Guzman v. Smalls
| Docket Number | 1275-2022 |
| Decision Date | 08 August 2023 |
| Parties | RAFAEL JONATHAN DE GUZMAN v. KRYSTAL SMALLS |
| Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF MARYLAND [**]
Berger, Shaw, McDonald, Robert N. (Senior Judge, Specially Assigned), JJ.
This case arises out of an action for absolute divorce and custody filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County by Appellant, Rafael Jonathan de Guzman ("Mr. de Guzman"), against Appellee, Krystal Smalls ("Ms. Smalls").[1] Mr. de Guzman filed a complaint and, later, an amended complaint seeking an absolute divorce from Ms. Smalls and custody of their minor child, R. Ms. Smalls filed a counter-complaint seeking sole legal and physical custody of R.
A pendente lite hearing was held on March 23, 2021. Thereafter, the circuit court entered a pendente lite order granting sole legal custody and primary physical custody of R. to Ms. Smalls. Mr. de Guzman was granted visitation with R. on a phased-in schedule.
A hearing on the merits was held from August 4 through 10, 2022. Among other things, the circuit court granted Mr. de Guzman an absolute divorce, awarded sole legal custody and primary physical custody of R. to Ms. Smalls, and granted Mr. de Guzman access to R. according to a specified schedule. Eight days after the court's order was entered, Mr. de Guzman filed a motion for new trial or, in the alternative, to alter or amend the judgment, which the court denied on September 21, 2022.
Ms. Smalls filed a timely appeal and Mr. de Guzman filed a timely cross-appeal. Ms. Smalls failed to file a brief. On our own initiative, by order dated March 7, 2023, we dismissed Ms. Smalls' appeal and changed the parties' designations to reflect Mr. de Guzman as the sole appellant and Ms. Smalls as the sole appellee. Pursuant to that order, Ms. Smalls was required to file an appellee's brief on or before April 12, 2023, but she did not do so.
Mr. de Guzman presented six questions for our consideration, all of which challenge the court's decision to grant legal and primary physical custody of R. to Ms. Smalls. We have restated those questions as follows:
For the reasons set forth below, we shall affirm.
The record in this case is extensive. We will begin with a non-exhaustive review of the evidence presented at trial and include additional facts as necessary in our discussion of the questions presented.
The parties began a romantic relationship in either October 2014 or early 2015. They were married on February 18, 2020. They share one child, R., who was born on March 18, 2019. Ms Smalls has two children from a prior relationship, and Mr. de Guzman has one daughter, A., also from a prior relationship with a woman we will refer to as S.T. Throughout the parties' relationship, Mr. de Guzman had physical custody of A. except for the period from April 2020 through July 2021, when A. lived with her mother, S.T.
Mr. de Guzman was employed at Booz, Allen, Hamilton, where he had a security clearance and worked on government projects. During her pregnancy with R., Ms. Smalls was diagnosed with a heart condition that required surgery in August 2019. She testified that she has been "disabled" since R.'s birth and that her application for social security disability benefits was on appeal. In January 2021, Ms. Smalls was fired from her job at a credit union. At the time of the hearing, she was not working, had no income, and lived on savings and child support.
In February or March 2015, Mr. de Guzman and A. began living in Ms. Smalls' home in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. The parties began to live separately in August 2018, when Ms. Smalls was about three months pregnant. Mr. de Guzman moved to an apartment in Upper Marlboro, about five or six miles away from Ms. Smalls' home and lived there until August 2019. He then moved to a townhome in Virginia in order "to get some distance" from Ms. Smalls' residence and to be closer to an office where he was working at that time. Mr. de Guzman kept the townhome until about August 2020. During their separation, Mr. de Guzman engaged in an intimate relationship with his cousin,[3] K.S., and, in the Fall of 2019, he had a brief relationship with his ex-wife, S.T.
The Affair with K.S.
Ms. Smalls testified about an incident that occurred in July 2019, when R. was a few months old. At Mr. de Guzman's insistence, she took R. to his apartment at about 2:30 a.m. Mr. de Guzman claimed that Ms. Smalls arrived at about 9:00 or 10:00 p.m., but he acknowledged that K.S. was with him in the apartment when she arrived with R. Ms. Smalls stayed in the apartment for a while, thinking that R. would leave with her, but then left without the child because "it was two of them against me." Ms. Smalls claimed to be "an abused woman" and that if she did not do what Mr. de Guzman asked there would be "repercussions," such as being accused of being an alcoholic.
After leaving the child with her father, Ms. Smalls went to her car for a few minutes. She then got out of her car, approached a "balcony door" or window, and looked into Mr. de Guzman's first-floor apartment to check on R. She observed Mr. de Guzman and his cousin having sex on the couch while R. was "screaming." Ms. Smalls banged on the door and sent texts to Mr. de Guzman. She also took a video recording of the incident. About 25 minutes later, Mr. de Guzman called Ms. Smalls and asked what she saw. Ms. Smalls asked him if his family knew about "you guys" and why he would let R. scream and cry without attending to her. Mr. de Guzman told her that R. needed to learn how to selfsoothe. The child was returned to Ms. Smalls the following day. Mr. de Guzman did not deny having sexual relations with K.S. but testified that R. was sleeping in her bassinet in the bedroom and was not crying or screaming.
A few days after the incident, Mr. de Guzman appeared at Ms. Smalls' house. She described him as appearing "suicidal." Ms. Smalls wanted R. to have her father in her life and "wanted a family." Mr. de Guzman said he was willing to do that. She told him that he needed to be honest. Ms. Smalls asked Mr. de Guzman if she could tell K.S.'s husband about the affair because if she was in his position, she would want to know. According to Ms. Smalls, Mr. de Guzman said he did not care. Thereafter, Ms. Smalls called K.S.'s husband and sent him "redacted images." Mr. de Guzman testified that Ms. Smalls also sent personal photographs of K.S. to K.S.'s parents and others including his sisters, Clarinda Islam and Catherine Birchall, and a brother-in-law, and threatened to send them to more people. Mr. de Guzman had intimate photos of K.S. on his cell phone, but he never saw the video Ms. Smalls took of him and K.S. having sex, and Ms. Smalls denied ever sharing that video with anyone.
K.S. and Mr. de Guzman's family members were upset about receiving the photographs "because they didn't know what was going on" and were not aware of the relationship between Mr. de Guzman and K.S. According to Ms. Smalls, K.S., her husband, and Mr. de Guzman's sister, Ms. Birchall, started sending out emails that vilified her and referred to her as "crazy," "abusive to children," and a "liar."
In August 2019, while Ms. Smalls was in the hospital for open heart surgery, Mr. de Guzman accessed her personal cell phone and re-set it to the factory specifications. Ms. Smalls testified that he deleted everything on the phone including the video she had taken of him and K.S. Mr. de Guzman stated that he did this to prevent Ms. Smalls "from spreading any more of the personal photos of [K.S.] to [his] family members" or to other people. He also looked through Ms. Smalls' personal laptop computer but did not find any images of K.S. Mr. de Guzman acknowledged that he was strongly encouraged by K.S. to do those things, but he denied that he, K.S., and other family members "teamed up together" to call Ms. Smalls a liar. Ms. Smalls testified that while she was in the hospital, Mr. de Guzman told her that he was leaving her and moving to Virginia to be with K.S. He took A. out of school and enrolled her in a school in Virginia.
According to Ms. Smalls, in January 2020, Mr. de Guzman agreed that she could have full physical custody of R. Shortly thereafter the parties discussed resuming their relationship and getting married. Mr. de Guzman promised not to see his cousin any more. He claimed that his affair with K.S. lasted from May to July 2019, and, at the time of his discussions with Ms Smalls, his relationships with K.S. and S.T. had ended. Mr. de Guzman acknowledged that from August 2019 until January 2020, he had not admitted to his family that he was having an affair with his cousin, as Ms. Smalls had been saying. According to Mr. de Guzman, "[o]ne of the stipulations of getting married included us completely resolving the [K.S.] issue and me...
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