Bruce v. State
| Decision Date | 27 February 1990 |
| Citation | 318 Md. 706,569 A.2d 1254 |
| Parties | Kirk BRUCE v. STATE of Maryland. 58 Sept. Term 1989 |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Richard B. Rosenblatt, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen., Mary Ellen Barbera, Asst. Atty. Gen., on brief), Baltimore, for appellee.
Argued before MURPHY, C.J., and ELDRIDGE, COLE, RODOWSKY, McAULIFFE, ADKINS and CHASANOW, * JJ.
Appellant, Kirk Bruce, was convicted by a jury of five counts of murder, six counts of use of a handgun in the commission of a felony, one count of attempted murder, one count of assault with intent to murder, one count of conspiracy to rob, and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. The day after the trial, a sentencing hearing commenced before the same jury.
Appellant was found to be a principal in the first degree in the murders of two of the victims, and the jury returned a sentence of death for each of those murders. For the remaining counts, the trial judge sentenced Appellant to three life sentences without the possibility of parole, one life sentence, six sentences of twenty years, and one ten year sentence. All sentences were to be served consecutively.
Appellant filed a notice of appeal to this Court pursuant to Maryland Code (1957, 1987 Repl.Vol., 1989 Cum.Supp.) Article 27, § 414 and Maryland Rule 8-301. Appellant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence, but for the purpose of our analysis, we must summarize some of the evidence introduced at trial.
Colleen Grady (Ms. Grady) was with Appellant on January 22, 1988. Ms. Grady overheard part of a telephone conversation while Appellant was talking to Ian Henry (Henry). In the conversation, Appellant mentioned two briefcases of money, "the Village in the Woods," "Chief," and "Donny." During the conversation Ms. Grady observed Appellant point his finger and exclaim
Several hours after this conversation occurred, police responded to a call of a shooting and entered an apartment at the Village in the Woods apartment complex in Landover, Maryland. There they found five dead bodies. The body of Leonard Francis, also known as "Chief," was found next to his wheel chair in the dining room. Chief had three gunshot wounds including one execution style wound to the side of his head. Lloyd Chambers, also known as "Donny," was found in the kitchen dead as a result of six gunshot wounds including one in the back of the head. Next to Donny was the body of Everton Mitchell, who died as the result of a gunshot wound to the back of the head. In a back bedroom, police found the bodies of Carlene Hamilton, also known as "Donna," with a gunshot wound to the top of her head, and Richard Williams, also known as "Ritchie," with eight gunshot wounds including one to the head.
Police officers were met by Charmaine Chambers (Ms. Chambers) who had been shot twice in the head, but was still alive.
Ms. Chambers survived and was a witness for the State at Appellant's trial. Ms. Chambers testified that she went to the apartment in the Village in the Woods to visit her friend Donna. She knocked, and the door was answered by Carl Dunstrom, also known as "Fabulous." Chief, who was in his wheelchair inside the apartment, instructed Fabulous to allow Ms. Chambers to enter. Once inside she saw Appellant, whom she had met before, and several other men. One of the men, Henry, was on the telephone. When Henry hung up, he produced a gun and grabbed Ritchie. Appellant got up from his chair with a gun in his hand, grabbed Chief from his wheelchair, and removed a second gun from Chief's wheelchair. Fabulous was also armed with a weapon. Ms. Chambers then ran into a back bedroom where Donna was asleep. Ms. Chambers heard shots and saw Ritchie run into the bedroom. He was being pursued and shot at by Henry. Donna woke up, and she and Ms. Chambers tried to slide under the bed. More shots were fired, and Ms. Chambers heard Donna groan. Henry then approached Ms. Chambers, grabbed her by the hair, and fired a shot at her head. Ms. Chambers lay on the floor and tried to appear dead while the gunshots continued. Fabulous then came into the bedroom, grabbed Ms. Chambers by the hair, and shot her again. The shooting stopped, and some time passed. Ms. Chambers crawled out of the apartment and went to a neighboring apartment to summon police and an ambulance.
Jacqueline Sellers (Ms. Sellers), the girlfriend of Fabulous, was called as a State's witness. She testified that on January 22, 1988, while the soap operas were on, she was in an apartment with Appellant, Henry, Fabulous, Eddie Bell (Eddie), and Appellant's girlfriend, Michelle Nelson (Ms. Nelson). The men left while the soap operas were still on. Sometime after 7:00 p.m. Eddie came to the door. As a result of the conversation with Eddie, Ms. Sellers and Ms While in Florida, the group changed hotels two or three times, and during that time, Ms. Sellers was able to observe that a briefcase the men had with them was filled with money. The group then split up and separately traveled to New York. Ms. Sellers was with Fabulous when he was arrested in New York. Approximately one month after Fabulous was arrested, Ms. Sellers received a call from Appellant who wanted to know whether the police had been to Ms. Sellers' house. Ms. Sellers told Appellant that the police had not been to her house and was told by Appellant that if he found out she was lying, she would be dead.
Nelson gathered up their clothes, as well as the clothes of Fabulous and Appellant, and took them downstairs to the parking lot. They waited in the parking lot, and eventually Appellant, Fabulous, and Henry drove up. Ms. Sellers, Fabulous, and Henry got into one car; and Eddie, Ms. Nelson, and Appellant got into another car. They all drove to Virginia. During the trip both cars pulled into a gas station. Henry got out of the car, went over and talked with Appellant, and returned to the car with some guns. There were four guns in the car which Ms. Sellers was told to cover with her coat. Ultimately, the six people checked into three adjacent rooms in a hotel somewhere in Virginia. At the hotel Ms. Sellers saw that all four men had blood on their clothes. The men removed their bloody clothes and put them in a trash bag, which they dumped somewhere. The group watched television at the hotel, and when a news broadcast reported the murders in a Landover apartment, Appellant, Fabulous, Henry, and Eddie began "dancing ... parading around shooting boom, boom, boom" with their fingers. The group stayed in Virginia for about a week, then went to Florida
Prince George's County Police Detective Howard Shook testified that Appellant was arrested in New York, and that on April 16, 1988, he went to New York to interview Appellant. After being informed of his right to remain silent, Appellant agreed to talk to Detective Shook. Appellant was asked if he had seen a reenactment of the crime on Robert Williams, the brother of the victim Ritchie, testified that he worked for the drug organization run by Chief, and that Chief kept money in two briefcases. He further testified that he had seen one of the briefcases in Chief's apartment the day of the shootings. Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent Gerald Wilkes testified that he performed ballistic tests on some of the weapons, shells, and projectiles, which were recovered and admitted into evidence. Other evidence introduced by the State supported the jury's findings of guilt.
the television show "America's Most Wanted." Appellant responded that he had and that it was "pretty close" to being correct. Detective Shook told Appellant that he knew Appellant had taken Chief's gun from under Chief's legs. Appellant said that the gun was taken from a pouch on the back of Chief's wheelchair
Appellant was the first defense witness to testify. He testified that he, the victims, and the co-defendants were in the drug business together. He admitted being in the apartment on January 22nd, but he maintained that he fell asleep and woke up when an argument began; when shots were fired, he ran out the front door and ran to his car. He drove to his girlfriend Michelle Nelson's apartment, but he got lost on the way. When he ultimately arrived at the parking lot at his girlfriend's, Henry, Fabulous, and Eddie were already there. The four men, Ms. Sellers, and Ms. Nelson then drove to Virginia, and from there left on a pre-planned trip to Florida. Appellant testified he stayed in Florida for about four days, and then went to New York City.
Additional facts relevant to the disposition of this appeal will be presented in the course of the opinion.
The first contention Appellant makes on appeal is that the trial court erred in permitting extraordinary security measures, in the absence of evidence or findings of fact on the The record discloses that there was enhanced security during this trial. Armed guards were around and on the roof of the courthouse, new sets of metal detectors were utilized, and a deputy sheriff was posted in close physical proximity to Appellant.
record, justifying those measures. He maintains that those security measures prejudiced him with the jury
We begin our analysis by first noting there are three types of security measures that we must address: first, security measures taken in the courtroom or around Appellant in the view of the jury; second, security measures taken outside the courtroom not in close proximity to Appellant which were observed or observable by the jury panel; and third, security measures taken outside the courtroom which were not observed or observable by the jury panel.
Custodial officials should be free to employ any reasonable restraints and security measures they...
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