Gimble v. State

• Decision Date: 29 April 2011
• Docket Number: No. 133,Sept. Term,2010.,133
• Citation: 18 A.3d 955,198 Md.App. 610
• Parties: Justin GIMBLEv.STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

198 Md.App. 610

18 A.3d 955

Justin GIMBLE

v.STATE of Maryland.

No. 133

Sept. Term

2010.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

April 29, 2011.

Renee M. Hutchins (University of MD School of Law, on the brief), Baltimore, MD, for appellant.Todd W. Hesel (Douglas F. Gansler, Atty. Gen., on the brief), Baltimore, MD, for appellee.Panel: EYLER, DEBORAH S., MEREDITH and CHARLES E. MOYLAN, JR. (Retired, Specially Assigned), JJ.EYLER, DEBORAH S., J.

A jury in the Circuit Court for Wicomico County convicted Justin Gimble, the appellant, of two counts of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, two counts of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, one count each of simple possession of cocaine and marijuana, and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia. He was sentenced to a total of 15 years' imprisonment with all but 6 years suspended.

On appeal, the appellant presents three questions for review, which we have reworded:

I. Did the circuit court err in denying his motion to dismiss?

II. Was the evidence legally sufficient to support his convictions?

III. Did the trial court err in denying his requested jury instruction on destruction of evidence?

For the following reasons, we shall affirm the judgments of the circuit court.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

The charges in this case stem from events that happened in the late morning of March 26, 2008, when Wicomico County Sheriff's Office Deputy Joel Arnold attempted to effect a traffic stop of a sedan automobile the appellant was driving, and in which the appellant was the sole occupant. Deputy Arnold had observed the sedan traveling above the posted speed limit. When he drove up behind the sedan to make the traffic stop, the appellant sped off. A chase ensued, with the appellant's vehicle reaching speeds of around 100 mph. Deputy Arnold's patrol vehicle was equipped with a camera mounted on the dashboard, which recorded the entire series of events, beginning with the attempted traffic stop. Deputy Arnold never lost sight of the sedan during the chase.

The appellant failed to negotiate a turn and lost control of the sedan. It veered off into a field and crashed, overturning. Deputy Arnold witnessed the crash. He saw items coming out of the sedan as it overturned. The DVD recording of the crash showed that as well. Items found in close proximity to the overturned vehicle included a camouflage backpack. The backpack was spotted by Deputy Matthew Cook (who had responded to the scene) around 20 feet from the overturned sedan. Inside the backpack Deputy Cook found marijuana and cocaine, clear baggies, a USC 300 digital scale with narcotics residue on it, and various personal items.

The appellant suffered significant injuries in the crash. It took about a half hour to extract him from the sedan. He was transported to a regional medical center. There, Deputy Dennis Taylor confiscated a silver Cingular cell phone and $1,311 in United States currency from a pocket in the appellant's pants, which had been removed by hospital personnel. The appellant was transported to the Shock Trauma Unit in Baltimore for treatment of his injuries.

We shall include additional facts in our discussion of the issues.

DISCUSSION

I.Motion to Dismiss Charges

The case was scheduled for trial on January 20, 2010. Three months before then, on October 19, 2009, defense counsel made discovery requests of the State. On October 29, 2009, he received in response documents, including police reports and evidence logs, detailing the items that had been found in the field near the overturned sedan right after it crashed, and stating that there was a DVD recording of the chase and crash taken from the camera in the patrol vehicle, and there were 11 photographs taken at the crash scene by an EMT responder. Defense counsel asked for the DVD and the photographs. He was provided with the DVD but was told that there were no photographs. (There were many other photographs taken of the crash scene, including one that showed the location of the backpack. They were taken by other responders to the scene.)

As the trial date neared, defense counsel arranged to meet with the prosecutor at the Sheriff's Office on January 15, 2010, to view the evidence. The prosecutor canceled the meeting at the last minute and it was rescheduled for January 19, which was the next business day. (A holiday weekend intervened.) On the morning of January 19, the prosecutor called defense counsel and told him she had learned that the only items of evidence the Sheriff's Office still had for the case were the marijuana and cocaine that were found in the backpack and the money that was seized from the appellant's pants pocket in the hospital. Everything else had been either returned to the appellant's girlfriend or destroyed.

At the outset of the proceedings the next day, defense counsel moved to dismiss all charges on the ground that the appellant's due process rights had been violated by the State's destruction of evidence.¹ Defense counsel complained that the State had destroyed the backpack, personal items in the backpack, and the 11 crash scene photographs. The prosecutor responded that some of the items of evidence had been destroyed mistakenly by the Sheriff's Office in the course of routine purging of its evidence room. She offered to call as a witness Corporal Brian Donohoe, the property and evidence supervisor for the Sheriff's Office. The court agreed and Corporal Donohoe was called to the stand. He testified as follows.

Every item of evidence submitted to the Sheriff's Office is accompanied by a property report stating the case number. Evidence is stored in numerical order by year and case number. “General” evidence (the category in which all the items in this case fit, except the drugs and currency) is put in a padlocked locker when received and, shortly thereafter, is moved to a locked vault.

On March 26, 2008, the day of the events involving the appellant, Corporal Donohoe received property report forms for several items of evidence associated with this case. The items included a USC 300 digital scale, a silver Cingular cell phone, and a camouflage backpack containing glassine baggies, a cell phone charger, batteries, and a comb. That same day, Corporal Donohoe also received property report forms associated with this case for a cell phone, a driver's license, keys, a PNC bank card, two folding knives, two pictures, and a black folder. All of these items were stored in the vault for general property in the property room at the Sheriff's Office. In addition, Corporal Donohoe received marijuana, cocaine, and $1,311 in United States currency associated with this case. The drugs were stored in a separate evidence locker specifically for controlled dangerous substances. The currency was deposited with the county financial office.

On April 11, 2008, in response to a property form submitted by Deputy Arnold the day before, Corporal Donohoe released the driver's license, keys, PNC bank card, two folding knives, two pictures, a cell phone (different from the silver Cingular cell phone), and black folder to the appellant's girlfriend.

The Sheriff's Office follows a routine annual purging procedure for evidence collected the previous year. Pursuant to the procedure, the seizing deputy ( i.e., the deputy who seized the evidence to begin with) is sent a property disposal form listing the evidence. The seizing deputy fills out the form, indicating whether the evidence should be “held, destroyed, or returned to the owner” and whether the evidence is associated with active warrants, investigations, or criminal proceedings.

In September 2009, Corporal Donohoe issued over 600 property disposal forms for evidence collected in 2008. On September 29, 2009, such a form listing the backpack, the silver Cingular cell phone, and the USC 300 digital scale in this case was issued to Deputy Taylor, who mistakenly was identified in the computer system as the seizing officer. In fact, Deputy Matthew Cook was the seizing officer for those items. Therefore, the property disposal form for those items should have been issued to Deputy Cook. It was not, however.

On November 3, 2009, Deputy Taylor returned the property disposal form marking the three items for destruction. He did not fill in the top portion of the form with respect to active warrants, investigations, or criminal cases associated with the evidence. According to Corporal Donohoe, the top portion of the form is for the convenience of the seizing officer, and is not reviewed by him or the staff in the property room. Deputy Taylor submitted the property disposal form on November 3, 2009. The items were destroyed on November 5, 2009. All items remaining inside the backpack would have been destroyed when the backpack was destroyed.

Corporal Donohoe testified that the Sheriff's Office property room never received any crash scene photographs associated with this case and that it would not be usual for photographs of that sort to be submitted to the Sheriff's Office property room for housing.

At the conclusion of Corporal Donohoe's testimony, the court found as a fact that the November 5, 2009 destruction of items of evidence in this case (the backpack and its contents, the silver Cingular cell phone, and the digital scale with residue) was “part of an annual purge of the 2008 Wicomico County Sheriff's Department inventory.” It found that “the destruction of this evidence was done in a routine administrative fashion” and was “not done in bad faith or with the intent to cause any injustice to [the appellant].” The court also found that the prosecutor did not know that the evidence had been destroyed until January 15, 2009, and that “there's no evidence that the State, through its law-enforcement officers or other agents, willfully suppressed any evidence.” The court further found that there was no evidence that “what was destroyed was favorable to [the appellant].” The court ...