Crutchfield v. US

• Decision Date: 23 August 2001
• Docket Number: No. 98-CF-1135.,98-CF-1135.
• Citation: 779 A.2d 307
• Parties: Darryl D. CRUTCHFIELD, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

779 A.2d 307

Darryl D. CRUTCHFIELD, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.

No. 98-CF-1135.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued December 13, 2000.

Decided August 23, 2001.

Kenneth H. Rosenau, Washington, DC, appointed by the court, for appellant.

Jonathan M. Malis, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Wilma A. Lewis, United States Attorney at the time the brief was filed, and John R. Fisher, Roy W. McLeese III, Kevin Flynn, and DeMaurice Smith, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on the brief, for appellee.

Before GLICKMAN and WASHINGTON, Associate Judges, and NEBEKER, Senior Judge.

NEBEKER, Senior Judge:

This is an appeal from convictions of all twenty-seven counts of an indictment arising from a drug-related triple murder and a subsequent murder of a potential prosecution witness.¹ Appellant Darryl D. Crutchfield raises twenty-six issues.² Some amount to attacks on all convictions —challenges to the trial court's admission of out-of-court statements made by appellant's girlfriend before he slew her, limitations on cross-examination of a government witness, and three aspects of the prosecution's closing argument. Others challenge specific convictions on various grounds—most notably the obstruction of justice and burglary charges. After a factual overview, we first address those arguments aimed at all convictions. Then, we focus on those arguments targeting specific convictions. Finding no error warranting reversal of any conviction, we affirm.

Factual Overview³

A. The Triple Murder

The killings of Edwin Knight, his brother Emory Knight, and Russell Jackson arose out of a debt of money and crack cocaine that appellant claimed was owed to him by victim Edwin Knight. On the day of the triple murder, December 18, 1996, appellant, Ms. Jamyra Simpson, and Ms. Takiesha⁴ Wiseman went to the Knights' home in a gold or "champagne color" Nissan Maxima belonging to appellant's mother. Appellant told the two women of the debt and said "no one would get hurt if [Simpson] just did what he asked [her] to do." Appellant told Simpson to go inside and ask Edwin to come outside. Simpson was frightened, but went to the house as appellant and Wiseman drove off and parked the car down the block. Appellant left Wiseman in the car and proceeded back to the Knights' house.

Rather than bringing him outside to meet with appellant, Simpson left with Edwin Knight to go to a restaurant, but they returned to the house a short time later because he had forgotten his wallet. While the two were in front of the house, appellant appeared with a Tech 9 machine gun in his hand. He ordered the two into the house. Once inside, appellant asked if anyone else was there. Edwin Knight revealed that his brother, Emory Knight, was also present. Appellant and Edwin Knight went upstairs leaving Simpson on the first floor. When they returned, Emory Knight was with them. No words were spoken by them. All four then went into the first floor bedroom. The two brothers sat on the bed and Simpson stood in the doorway. Appellant asked "where was his shit" and Edwin Knight replied that he did not "have it all right now." Appellant directed Edwin Knight to open a safe near the bed. When he did, it appeared to contain crack cocaine, marijuana, and money. When the items were handed to appellant, he exclaimed, "That's not all my shit, I know you got more."

About that time Russell Jackson knocked on the front door. Appellant ordered him into the bedroom at gun point, and then ordered the three men onto the bed and directed them to stack themselves three high. As appellant stood in front of the bed, Simpson backed away and began praying. Appellant "began to shoot everybody" on the bed. Simpson, after witnessing these events, ran from the house, caught a cab and went home. As she fled down the street, she saw the Nissan parked at a nearby corner.

The shooting was heard by Malik Hopkins who was visiting a neighbor who lived on Knight's block. Hopkins then heard some one running very fast down the street and a car door slam. He went to a window and saw a gold Nissan Maxima back up quickly and then "zoom" away.

Meanwhile Edwin Knight, though shot, called the police. Upon their arrival, officers noted that he appeared "lost" as he sat on the bed. Asked who had shot him, Edwin Knight whispered, "Myra," gave police a telephone number, and pointed to an address book containing Jamyra Simpson's whispered telephone number. While being questioned later in his hospital bed, Edwin Knight told police officers that a man was with Simpson during the shooting.

Many bullets, fragments and shell casings were recovered from the bed area. Emory Knight and Jackson died of their wounds soon after being shot. Edwin Knight died some weeks later in the hospital. Bullets and fragments were recovered from the bodies of Jackson and Emory. The casings and bullets were matched to a machine gun that was subsequently recovered from among appellant's possessions. Bullets matching the murder weapon were also found in Edwin's hospital bed as he lay unconscious, apparently having worked their way out of his wounds.

The day after the shooting Wiseman called Simpson and told her that after appellant left the Knights' house and returned to the car he said "that was his high, that's how he gets off, on blowing his clip on niggers [sic]." The next day appellant and Wiseman appeared uninvited at Simpson's home. There appellant told Simpson, that "he didn't mean for it to happen like that and ... as long as [Simpson did not] talk to [the] police everything [was] going to be okay." In referring to a news account that Edwin had survived the shooting, appellant said, "he was going to get whoever it was [who] didn't die."

Three days after the shooting, appellant and Wiseman went unannounced to Simpson's mother's house. Appellant's expressed purpose was to take Simpson to "where he hung [out] at and where his mother live[d] so that [Simpson] had no reason to be scared of him." The three drove off. At one point, appellant stopped, got out of the car, and spoke with someone who went into a house and returned with the gun that appellant had used on December 18.

Ms. Simpson was arrested on December 28, by Maryland police and subsequently charged in the District of Columbia with the three murders. Upon her arrest, she first denied knowing of the three murders, but then gave an incomplete written account of them to both Maryland police and FBI agents. Simpson entered into a plea agreement and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary, and the murder charges were dismissed. As a government witness, she acknowledged on cross-examination the foregoing plea. On redirect examination, she explained that she had told Maryland police of appellant's involvement in the murders prior to making the plea agreement.

B. The Murder-Based Obstruction Count

After appellant shot the three men, he ran to the gold Nissan Maxima in which Wiseman had been waiting and made the inculpatory statement to her about "blowing his clip." Sharon Foxworth, a friend of Wiseman, noticed that soon after the murder she was "quiet, drawn to herself... with a worried look on her face." Foxworth also testified that Wiseman said "me and my friend killed somebody" but then tried to appear to be joking. After Simpson's transfer to the custody of the District of Columbia, Simpson called Wiseman and told her that she should speak to a Detective Bell. Wiseman seemed scared and replied, "what [was she] talking about."

According to Foxworth, Wiseman seemed particularly tense and scared from December 28, 1996 to January 8, 1997. During one conversation Wiseman told Foxworth she was "on vacation;" when asked if she was with appellant, she replied, "me and my Boo, we're okay." Upon being told that Detective Bell was looking for her, Wiseman replied, "whatever anybody tell[s you] about [me], [I] didn't do anything." In a January 8, 1997 conversation, Wiseman told Foxworth that she was coming home to get her daughter for a "court date," but she never did so. Two days later, Wiseman called a relative who worked at the Superior Court to inquire as to "what was going on with the case of Jamyra."

During December, appellant resided primarily at his mother's home near the Maryland border and the Eastover Shopping Center. When appellant's mother told him that the police were looking for him and had searched the house, appellant left the home.

On January 11, 1997, the badly burned body of Takiesha Wiseman was found in a large field near the Eastover, Maryland shopping center. She had been shot twice in the back of the head at very short range. Two .380 bullets and cartridge casings were recovered from and around the body. Despite the burning, the body was identified by the medical examiner by fingerprints and a photograph.

Appellant slept at the home of a friend, Diana Hewitt, shortly after leaving his mother's home. When Hewitt asked why he was staying with her, appellant responded, "whatever [you] don't know won't hurt [you]." On February 4, appellant was arrested at Hewitt's home. Since the triple murder, he had stopped shaving his head, and had grown facial hair. The machine gun used in the triple murder and the .380 caliber gun used to kill Wiseman were recovered among other belongings of appellant during a search of Hewitt's home at the time of appellant's arrest.

Analysis

Table of Contents A. Restriction of Cross-Examination of Simpson ................................ [316] B. Prosecution's Closing Argument ............................................. [318] C. Joinder and Severance ...................................................... [321] D. Wiseman as a Prosecution Witness Under D.C.Code § 22-722(a) ........... [325] E. Official Proceeding Under D.C.Code § 22-722(a) ........................ [327] F. Admission of Wiseman's Out-of-Court Statements Under Devonshire v. United States...