Claudio v. State
| Decision Date | 06 February 1990 |
| Citation | 585 A.2d 1278 |
| Parties | Carmelo CLAUDIO, Defendant Below, Appellant, v. STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff Below, Appellee. Enrique MAYMI, Defendant Below, Appellant, v. STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff Below, Appellee. . Submitted: |
| Court | Supreme Court of Delaware |
Appeal from Superior Court. AFFIRMED.
Loren C. Meyers, Esquire, Deputy Atty. Gen., Dept. of Justice, Wilmington, for appellee.
Bernard J. O'Donnell, Asst. Public Defender, Office of the Public Defender, Wilmington, for appellants.
Before HORSEY, MOORE, WALSH, HOLLAND, JJ., and HARTNETT, Vice Chancellor (sitting by designation pursuant to Del. Const. art. IV, § 12), constituting the Court en Banc.
The defendants-appellants, Carmelo Claudio ("Claudio") and Enrique Maymi ("Maymi"), appeal their convictions, following a joint trial before a jury, in the Superior Court. Both defendants were convicted, as charged, of Robbery in the First Degree, four counts of Possession of a Deadly Weapon During the Commission of a Felony, two counts of Conspiracy in the First Degree and one count each of Murder in the First Degree and Attempted Murder in the First Degree. These charges arose out of a series of events which transpired during the early morning hours of February 14, 1987.
Following a penalty hearing, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision to recommend the imposition of a death sentence for either defendant. Claudio and Maymi were each sentenced to serve a life term, without probation or parole for the conviction of Murder in the First Degree. Each defendant received a second life sentence, albeit with the possibility of probation or parole, for the conviction of Attempted Murder in the First Degree. Each defendant was also sentenced to an additional forty-five years of imprisonment for the remaining offenses. All of the sentences are to be served consecutively by Claudio and Maymi.
The direct appeals of these two defendants were filed separately in this Court. However, because Claudio and Maymi were tried jointly in the Superior Court and, since the claims presented on appeal are identical, their cases have been consolidated. The defendants each raise the same three issues for our review. First, that the trial judge erred in not giving an immediate curative instruction or declaring a mistrial after sustaining an evidentiary objection by the defense. Second, that the trial judge gave an incorrect and confusing instruction on accomplice liability. Third, that the trial judge improperly substituted an alternate juror for a regular juror after deliberations had begun. We find no reversible error in the Superior Court proceedings. Therefore, we affirm all of the convictions of each defendant.
On Friday, February 13, 1987, the victims, Juan Soto ("Soto") and Rafael Lopez ("Lopez"), were paid by their employers. They decided to go to a bar to listen to Spanish music. An acquaintance drove them from Avondale, Pennsylvania to the Spinning Wheel Inn, a tavern near Kaolin, Pennsylvania. Soto and Lopez arrived at the Spinning Wheel at approximately 7:00 p.m. They remained at the tavern until shortly before closing at 1:30 a.m. on February 14.
Since they did not have a ride home, they began to ask other patrons for transportation back to Avondale. Their initial efforts were unsuccessful. Soto and Lopez then walked outside the tavern where they saw two men, later identified as the defendants, Claudio and Maymi, sitting in a car. Lopez Upon leaving the Spinning Wheel parking lot, Maymi turned left onto Route 41 towards Delaware, instead of right towards Avondale as Lopez and Soto had requested. A short time later, the defendants' vehicle turned from Route 41 onto Centerville Road near Hockessin, Delaware. There Maymi stopped the car. Claudio demanded that Soto and Lopez hand over all of their money. Soto exited the car and attempted to flee. However, Claudio struck Soto in the face twice and then stabbed him in the chest. Soto fell to the ground and Claudio removed several hundred dollars from his pockets. While on the ground, Soto heard Lopez scuffling with both of the defendants. He then heard the car drive away.
asked the defendants if they could give him and Soto a ride back to Avondale. The defendants agreed in return for ten dollars for gas. Lopez gave the defendants ten dollars, and accompanied by Soto, left the Spinning Wheel parking lot in the defendants' car. Maymi was driving. Claudio was beside him. Soto and Lopez were both on the back seat.
Detective John Downs ("Downs") of the New Castle County Police arrived at the crime scene early on the morning of Saturday, February 14. Lopez's dead body was on the side of the road. There was also evidence that another injured person had left the crime scene. Soto was discovered later that afternoon a short distance from where the attack had occurred. He was taken to Christiana hospital. While at the hospital, Soto, who spoke little English, was questioned by Downs through an interpreter about the attack. Soto gave his account of the events of the previous evening, which included a detailed description of the two assailants.
After speaking with Soto, Downs returned to the Spinning Wheel Inn. There, he questioned a female bartender about Soto and Lopez. She told Downs that both Lopez and Soto had been at the Spinning Wheel the previous evening. She recalled that they had asked her for a ride home. After she declined their request, she saw Lopez and Soto attempting to solicit a ride from two men. She described those men for Downs.
The police investigation resulted in information which indicated that Soto and Lopez had left the Spinning Wheel Inn in a car with Claudio and Maymi. Soto was able to pick both of the defendants out of a photographic line-up. The police arrested Claudio and Maymi on February 20, 1987. Both of them were subsequently indicted on charges of Murder in the First Degree and the related felonies. At trial, Soto identified Maymi and Claudio as the assailants.
The defendants' first contention on appeal is that the trial judge erred in not giving an immediate curative instruction or declaring a mistrial, after sustaining a defense objection to the State's request to admit two kitchen knives into evidence. Those knives had been seized by the police from under the mattress in the master bedroom of Maymi's home. The State did not contend that the two knives were the weapons used to assault Lopez and Soto. The State acknowledges that the knife or knives used in this incident were never discovered. However, the State argued that the two knives found under the mattress in the bedroom of Maymi's home were admissible to infer that Maymi had a proclivity to possess knives. 1
Counsel for Maymi objected to the admission of the two knives on grounds of relevance. The trial judge sustained that objection. Counsel for Maymi then requested that a curative instruction be given to the jury immediately. In response to that request, the State continued to argue the At a later time in the trial, counsel for Claudio moved for a mistrial. He asserted that the trial judge's prior failure to give a contemporaneous curative instruction and the State's argument that the knives were relevant to show a proclivity on the part of Maymi, and by implication Claudio, to carry and use knives was highly prejudicial. The trial judge denied the motion for a mistrial. However, in his final charge, the trial judge did instruct the jury that "[a]ny offer of evidence that has been rejected by me ... must not [be] consider[ed]."
relevance of the knives. 2 The trial judge reiterated his ruling that the knives were not admissible as evidence. 3 However, no curative instruction was given to the jury by the trial judge at that time
The defendants argue that, although the two kitchen knives were not entered into evidence, they were prejudiced by the display of those knives and the State's argument on their admissibility before the jury. The defendants submit that prejudice was not cured by the trial judge's subsequent instruction in the final charge to the jury.
The mere fact that an evidentiary objection is sustained does not make the attempt to introduce inadmissible evidence prejudicial per se. See Bennett v. State, Del.Supr., 164 A.2d 442, 446 (1960). In this case, a contemporaneous instruction might have been preferable. Cf. Boatson v. State, Del.Supr., 457 A.2d 738, 743 (1983). However, we find that the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in declining the defense request for an immediate curative instruction. Compare Bromwell v. State, Del.Supr., 427 A.2d 884, 892-93 (1981). We are satisfied the instruction ultimately given by the trial judge to disregard any offer of any evidence which had been rejected by the court effectively removed any potentially prejudicial effect caused by the State's attempt to offer the two knives into evidence. 4 The Superior Court's decision to deny the defense motion for a mistrial is affirmed. See Shantz v. State, Del.Supr., 344 A.2d 245, 247 (1975).
The defendants' second claim of error involves the instruction given to the jury by the trial judge concerning felony murder and accomplice liability. The trial judge declined to instruct the jury on the issue of accomplice liability in the form requested by the defense. Over the defendants' objections, the trial judge instructed the jury, in part, as follows:
Now, there is another rule of law which has application here. It is the law that all persons who join together with a common intent and purpose to commit an The defendants contend that, in defining accomplice liability, the trial judge used language which misstated the present substantive law as set forth in 11 Del.C. § 271. 5 They also claim that the trial judge's use of a double negative in describing the...
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