Earl v. U.S.

• Decision Date: 20 September 2007
• Docket Number: No. 04-CF-466.,04-CF-466.
• Citation: 932 A.2d 1122
• Parties: Reginald EARL, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

932 A.2d 1122

Reginald EARL, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.

No. 04-CF-466.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued December 20, 2006.

Decided September 20, 2007.

Thomas T. Heslep, appointed by the court, for appellant.

Valinda Jones, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Kenneth L. Wainstein, United States Attorney at the time the brief was filed, and Roy W. McCleese III and Elizabeth Trosman, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on the brief, for appellee.

Before FARRELL, RUIZ, and THOMPSON, Associate Judges.

RUIZ, Associate Judge:

Following a jury trial, Reginald Earl was convicted of two counts of aggravated assault, in violation of D.C.Code § 22-404.04 (2001). On appeal, he argues that: (1) the trial court erroneously admitted expert testimony on the subject of battered woman's syndrome; (2) the trial court improperly excluded an audio-tape recording that he claims exposed the complainant's bias; and (3) there was insufficient evidence of serious injury to convict him of one of the counts of aggravated assault. We agree on the latter point, and reverse one of the convictions for aggravated assault with instructions to enter a judgment of conviction of the lesser-included offense of simple assault. We disagree that the trial court's challenged evidentiary rulings, viewed singly or cumulatively, merit reversal and, therefore, we affirm the other conviction of aggravated assault.

Factual Summary

Appellant met the complainant, Barbara Hawkins (then Barbara Wells), in the Spring of 1997, and the two began dating soon thereafter. After they had been seeing each other for approximately one year, she became romantically involved with one of her ex-boyfriends, Steven Hawkins. She ended her relationship with appellant and eventually married Mr. Hawkins in February of 1999. Ms. Hawkins, however, continued to have contact with appellant, and ultimately left her husband in late 1999 and resumed her relationship with appellant. Two separate incidents in the Summer of 2003 formed the bases of the assault charges against appellant.

July 9, 2003 Assault

On July 9, 2003, at approximately 11:30 p.m. Ms. Hawkins returned to her apartment from her job as a supervisor at a half-way house. She went to sleep but awoke when she heard appellant attempting to enter her apartment.¹ Ms. Hawkins went to the front door, removed the safety chain lock, and permitted appellant to enter the apartment. Appellant watched television in Ms. Hawkins's bedroom while drinking alcohol until approximately 2:00 a.m.

Appellant then confronted Ms. Hawkins, saying he believed that some of her coworkers wanted to have sex with her. Appellant pushed Ms. Hawkins onto the bed, straddled her, and hit her with a closed fist on her stomach, face, and her "lower body part and [her] upper body part." He picked up his drink from the nightstand, poured it on her, and told her that if she informed anyone about the beating, he would claim that she was drunk and had attacked him. Appellant also kicked Ms. Hawkins in the stomach. During the assault, Ms. Hawkins told appellant she needed to use the bathroom, and appellant "got up off [of her]." As she was walking toward the bathroom, however, appellant punched her in the back, threw her back on the bed, and continued to punch her with his fists.

When appellant stopped hitting her, he went to the kitchen to get a glass of milk and cookies, and then he returned to the bedroom and climbed in bed with Ms. Hawkins. Once appellant fell asleep, Ms. Hawkins got out of bed, put on a dress, and ran out of her apartment barefoot.

Unable to find any neighbors, she walked three blocks to a payphone and called the police. She did not tell the 911 operator that appellant had assaulted her, and instead, she told the operator that she "had been beaten up by a friend ... [named] Jermaine Wilson."² When the police and paramedics arrived, Ms. Hawkins told them that she was "beaten by a friend" but would not disclose his name.³

Ms. Hawkins was taken to Greater Southeast Community Hospital, where she was examined by Julius Omole, a physician's assistant. Ms. Hawkins told Omole that "she was hit by her boyfriend,"⁴ and that she was experiencing pain in her face, wrist, back, and abdomen. She was diagnosed with a sprained wrist, which was put in a soft cast. At trial, Ms. Hawkins testified that as a result of the assault, she had a "swollen lip, black eye ... [and] bruised kidney," and described the level of pain in her arm as "severe."⁵ She also testified that, despite these injuries, she continued her relationship with appellant because she "was still in love with Mr. Earl and ... [she] was also in fear of Mr. Earl."

August 9, 2003 Assault

A month later, on August 9, 2003, appellant called Ms. Hawkins at work to tell her that he wanted to return the keys to her apartment. Appellant drove to her workplace and waited for her to finish her shift. When he saw Ms. Hawkins, he opened his car door and offered her a ride, which she accepted because she "was scared and ... didn't want him to hit [her]," and she was afraid that he would try to "force [her] to get into the car."

After they arrived at her apartment, Ms. Hawkins let appellant inside because she "was afraid that if [she] didn't allow him into [her] apartment, that he would hit [her]." Once he was in the apartment, appellant asked her, "You want me to hit you, don't you?" When Ms. Hawkins said "no," appellant punched her three times in the stomach. He then picked up a nearby umbrella and hit her on the head with it twice.

According to Ms. Hawkins, when appellant saw a framed picture on a nearby table of Ms. Hawkins and her ex-husband, Steven Hawkins, he told her, "I can't believe you have a picture of another man in your apartment knowing that I come into this apartment." Appellant grabbed her in a choke hold, and as the two were struggling near the windows, he released the choke hold and pushed her out an open window, causing her upper body to "dangl[e] from the window." Ms. Hawkins grabbed the outer ledge of her windowsill and yelled out "help, he's trying to kill me!" Appellant was holding both her legs, but Ms. Hawkins struggled and managed to free her left leg. Moments later, appellant let go of her right leg, which caused Ms. Hawkins to fall out of the window. As a result of the fall, she suffered two broken ankles, scrapes and bruises, and for a time had to wear a neck brace.

Again, Ms. Hawkins did not immediately reveal the name of her assailant when the police arrived on the scene, telling the officers that she "jumped out the window because [her] boyfriend was trying to kill [her]." Ms. Hawkins testified that she also did not tell the police that appellant pushed her out the window because she was afraid that appellant would attack her again and because she still loved him. When she arrived at the hospital, she again informed the attending physician that she jumped out the window because her boyfriend was attempting to kill her. It was not until the next day, when she spoke to her sister, Ms. Wells, that Ms. Hawkins said that appellant had pushed her out the window.

The Defense Case

Appellant denied assaulting Ms. Hawkins on either July 9 or August 9, and it was the theory of the defense that appellant was the victim in the relationship. According to appellant, he tried ending his relationship with the complainant several times, but when he did, Ms. Hawkins would "threaten to call the other women in his life and tell them bad things, that he was going out with [other women]."

According to the defense, the complainant's accusations that appellant assaulted her were simply instances where she followed through with her threats. In opening statement, defense counsel told the jury:

[Ms. Hawkins] would threaten to have him arrested for abuse. And she told him it would be easy for her to have him arrested because he was big, he was dark complected, and he was a man. No one would believe him if she went in to the police. No one would believe him.

On direct examination, when asked whether Ms. Hawkins would threaten him if he attempted to end their relationship, appellant testified that she "would say to me that it would be easy to convict me of domestic violence because of my size and because I was a black man [and] . . . these factors [] would play against me if she ever called the police, if she ever made up any kind of allegation that I beat her."⁶

Appellant testified that he never visited Ms. Hawkins on July 9, the day she claimed he punched her repeatedly, but that he did visit her at her apartment a few days later, between July 11 and 13. According to appellant, while there, "Ms. Hawkins told [him] that around the 4th of July, or around that holiday or whatever, she tried to call and contact [him], but that [he] didn't respond. And that she called her husband up, Steven, and he came past." Appellant testified that Ms. Hawkins told him that at some point while Mr. Hawkins was in her apartment, he saw some of appellant's clothes and "got very angry and jumped on her and he beat her . . . [and] broke her arm."

With respect to the August 9 assault, it was the theory of the defense that Ms. Hawkins jumped out of the window of her own accord and was using the incident to frame appellant because she was jealous and wanted to get back at him. According to appellant, some time in July Ms. Hawkins informed him that she was pregnant. On August 9, he went to Ms. Hawkins's workplace to return her keys and she said to him, "I know you are not going to leave me stranded in the rain like this. Could you give me a ride home?" He agreed, and when they arrived at her apartment, Ms. Hawkins said that she would like him to accompany her inside because "she wanted to talk about the baby."

Once inside, appellant saw a picture of another man. Appellant admitted that he inquired about the identity of the man in the photograph. He testified that he...