Coleman v. United States

• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: Ferren
• Citation: Coleman v. United States, 515 A.2d 439 (D.C. 1986)
• Decision Date: 01 October 1986
• Docket Number: No. 84-653.,No. 84-613.,84-613.,84-653.
• Parties: Ronald COLEMAN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee. Donald COLEMAN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.

515 A.2d 439

Ronald COLEMAN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.

Donald COLEMAN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.

No. 84-613.

No. 84-653.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued October 18, 1985.

Decided October 1, 1986.

W. Gary Kohlman, Washington, D.C., for appellant Ronald Coleman.

Allie Sheffield, with whom James Klein, Washington, D.C., was on brief, for appellant Donald Coleman.

T. Mark Flanagan, Asst. U.S. Atty., with whom Joseph E. diGenova, U.S. Atty., and Michael W. Farrell and Charles L. Hall, Asst. U.S. Attys., Washington, D.C., were on brief for appellee.

Before FERREN, ROGERS and STEAD MAN, Associate Judges.

FERREN, Associate Judge:

A jury convicted appellants Ronald Coleman and Donald Coleman (who are not related) of attempted robbery while armed, D.C.Code §§ 22-2902, -3202 (1981), and convicted appellant Ronald Coleman of second degree murder while armed, id. §§ 22-2403, -3202. Appellants contend on appeal, first, that the testimony of the government's principal witness, Timothy McCain, was so inherently incredible that, as a matter of law, the trial court should have granted appellants' motions for judgment of acquittal. Second, appellants argue that they were denied the right to due process by the government's failure to make timely disclosure of a police report containing eyewitness McCain's first statement to the police. In this connection, appellants assert that the trial court abused its discretion during the rebuttal phase of the trial by refusing to allow the defense to recall McCain for cross-examination about the police report, and by limiting the scope of the cross-examination of the police officer, Kimalon Wright, who had prepared the report. Third, appellant Donald Coleman contends that the prosecutor's rebuttal argument was so improper that it denied appellant his right to a fair trial. Finally, both appellants assert that the trial court erred in denying the defense motion for a mistrial after the jury, on three occasions, had stated its inability to reach a verdict. We affirm all convictions.

I.

The government's principal evidence was the eyewitness testimony of Timothy McCain. On August 14, 1982, at approximately 3:00 a.m., McCain, then fifteen years old, and his girlfriend, April Tazewell, were walking in their Southwest neighborhood on Elmira Street heading toward South Capitol Street. As they neared the bottom of the hill, McCain heard someone "scream" or yell for "help." He looked to his left and saw two men about twenty feet away on the other side of Elmira Street apparently accosting a third man. Street lights illuminated the area.

McCain recognized the man being accosted, Stanley Bowman, and one of the two assailants, appellant Ronald Coleman. He knew both of these men casually, by name, from "the streets." Although McCain did not know the name of the other assailant, he recalled having seen him with Bowman on prior occasions. McCain later identified both Ronald Coleman and Donald Coleman, from photographic arrays and in court, as the assailants.

McCain testified that Ronald Coleman was holding a nine-inch long poker or ice pick and was wearing white tennis shoes, no socks, a white T-shirt, and a white "flop" hat with a blue stripe. Donald Coleman was holding a large, black gun "face down," that is, with the barrel pointing toward the ground. McCain did not see anything in Bowman's hands.

McCain then heard Ronald Coleman exclaim, "Give it up, give it up, nigger, now give it up!" Bowman shook his head and said, "No." In response, Ronald Coleman thrust the poker or ice pick into Bowman's stomach and then twisted it in a circular motion. As he was falling to the ground, Bowman placed his hands on Ronald Coleman. During this time, Donald Coleman, still holding a gun, was maintaining surveillance over the immediate area. Upon spotting McCain, he began staring at him. Following the stabbing, and upon noticing that Donald Coleman was staring at something, Ronald Coleman also began looking at McCain. During the "few seconds" that "all attention was draw[n] on [McCain]," Bowman managed to rise, run toward McCain, and then disappear into an alley. McCain then backed away and ran. When he looked back, he saw Ronald and Donald Coleman running in what appeared to be the same direction as Bowman.

Wesley Claiborne, who lived approximately six blocks from the scene of the stabbing, also testified for the government. He said that at about 3:15 a.m. he was awakened by the sound of someone knocking on the door of an adjacent apartment. After someone knocked on his own door, he opened it. Bowman, whom he knew as "Popsie." stood at the door and claimed he had been shot. After entering, Bowman said he had been stabbed. Claiborne immediately directed his girlfriend, Janet Fleming, to call an ambulance. When Claiborne asked Bowman what had happened, Bowman replied only that he was "running" and that his assailant "had white shorts on, white shirt and blue hat, and he didn't say no name. He wouldn't tell me no name." Although Bowman refused to say anything else, Claiborne stated on cross-examination that Bowman knew from whom he was running. "I will say, that's the thing about it, he knew, he says he didn't want to tell." After an ambulance arrived and removed Bowman, Claiborne never saw Bowman again. Police arrived at Claiborne's apartment after the ambulance had arrived.¹

While Bowman was still in Claiborne's apartment, McCain appeared and came into the apartment. McCain testified that he did not remember whether he had told Claiborne he had witnessed the stabbing. Claiborne himself recalled that the day after the stabbing, McCain said he had been between 100 and 150 feet away when the stabbing occurred (in contrast with McCain's own trial testimony that he had been twenty feet away) and that McCain implied he had been too far away to recognize the perpetrator.

McCain testified that he had talked to a policewoman outside Claiborne's apartment, given her his name, told her he had seen the incident, but had not told her what had happened. "I just said that I seen it." He also claimed that the officer did not ask him what happened. "She just took my name down."

Ronald Coleman visited McCain the next day. Coleman wanted to know if McCain had seen "what happened that night." When McCain said "Yes," Coleman told him "not to tell anyone." McCain responded, "No, I won't tell anyone."

The next day, August 16, Detective Kerwood C. Nixon displayed a series of photographic slides to McCain, who selected a slide of appellant Ronald Coleman. Nixon testified that McCain had said, "That's him, Ronnie Coleman, only his hair is a little shorter," and that McCain also had said Coleman "was the stabber." At a later date, McCain also selected a photograph of Donald Coleman. After Nixon had asked him to write any comments on the back of the photograph, McCain wrote: "That is the man [with] Ronnie at the time of the cutting" and signed his name.

The police arrested Ronald Coleman on August 17 and Donald Coleman on August 19. Detective Donald Nixon testified that when Donald Coleman was advised of his rights, he said that he was there when someone stabbed Bowman but that the police had the wrong person.

Appellant Ronald Coleman testified on his own behalf, presenting an alibi defense.² He stated that on August 13, from approximately 9:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m., he was socializing with a girlfriend, Sue, in the Elmira and South Capitol Streets neighborhood. Around 2:00 a.m. he and Sue met several of his male friends on top of the Elmira Street hill. Coleman and his male friends, without Sue, then walked north on South Capitol Street to the vicinity of the Atlantic Carry-Out, located in a shopping center at Atlantic and South Capitol Streets, about six blocks away from Elmira and South Capitol Streets. Appellant claimed that he had remained there with his friends until 5:00 a.m., never venturing back to Elmira Street. Although he acknowledged that he knew Donald Coleman, Bowman, and McCain before August 1982, he denied ever encountering or seeing them that night. He also said he was wearing black clothing.³ On cross-examination, Ronald Coleman denied visiting Claiborne's apartment or talking with any police officer between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m.⁴

April Tazewell, McCain's girlfriend at the time of the stabbing, also testified in Ronald Coleman's defense. She said that during the early morning hours on August 14, 1982, she and McCain were walking near the intersection of Elmira and South Capitol Streets when they saw three boys running up Elmira Street. She testified that it was too dark to see their faces or clothes, that the boys were running too fast to see their faces, and that she never saw the boys do anything but run. Although she noted that the distance between her and the boys was "not that far," her testimony indicated that the distance was farther than the twenty feet away that McCain had recalled. She also stated that, upon seeing the boys run, McCain told her not to pay any attention. She and McCain then walked to her house. She added that, earlier in the evening, she and McCain had been smoking marijuana, an accusation McCain had denied during cross-examination.

Ronald Coleman also called Wesley Claiborne as a witness. After first stating that McCain never had told him anything about what had happened, Claiborne finally acknowledged, still on direct examination, that McCain had told Claiborne "he couldn't see near one of" the assailants. On cross-examination, defense counsel for Donald Coleman asked Claiborne to verify, instead, that McCain had told Claiborne that McCain could not see the faces of either assailant. Claiborne responded:

Okay, what happened is that when he went to the pizza shop I guess he was ordering food, right, he said when he came out of that shop that is when he seen Stanley get up — you know, the other dude was standing over top of Stanley, he saw...