Blades v. United States

• Decision Date: 23 January 2019
• Docket Number: No. 15-CF-663,15-CF-663
• Parties: Jonathan BLADES, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

200 A.3d 230

Jonathan BLADES, Appellant,

v.UNITED STATES, Appellee.

No. 15-CF-663

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued October 17, 2017

Decided January 23, 2019

Fleming Terrell, Public Defender Service, with whom Samia Fam and Jaclyn S. Frankfurt, Public Defender Service, were on the brief, for appellant.

Nicholas P. Coleman, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Channing D. Phillips, United States Attorney at the time, and Elizabeth Trosman, Elizabeth H. Danello, Scott Sroka, and Christopher Macchiaroli, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on the brief, for appellee.

Before Thompson and Beckwith, Associate Judges, and Farrell, Senior Judge.

Opinion by Senior Judge Farrell, concurring in part and concurring in the result, at page 247.

Dissenting opinion by Associate Judge Beckwith at page 248.

Thompson, Associate Judge:

Following a four-day jury trial, appellant was convicted of assault with intent to kill while armed ("AWIKWA") (firearm), two counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence ("PFCV"), aggravated assault while armed ("AAWA") (firearm), possession of an unregistered firearm ("UF") and unlawful possession of ammunition ("UA"). Appellant asks this court to reverse all of his convictions, contending that the trial court reversibly erred by employing a husher during the voir dire of prospective jurors, in admitting a photo array containing mugshots even though identity of the shooter was not an issue, in not intervening when the prosecutor made certain remarks during the government's closing argument, and in giving a jury instruction on provocation. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I.

The charges against appellant were based on an incident that occurred in the early morning hours of February 2, 2014, outside of Look Lounge, near the intersection of 20th and K Street, N.W. Johnny Campbell testified that he was leaving the Look Lounge nightclub around 2:40 a.m. on that morning with his friends Jeremy Paige and "Rob" and was turning right to walk to his car when he ran into Areka Mitchell, with whom he had gone to high school. Campbell greeted Mitchell, and Mitchell introduced appellant to Campbell as her fiancé. Campbell testified that appellant then said in an "angry" voice, "Who the fuck are you?" and "something like" "What are you all, like school buddies or study buddies?" Campbell and appellant were "in each other's face," and appellant then struck Campbell in the face.

Campbell testified that he hit appellant back and they began fighting.¹ Appellant was on the ground when Campbell "felt a blow to [his] head," which "stunned [him]," and then felt a second blow to his head, which "shook [him] up" and "made [him] get up off of [appellant]." Campbell then heard appellant say either "I'm going to get my shit" or "[w]here's my shit," words that Campbell understood to mean that appellant was "going to get [his] gun." Campbell also heard Mitchell say, "[h]e's getting ready to bust your ass," which Campbell understood to mean that he was "about to get shot." Campbell testified that he ran diagonally across 20th Street, eventually turning left onto L Street. As he was running across 20th Street, he heard gun shots, causing him to "r[u]n even faster," and he saw "[appellant] with [his] car door open ... [and] fire coming from the gun" in appellant's hand. At some point, Campbell became aware of "a hole in [his] back" and that he "couldn't lift [his] arm up." He eventually ran into a nearby Exxon station where an ambulance was called and took him to a hospital.²

Paige, Campbell's friend since childhood, testified that he and Campbell were walking to Campbell's car when appellant called out to Campbell and got "in [Campbell's] face." Paige testified that appellant pushed Campbell in the chest, that Campbell responded by hitting appellant in the face, and that the two men "got to grappling with each other."³ Appellant then fell over a planter, and Campbell "punch[ed] [appellant] against [appellant's] car." That was when Mitchell began hitting Campbell in the back of his head with her high-heeled shoe. After this, appellant and Campbell both got up and the fight continued in the middle of 20th Street, at which time Paige was "trying to guide [Mitchell] from hitting [Campbell] in the back of the head." Paige testified that Campbell then "caught [appellant] with two or three good shots," and appellant fell to the ground. Campbell went directly "across the street from [appellant's] car," and Mitchell "followed [Campbell], screaming." Paige "thought the fight was over," but then saw appellant, who had a gun in his hand, "reach[ ] in[to] the back seat" of his car (which the testimony indicated was parked on 20th Street between K and L Street), "load[ ] the magazine into the gun," and "start[ ] shooting." Paige testified that "it seemed like [appellant shot] probably seven to eight bullets" but that "[i]t could be more." Paige testified that no one was physically hitting appellant at the point when appellant started shooting and that there was no one near appellant who was a physical threat to appellant at that time. Paige denied hitting, punching, or kicking appellant or otherwise participating in the fight and testified that none of the friends who had been with him and Campbell at the club was participating or even standing around during the fight.

Metropolitan Police Department ("MPD") Officer James Burgess, who was with the MPD Crime Scene Investigations Division, collected evidence from the scene of the shooting, including nine cartridge casings, one bullet fragment, and two bullets. The cartridge casings were all found on 20th Street. Officer Burgess testified that one of the bullets was found inside a newspaper box on L Street, near the corner of 20th and L Street, and that the other bullet was found a little further west on L Street.

Daniel Barrett, a firearms and toolmark examiner with the Department of Forensic Science, testified that all nine cartridge casings were the same caliber and from the same manufacturer and had the same caliber and manufacturer as casings recovered from inside a semiautomatic firearm found in appellant's residence. Mr. Barrett further testified that "shell casing[s] ... eject to [the shooter's] right side" and "bounce when [they] hit[ ] the cement." Looking at Government Exhibit 40, which depicted where the shell casings were found on 20th Street, Mr. Barrett testified that the locations were "indicative of [the shooter] being off to the left and walking in a straight line," up 20th Street toward L Street.

Dr. Bruce Abell, the trauma surgeon who attended to Campbell on the morning of the incident, testified that Campbell presented with abrasions to his lip and face, swelling that was "consistent with someone being punched," and "a small laceration" on his scalp

, which was "consistent with hitting something or being hit by something." Dr. Abell further testified that a bullet pierced and then left Campbell's body and that there was a wound in his left shoulder and on his back. Dr. Abell could not tell which of the wounds was an entrance wound and which was an exit wound. He opined, however, that the wounds were consistent with Campbell's "facing away from the shooter, but to an angle" and were "not consistent with [Campbell's] facing a shooter." Dr. Abell also noted that "with short range gunshots, ... you can actually see some changes on the skin at the entrance wound, ... [i.e.,] stippling," which Dr. Abell did not see on Campbell.

Dr. William Bruchey, an expert in firearms examination, ballistics, and crime scene reconstruction, testified in the defense's case that there is a "randomness to the shell casing pattern" of a semiautomatic pistol. Based on where the shell casings were found on 20th Street, Dr. Bruchey opined that the shooter was "relatively stationary" rather than walking. Asked on cross-examination how he accounted for the bullet "recovered further left on L Street," Dr. Bruchey said that a newsstand when hit by a bullet "can make [the bullet] take a left turn."

Appellant testified that after leaving Look Lounge on the early morning in question, he went to retrieve his car, with the intent of pulling it in front of the club to pick up his fiancée, Mitchell. The valet parking obstructed appellant from doing this, so he turned right onto 20th Street and found an open parking spot immediately upon turning. After parking, he reached into his glove compartment and retrieved his loaded gun and put it on his hip "for protection" because he had been shot about two months previously after leaving a club. The bullet from that shooting had gone through his arm and into his chest and remained lodged there at the time of the trial.

Appellant testified that he went to the front of the club and found Mitchell and was walking back to his car with her when they encountered a group of three guys who "were being loud[and] belligerent." One was Campbell, and appellant testified that Campbell "grabbed [Mitchell] by the hips and pulled her close" and, when Mitchell "pushed his hand off her," "kept on approaching, [and being] aggressive toward her." Appellant then grabbed Campbell's shoulders, and turned him around, and the two of them "had verbal words." During this time, appellant testified, Mitchell was pulling appellant away "because she ... didn't want the argument to escalate" and walking towards the car. When appellant reached the driver-side door but before he could get into the car, Campbell "ran up" and punched him in the face. Campbell and appellant started fighting, and Paige "ran over and ... started ... swinging at [appellant]," "hitting [him] on top of [his] head," and it became "like a moving brawl." Appellant testified that he heard Rob say "move back, let me stab him." Appellant then "pushed off as hard as [he] could" from the two others and reached for his gun and "pulled the trigger[ ] as fast as [he] could," afraid that one of the men would...