Hurley v. State

• Decision Date: 01 September 1984
• Docket Number: No. 185,185
• Citation: 60 Md.App. 539,483 A.2d 1298
• Parties: William Francis HURLEY v. STATE of Maryland. ,
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 539

60 Md.App. 539

483 A.2d 1298

William Francis HURLEY v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 185, Sept. Term, 1984.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

Nov. 16, 1984.

William T. Wood, Rockville, for appellant.

Diane G. Goldsmith, Asst. Atty. Gen., Baltimore, with whom were Stephen H. Sachs, Atty. Gen., Baltimore, Andrew L. Sonner, State's Atty. for Montgomery County and Eric E. Wright, Asst. State's Atty. for Montgomery County, Rockville, on the brief, for appellee.

Argued before ALPERT and BELL, JJ., and JAMES C. MORTON, Jr., Associate Judge of the Court of Special Appeals (retired), Specially Assigned.

ALPERT, Judge.

The last time anyone saw Catherine Patricia Hurley (nee White) was on Thursday, August 11, 1983, at approximately 6:45 in the evening. The last person to be seen with her at that time was her estranged husband, the appellant, William Francis Hurley. She has disappeared without a trace.

A week after her disappearance, appellant was arrested by the Montgomery County Police Department and charged with first and second degree murder and manslaughter in connection with the disappearance of his wife. He was tried by a jury sitting in Montgomery County (Sanders, J., presiding) and was found guilty of manslaughter. He was sentenced to ten years incarceration under the jurisdiction of the Division of Correction.

On appeal, Mr. Hurley claims that:

1. There was insufficient evidence of the corpus delecti to support a conviction for manslaughter;

2. He was deprived of his right to a fair and impartial jury;

3. The court erred in refusing to permit him to produce character evidence concerning reputation for truth and veracity; and

4. The court contravened his right to remain silent when it allegedly enhanced his sentence for refusing to disclose the whereabouts of his wife's body.

Perceiving no reversible error, we affirm his conviction and sentencing. In order to discuss the first issue, however, we must set forth in detail the facts in this case as they were developed at trial. The evidence consisted of testimony from a variety of witnesses, appellant's pre-trial statements, exhibits of the victim's personal effects and photographs of appellant's office, as well as stipulations.

FACTS

Catherine Patricia Hurley married appellant, William Francis Hurley, in 1969. Three children were born unto the marriage--Jack, Danny and Katie. The Hurleys separated in 1981 and Catherine was given custody of the children. Appellant was ordered to pay child support, alimony and the mortgage on the family home at 14601 McClintock Road in Glenwood, Maryland. After the separation and until August 11, 1983 Catherine Hurley lived at this address with the children. At the time of their mother's disappearance, Jack was twelve, Danny was eight, and Katie was five and one-half years old. In 1983 appellant lived in a townhouse in Rockville with his girlfriend, Amy Snively. He was self-employed and owned a janitorial and cleaning business in Rockville, Maryland.

On Thursday, August 11, 1983 Catherine worked for her father, Dr. Merton White, at his office in Silver Spring, Maryland, for several hours. Before leaving work she requested and received her paycheck. She needed the money, she said, because she was taking the children to the beach that weekend. Her son Danny was already there with his grandmother and she was taking Katie with her that night. Jack was to work with his father over the weekend. She left in the company of her daughter, Katie, and appeared to be happy and optimistic.

Catherine left the office that day and went to appellant's townhouse in Rockville. He met her outside and she followed him to his office. They went inside while Katie remained in her mother's car, a Chevrolet station wagon. After a short time, Katie went inside the office to use the bathroom; she then returned to her mother's car. Shortly thereafter, she heard a scream which she believed to be her mother's, so she alighted from the car and peeked in a window where she saw her mother on the floor; however, all she saw were her feet and shoes and a man's feet and shoes. Katie got back in the car and a little later appellant left the office. According to appellant in his pre-trial statement, Catherine allegedly stayed behind to make a phone call. She has never been seen or heard from since that time.

Upon leaving his office, appellant took Katie to his home in Rockville and explained that she would be going to the ocean with him and Jack instead of her mother. He stayed about ten minutes and left. At various times during the investigation, he stated that he left: (1) to return to the office to do paperwork; (2) to check on jobs in the Rockville area; or, (3) to go to his wife's to get more clothes for the children at which time he decided to take her car and put it into "voluntary repossession" with Rockmont Chevrolet, a dealer in Rockville.

Appellant eventually did arrive at the office, where he was met by two employees; one, Johnny Carroll ("Carroll") stayed to help him move furniture and straighten up. Carroll then discovered that a tire on appellant's truck was leaking air. After changing the tire, appellant and Carroll left to pick up Jack at Joe White's (Catherine's brother). Appellant, Carroll and Jack returned to appellant's townhouse and went to sleep.

Then, on Friday, August 12, 1983, according to Carroll, he and appellant left the townhouse early in the morning, around 6:00 A.M., to get the flat tire fixed. They stopped at an Exxon Station, but since it had just opened no one was available to fix the tire. They then went to appellant's office to wash the truck since there was a lot of clay-like mud on the front of the truck. Carroll testified that appellant, when asked about the mud, explained that he had been run off the road and the truck was muddy as a result. Appellant, again according to Carroll, then stated he had to go to Rockmont Chevrolet to get a vehicle serviced but that Carroll should try to get the tire fixed at the College Plaza Shell Station and meet him there later. Carroll went to the Shell Station but could not get the tire repaired; he met appellant at the station when he saw appellant walking from the direction of Rockmont Chevrolet. Appellant and Carroll then went to Stidham Tires in Rockville to get the tire fixed and to the Montgomery Donuts to get donuts for the ride to the beach.

According to Hurley's statement to the police, he and Carroll got up Friday morning about 6:45 and went to Stidham Tires to get the tire fixed but that Stidham was not yet open, so he and Carroll waited for them to open. Hurley told police that once they opened he left Carroll at Stidham Tires with the flat and took his truck to Rockmont Chevrolet to move his wife's car inside their gates. He moved her car, got into his car, picked up Carroll at Stidham Tires, stopped for donuts, and returned to the townhouse to pick up Amy, Jack and Katie. He denied ever washing the truck Friday morning.

At trial employees of the Exxon and Shell Service Stations confirmed Carroll's testimony that these stops were, in fact, made, thus contradicting appellant's statement to the police. Also contradicting appellant's statement, Daniel Yeatman, an employee of Stidham Tires, testified that appellant was present the entire time they repaired the tire. Daniel Rigenbach, part owner of Motor Works, Inc., a business located in the same industrial park as appellant's, testified that he saw appellant and Carroll washing appellant's truck Friday morning around 6:30. Rigenbach confirmed Carroll's testimony as to appellant's explanation for the mud on the truck.

After repairing the tire, Carroll and appellant returned to the Rockville townhouse to pick up Jack, Amy and Katie. At the ocean they spent Friday cleaning cottages. On Friday night appellant went to his in-laws' cottage to pick up Danny; when he arrived Mrs. White (Catherine's mother) advised him of Catherine's disappearance and refused to give him Danny.

On Saturday, August 13, 1983, Catherine's father found appellant, Carroll, Jack, Katie and Amy at one of the cottages. He confronted appellant with Catherine's disappearance. Appellant denied any knowledge of her whereabouts. When Dr. White stated that Joe had found Catherine's car at Rockmont Chevrolet, appellant said that he had no idea how it got there but that he did not think that it had been repossessed since he only missed one payment. When appellant returned to the campgrounds where they were staying, he had a message to call the Delaware Police. The police told him to call a Detective Livesay in Howard County, Maryland. Appellant told the Montgomery County police he believed he was to call the detective when he returned to Rockville on Sunday.

On Sunday, August 14th, appellant, Amy, Jack, Katie and Carroll returned to Rockville where they were met by Officer Simmons of the Montgomery County police. Officer Simmons placed a call to the Howard County police for appellant. He spoke to Detective Livesay and arranged to meet with the detective at his office. He told Detective Livesay and a Montgomery County detective that he last saw Catherine Thursday night at his office where he gave her four hundred ten dollars support money in cash. He told the detectives that he asked her if he could take Jack and Katie to the ocean with him and for an extended vacation and that she consented. He also stated that she stayed behind to make a phone call and that in order to leave he had to move her car. At trial several witnesses testified to seeing Catherine's car at appellant's office on Thursday; they, however, indicated that in order to leave it was not necessary for appellant to move her car.

Before meeting with appellant on the 16th, the Montgomery County police discovered Gary Flemming of Rockmont Chevrolet, who told them that when he arrived at work Friday, August 12, he saw Catherine Hurley's car sitting on the lot and that appellan...