Butler v. State

• Citation: 462 A.2d 1230,55 Md.App. 409
• Decision Date: 13 July 1983
• Docket Number: No. 1599,1599
• Parties: Charles Reed BUTLER v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 409

55 Md.App. 409

462 A.2d 1230

Charles Reed BUTLER v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 1599.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

July 13, 1983.

David P. Sutton, Assigned Public Defender, with whom was Alan H. Murrell, Public Defender of Maryland on brief, for appellant.

Deborah K. Chasanow, Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom were Stephen H. Sachs, Atty. Gen. of Maryland, Stephen J. Braun, State's Atty., for Charles County and Leonard Collins, Asst. State's Atty., for Charles County on brief, for appellee.

Argued before GILBERT, C.J., and MOYLAN and ALPERT, JJ.

MOYLAN, Judge.

At its most fundamental level, the problem is that lines that should be drawn with precision are being, carelessly or deliberately, blurred. A blurred fact pattern begets a blurred issue; a blurred issue begets a blurred appellate decision; a blurred appellate decision begets more blurred issues ad infinitum.

The single, but exasperatingly diffuse, claim of the appellant, Charles Reed Butler, is that he somehow made a deal, more or less, with a couple of policemen; that pursuant to that deal, he somehow performed, more or less; and that if the judicial branch does not intervene (whether it has such sweeping power or not) to bar forever his prosecution in the Circuit Court for Charles County for armed robbery, we are all heading straight for the Gulag Archipelago.

In the teeth of such cosmic considerations, mere technicalities such as (1) whether the party ostensibly representing the State had the power to make a binding agreement; (2) what binding agreements anyone representing the State is authorized to make; (3) what were the precise terms of the agreement; (4) did the appellant breach the agreement by inadequate performance; (5) who has the burden of proof with respect to all of the above issues; (6) who shall be commissioned to judge the adequacy of such performance; (7) are such agreements enforceable in the criminal courts or only in equity; and (8) what, if any, sanctions are available to the reviewing judge, are dismissed as things that pedants fuss about. The appellant demands simply that rough justice be done.

Because this homespun plea of "It just ain't right," unknown to Coke or Blackstone, is becoming increasingly disturbing to increasingly sensitive judicial antennae, some precision, of language and of thought, in this murky business is called for. It is important that we identify precisely what the present claim involves. It is perhaps even more important that we identify what the present claim does not involve.

The Present Case

The appellant was convicted in the Circuit Court for Charles County by Judge George W. Bowling, sitting without a jury, of (1) armed robbery, (2) assault with intent to disable, (3) false imprisonment, and (4) the use of a handgun in the commission of a felony. He received a sentence of twenty-five years imprisonment. Upon this appeal, he makes no claim that his trial was flawed in any respect. His claim rather is that he asserted a valid plea in bar to the very bringing of the prosecution and that the dismissal of that plea was in error.

The armed robbery that gave rise to this case occurred on July 1, 1981 at Earle's Truck Stop in Bel Alton, Charles County, Maryland. Investigating that armed robbery, perpetrated by a number of assailants, were Investigators Rex Coffey and J.T. Hindle, of the Vice Intelligence Section of the Charles County Sheriff's Department. In some unspecified fashion, suspicion focused on the appellant. On July 9, eight days after the robbery, a very tentative conversation occurred between Investigator Coffey and the appellant. The appellant was not in custody and makes no claim in that regard. As a result of the first tentative conversation, a second conversation ensued. The two investigating officers agreed not to charge the appellant if the appellant gave them a truthful statement revealing his total knowledge of the armed robbery. The agreement (a model of imprecision) between the two investigators and the appellant was reduced to writing and became a key exhibit in the case. It provided:

"We, Rex Coffey and J.T. Hindle, do promise that we will not charge Charles Reed Butler for the crime of Armed Robbery on the condition that Charles Reed Butler gives a statement of truth of all knowledge of the crime of the Armed Robbery of Earle's Truck Stop."

Pursuant to that agreement, the appellant gave a statement to the police on July 10. The heart of his narration was as follows:

"On Monday night about 9:00 Larry Lucas called me and said he had a deal lined up. He asked me if I wanted to make a thousand dollars. All I had to do was let a couple of guys stay in my tool shed for a little while. He said four guys. On Tuesday night he called me again and told me to meet him over at Rolling Hills at 2:00 a.m. I went to Rolling Hills that night and Larry Lucas and the four other guys were already there. He told me then that they were going to rob Earle's Truck Stop between four and five o'clock that morning. He said all I had to do is wait at the end of my driveway and when he dropped the guys off I was to take them up to my tool shed and hide them there and then between 6:30 and 7:00 someone else would pick them up. So I said O.K. I told him when I left there I was going to stop by Earle's and check it out. I wanted to see what it looked like for my own self. I went back home and stayed until about 4:30 a.m. that morning. Then I went down to the road and stayed about forty-five minutes until he came along. When he came by the turn he kept right on going. About a half mile behind him was another car. When he went by me I went on up to the house because I didn't know what was going on. A few seconds later I heard tires squealing. I don't know what happened. I went in and was setting at the table having some coffee and about a half hour later Larry Lucas knocked at my door. He told me the guys were in the tool shed. He said someone would be there within an hour to pick them up. About an hour later a brown car with Virginia tags pulled up in the driveway. The guys got in the car and left."

Several pages of additional questions and answers provided little by way of amplification. The appellant did describe Larry Lucas' automobile. The appellant could not identify the five persons who were the robbers except to say that he had heard "one of them call the name Freddie or Eddie, I think it was Eddie." The appellant acknowledged only the receipt of $300 from the robbery, paid to him by Larry Lucas "the next day about 6 p.m. or 6:30 p.m." The appellant claimed that the money he received consisted simply of rolls of quarters.

The information independently developed by the police revealed the appellant's statement to have been significantly false and massively incomplete. Included in the money taken in the course of the armed robbery was $1,000 in Susan B. Anthony silver dollars. Notwithstanding the appellant's claim that he had obtained only rolls of quarters, his stepdaughter testified that during the first week of July, 1981, she had received five Susan B. Anthony silver dollars from the appellant and her sister, Valerie, had received five Susan B. Anthony silver dollars as well. The appellant, moreover, accompanied the gift with the admonition, "Don't spend them here. You will get in trouble for them."

The appellant's wife informed the two investigators, as she later testified at the appellant's trial, that on the day before the robbery, the appellant said to her, "Puggy, what would you do with $20,000?" When the wife asked the appellant if he was going to get a bank loan or something like that, he responded, "No. Don't be so dumb. All it takes is 48 hours." She further revealed that the appellant told her not to worry "if I don't come home that night; don't worry about him because he would be OK." She further revealed that the appellant was gone all night on the night of June 30-July 1, the night of the robbery. She did see him the next day when he came home in a station wagon but shortly thereafter left again in an ice cream truck that he owned.

On September 9, the two investigators took a statement from one Timothy Hicks. Mr. Hicks had known the appellant all of his life. Mr. Hicks stated that it was the appellant who first broached the subject of armed robbery, inquiring whether Hicks "knew someone that wanted to make some quick money." Hicks became the intermediary who ultimately put the appellant in touch with the three triggermen who were from the Landover area of Prince George's County. Mr. Hicks drove with the appellant to Landover to make the contact. On the night of the actual robbery of Earle's Truck Stop, Hicks rode with the appellant, the three triggermen, and Larry Lucas as they drove past the truck stop for a preliminary casing of it. Mr. Hicks then left the others and did not participate directly in the robbery. The appellant had told him, however, that "he would take care of him later."

Two of the actual triggermen, Jerome Darryl Cunningham and Donald Raithel Grey, first gave statements to the investigators and later, pursuant to a plea bargain, testified as State's witnesses at the appellant's trial. Both witnesses revealed that they were introduced to the appellant a day or two before the robbery, that the appellant recruited them to carry out the robbery, that the appellant was familiar with Earle's Truck Stop and described the circumstances to them in detail, that the appellant reassured them that the surveillance camera in the truck stop had been turned off, and that the appellant supplied them with gloves and with rope for tying up the robbery victim. They both revealed that the appellant drove them to Earle's Truck Stop on the night of the robbery, passing by it for a preliminary view, stopping to go over again the details of the robbery, and finally returning for the robbery itself. They revealed that the appellant and Larry Lucas remained in...