Eiland v. State

• Decision Date: 01 September 1991
• Docket Number: 951,Nos. 903,s. 903
• Citation: 607 A.2d 42,92 Md.App. 56
• Parties: , 60 USLW 2808 Gerald Wynn EILAND v. STATE of Maryland. Jerry Samuel TYLER v. STATE of Maryland. ,
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 56

92 Md.App. 56

607 A.2d 42, 60 USLW 2808

Gerald Wynn EILAND v. STATE of Maryland.

Jerry Samuel TYLER v. STATE of Maryland.

Nos. 903, 951, Sept. Term, 1991.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

May 26, 1992.

Certiorari Granted October 8, 1992.

Steven F. Reich (Charles F.C. Ruff, Covington & Burling, Washington, D.C., Leonard R. Stamm and Goldstein & Stamm, P.A., Greenbelt, on the brief), for appellant, Eiland.

Richard A. Finci (Victor A. Houlon and Pickett, Houlon and Berman, on the brief), Hyattsville, for appellant, Tyler.

Warren Anthony Fitch and Swidler & Berlin, Chartered of Washington, D.C., for amicus curiae, Nat. Ass'n of Crim. Defense Lawyers, Inc., as to appellant, Eiland.

Mary Ellen Barbera, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen., Baltimore, and Alexander Williams, Jr., State's Atty., for Prince George's County of Upper Marlboro, on the brief), for appellee.

Argued before MOYLAN, ROSALYN B. BELL and WENNER, JJ.

MOYLAN, Judge.

On the afternoon of December 4, 1990, in what turned out to be a highly publicized murder case, James "Jay" S. Bias, III, the younger brother of former University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias, was senselessly gunned down in cold blood as he was leaving the parking lot of the Prince George's Plaza Mall. In a joint trial before a Prince George's County jury, presided over by Judge G.R. Hovey Johnson, the appellants, Gerald Wynn Eiland and Jerry Samuel Tyler, were convicted of that murder.

Tyler was convicted of murder in the first degree and the use of a handgun in the commission of a felony. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder and to a consecutive term of 20 years for the handgun violation. Eiland was convicted of murder in the second degree, of the use of a handgun in the commission of a felony, and also of being an accessory after the fact to murder. He was sentenced to a term of 30 years for second-degree murder, ten of which were suspended, and to a consecutive term of 20 years for the handgun violation, ten of which were also suspended, for a total of 30 years to be served. Recognizing the then-present inconsistency between convictions for murder and accessory after the fact to murder, Judge Johnson vacated the conviction on the accessory charge and entered a judgment of acquittal as to it.

Each appellant has filed, briefed, and argued a separate appeal. Because they were both convicted at a joint trial, because the evidence admitted as to each was also admitted as to the other, and because of the broad (albeit not total) overlap of the issues raised by the two appellants, we have elected to consolidate the two appeals for purposes of this opinion. Both appellants raise the following four contentions:

1. That the evidence was not legally sufficient to support the convictions;

2. That Judge Johnson erroneously refused to sever their trials;

3. That Judge Johnson erroneously admitted in evidence the last words of Jay Bias; and

4. That the State unconstitutionally used its peremptory challenges to exclude women from the jury solely on the basis of gender.

The appellant Tyler alone raises one additional contention:

5. That the State unconstitutionally used its peremptory challenges to exclude blacks from the jury solely on the basis of race.

The appellant Eiland alone also raises one additional contention:

6. That his inconsistent convictions for murder and accessory after the fact to murder dictate that the sentence for murder should be vacated and the case remanded with instructions to sentence him only on the accessory charge.

The Factual Background

In assessing the legal sufficiency of the evidence, of course, we take that version of the facts, including the inferences that can fairly be drawn from those facts, that is most favorable to the State's case.

Jay Bias worked at the Hyattsville Branch of the Sovran Bank. On the afternoon of December 4, 1990, two of his coworkers, Andre Campbell and Tydus Mathis, decided to drive to the nearby Prince George's Plaza Mall during their lunch hour. Hearing their plans, Bias asked to accompany them. He had recently purchased from Kay Jewelers, located in the mall, a ring, which was being sized for him and which he wanted to show to his coworkers. The three drove to the mall in Mathis's car. While Mathis went off to browse in another part of the mall, Bias and Campbell went to Kay Jewelers, where they were waited on by Shaunelle Tyler, an employee of the store and the wife of the appellant Jerry Tyler. Bias spoke to Shaunelle Tyler about the ring and showed it to Campbell.

At approximately the same time, the appellants, Jerry Tyler and Gerald Eiland, arrived at the mall in a green Mercedes Benz, owned by Tyler's father but driven by Eiland. The two of them headed directly for Kay Jewelers. As Bias and Campbell were leaving the jewelers, Jerry Tyler entered. He apparently believed that his wife had been flirting with Jay Bias. A turbulent argument ensued between Tyler and his wife, culminating in Tyler's hurling a stapler at her. The manager of Kay Jewelers thought it prudent to end the dispute by escorting Tyler out of the store.

Bias and Campbell, now rejoined by Tydus Mathis, were standing just outside when Tyler was escorted to the exit. Visibly agitated, Tyler turned to Bias and said, "You can have her." Bias replied "that he didn't want [Tyler's] girl" and that "he was just buying a ring." Tyler, his agitation persisting, challenged Bias to "[c]ome on outside, we can take care of this outside." Bias initially started toward Tyler but was stopped by Mathis. During the entire verbal encounter, the appellant Eiland was standing just two to three steps away from Tyler.

Heeding Mathis's advice of restraint, Bias, with Campbell and Mathis, walked toward the mall exit leading to the rear parking lot. The two appellants were making their way toward another exit, leading to the front parking lot, when Tyler again yelled to Bias to "step outside," adding, "I've got something for you outside; I'll cap you." ¹ At that time, Eiland was still standing within two to three feet of Tyler.

As they prepared to leave the parking lot, Mathis was in the driver's seat of his car, Campbell was in the rear passenger compartment, and Bias sat in the front passenger seat. As they approached the exit leading onto Toledo Terrace, they came to a stop in a left-turn lane as they waited for two cars in front of them to make a left turn. At that point, Mathis noticed a green Mercedes "speed" toward them from the opposite side of the parking lot. As the Mercedes pulled abreast of them in the lane to their immediate right, Mathis noticed that Eiland was driving the car and that Tyler was sitting in the front passenger seat. Because the flow of traffic on Toledo Terrace was heavy, Mathis was not able to proceed immediately to exit the parking lot. Indeed, when the Mercedes first pulled abreast of Mathis's Toyota, the Toyota was "stacked up" behind two other cars waiting to make a left-hand turn. The right-hand lane was free, however, and there was nothing to impede the Mercedes, driven by Eiland and occupied by Tyler, from going forward. Eiland, nonetheless, brought the Mercedes to a stop parallel with Mathis' Toyota. When, a few seconds later, the Toyota was able to "inch" forward one automobile length before stopping again, Eiland moved the Mercedes proportionately forward to maintain the parallel relationship between the two cars.

Mathis noticed that the left front window of the Mercedes was open. He saw Eiland press backward against the driver's seat as Tyler stretched across in front of him and yelled out the window. As Eiland pressed his body back against his seat, allowing Tyler to lean across in front of him, his hands were on the low arc of the steering wheel. The testimony was clear that they were not high on the steering wheel or even at midpoint but were as low as they could be without actually releasing the wheel. Campbell, who also observed this, noticed that Tyler had his right hand placed below his knee. Tyler initially appeared "scared" but then became very angry. Because the windows of the Mathis vehicle were closed, neither Mathis nor Campbell could hear the words being yelled by Tyler. As the Mathis vehicle moved slightly forward toward the intersection, Eiland kept the Mercedes parallel with it. As Campbell was briefly turning his head away from the direction of the Mercedes, between seven and ten bullets were fired into the right side of the Mathis vehicle. Two of those bullets struck and mortally wounded Jay Bias.

The Mathis vehicle made an immediate left-hand turn onto Toledo Terrace and drove toward the Leland Memorial Hospital, where Bias was rushed to the emergency room. Shortly thereafter, Bias was pronounced dead by the hospital's attending physicians. Immediately after the shooting, Eiland drove the Mercedes away in an opposite direction from that taken by the Toyota.

The Legal Sufficiency of the Evidence

The test for legal sufficiency of evidence to convict that has always prevailed in Maryland, and is almost universally accepted elsewhere, is the constitutional test for sufficiency under the Due Process Clause clearly spelled out in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560, 573 (1979):

"[T]he relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." (emphasis in original).

Wiggins v. State, 324 Md. 551, 566-567, 597 A.2d 1359 (1991); Wilson v. State, 319 Md. 530, 535-536, 573 A.2d 831 (1990); Tichnell v. State, 287 Md. 695, 717, 415 A.2d 830 (1980).

It is, moreover, clear that the test for legal sufficiency is precisely the same when we are measuring 1) whether the trial judge in a jury trial is in error, as a matter of law, in submitting the case to the jury over a timely...