Huffington v. State
Decision Date | 06 December 1982 |
Docket Number | Nos. 136 and 10,s. 136 and 10 |
Citation | 452 A.2d 1211,295 Md. 1 |
Parties | John Norman HUFFINGTON v. STATE of Maryland. |
Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Louis P. Willemin, Asst. Public Defender, Baltimore (Alan H. Murrell, Public Defender and George E. Burns, Jr., Asst. Public Defender, Baltimore, on the brief), for appellant.
Patricia E. McDonald, Asst. Atty. Gen., Baltimore (Stephen H. Sachs, Atty. Gen. and Deborah K. Handel, Asst. Atty. Gen., Baltimore, on the brief), for appellee.
Argued before MURPHY, C.J., and SMITH, ELDRIDGE, COLE, DAVIDSON, RODOWSKY and COUCH, JJ.
On 13 November 1981, in the Circuit Court for Caroline County, a jury convicted the appellant, John Norman Huffington, of two felony murders, robbery, burglary, and violations of the handgun laws. After the jury determined that the appropriate sentence for each of the felony murders was death, the trial court imposed the death penalty. In addition, the trial court imposed consecutive terms of imprisonment for the robbery, burglary, and handgun violations. This appeal followed.
On appeal, the appellant claims that the trial court committed numerous prejudicial errors in the course of the pretrial proceedings, the trial proceedings, and the sentencing proceedings. More particularly, he points out that certain testimonial evidence was presented by the State after the prosecution and the defense each had concluded its case in chief and had rested. The appellant contends that such evidence was not properly admitted, either as rebuttal evidence or as an exercise of the trial court's discretion to vary the order of proof and admit evidence at the rebuttal stage that should have been adduced during the prosecution's case in chief. Because we find that the testimony in question was not rebuttal evidence, that the trial court was not, in fact, exercising its discretion to admit nonrebuttal evidence at the rebuttal stage of the trial, and that the trial court committed prejudicial error by admitting the evidence, we shall reverse the convictions and remand the case for a new trial. Under these circumstances, no other questions need be considered.
At the trial, both direct and circumstantial evidence was produced during the prosecution's case in chief that was intended to show that on 25 May 1981 the appellant killed Diane Becker and Joseph Hudson, both of whom had lived together in a trailer located in the Long Bar Harbor campground in Harford County. The direct evidence was adduced by an alleged accomplice, Deno Kanaras, who, at the request of the State, was called by the trial court as a witness. According to the agreed statement of facts, the substance of Kanaras's testimony concerning the events of the evening of 24 May and the morning of 25 May 1981 was as follows:
Much circumstantial evidence was also adduced by the State as a part of its case in chief. Neighbors who had been with Hudson and Becker at the Golden Forty Club on the evening of 24 May, and were with them when they left, saw a blue 1980 Monte Carlo, a type of car frequently driven by Kanaras, follow Hudson and Becker to their trailer. The car was then occupied by two men, one of whom Becker referred to as Deno. As the babysitter caring for Becker's child was leaving the trailer shared by Becker and Hudson, she saw two men emerge from such a car and walk to the porch of the trailer.
Additionally, police officers, accompanied by Kanaras, found a knife and sheath, a gun, and a holster in a pool of water located in Cecil County. According to an expert, the expended bullets in Hudson's body could have been fired from that gun, and the bent shell casings found near Hudson's body were fired by that gun. The police officers, accompanied by Kanaras, also found six live rounds of .38 caliber ammunition, the remains of a burnt handbag, and a Smirnoff's bottle of Harmony Church Road. According to an expert, some of the bullets recovered from Hudson's body, as well as bullets recovered from the creek at Harmony Church Road, contained similar chemical compositions. In addition, according to experts, the recovered vodka bottle had human bloodstains on it that could have come from Becker, and a latent fingerprint that matched a fingerprint taken from the appellant's right index finger. Moreover, the police officers, accompanied by Kanaras, found a brown paper bag containing corduory pants that were damp and smelled of bleach in a dumpster near Hall's Furniture Store. At the appellant's apartment, the police officers found a Marlboro box containing a white powder subsequently determined to be cocaine. According to experts, hair samples taken from the appellant microscopically matched hair found in Becker's garter belt and a blanket from her bed. The appellant's right boot contained a spot of blood, although there was not enough to tell if it was of human or animal origin, while Kanaras's left boot contained human blood.
Finally, there was evidence to show that at or about 12:30 a. m. on 26 May 1981, the appellant gave the police a statement, found by the trial court to be voluntary. In that statement, the appellant said that at or about 1:00 a.m. on 25 May, the appellant and Deno Kanaras had arrived at the Golden Forty Club where they remained until the club closed. The appellant stated that they then went to a weekend Fiddler's Convention in Cecil County where they remained until about 11:00 a.m. on 25 May. At that time, the appellant specifically denied having gone to Hudson's...
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Huffington v. State
...Huffington in this, his third trip to this Court, the second after a death sentence. His first trip was reported in Huffington v. State, 295 Md. 1, 452 A.2d 1211 (1982), where we reversed and remanded for a new trial. Upon the remand after that reversal the case was removed to the Circuit C......
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