he interviewed appellant about the murders of the victim and the mini-mart owner.

DISCUSSION
I

Appellant argues that the trial court erred in not suppressing his confession.3 He asserts that his confession was involuntary because the police did not take him before a commissioner "without unreasonable delay" after his arrest and because the police did not inform him of the charges against him when they arrested him or when they interviewed him. We perceive no error in the trial court's ruling denying the motion to suppress.

Maryland Rule 4-212(e), regarding the execution of warrants, provides, in pertinent part:

Unless the defendant is in custody, a warrant shall be executed by the arrest of the defendant. Unless the...

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