Ibn-Tamas v. United States

Citation407 A.2d 626
Decision Date15 October 1979
Docket NumberNo. 12614.,12614.
PartiesBeverly IBN-TAMAS, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.
CourtCourt of Appeals of Columbia District

William E. McDaniels, Washington, D. C., with whom Ellen S. Huvelle, Washington, D. C., was on brief, for appellant.

David G. Hetzel, Asst. U. S. Atty., Washington, D. C., with whom Earl J. Silbert, U. S. Atty., Washington, D. C., at the time the brief was filed, and John A. Terry, Asst. U. S. Atty., Washington, D. C., were on brief, for appellee.

Before KELLY, NEBEKER and FER-REN, Associate Judges.

FERREN, Associate Judge:

On the morning of February 23, 1976, Dr. Yusef Ibn-Tamas was shot to death in his house, where he maintained his office. His wife of three and one-half years, Beverly Ibn-Tamas (appellant), was charged with second-degree murder while armed, D.C. Code 1973, §§ 22-2403, -3202, and seconddegree murder, D.C.Code 1973, § 22-2403. This case first went to trial in September 1976, but after the jury returned a verdict of guilty of second-degree murder while armed, Judge Mencher ordered a new trial.1 A second jury trial began on July 20, 1977, this time before Judge Stewart. On July 29, 1977, the jury again returned a guilty verdict on the charge of second-degree murder while armed. Subsequently, the court sentenced appellant to prison for a period of one to five years.

Appellant raises six issues on appeal: (1) the trial court's exclusion of expert testimony offered by the defense on the subject of battered women; (2) the prosecution's use, for impeachment purposes, of appellant's testimony at her first trial; (3) the prosecutor's comments to the jury about appellant's consultation with her attorney before interrogation by the police after her arrest; (4) the court's allowing the prosecution to question appellant about her beneficial interest in her husband's life insurance policies; (5) an allegedly prejudicial variance between the prosecutor's description of the case in his opening remarks and the evidence adduced at trial; and (6) the trial court's refusal to instruct the jury as to how appellant's particular physical condition should affect an evaluation of her self-defense claim.

Because we cannot tell from the record whether the trial court properly analyzed the proffer of expert testimony in support of appellant's self-defense theory, we remand the case for further proceedings, as appropriate, and for additional findings and conclusions on that issue. As to all other alleged errors, we affirm.

I. THE FACTS

In order to demonstrate the relevance of the proffered expert, we must provide considerable background information taken from appellant's testimony (Part A infra), as well as the facts directly leading to the shooting incident (Part B infra).

A. Background Testimony

Appellant testified that when she met her husband, Dr. Ibn-Tamas, she was working as a registered nurse in the prenatal care unit at Jacobi Hospital in New York City, where he was a resident in neurosurgery. Shortly after the doctor's divorce from his first wife in September 1972, he married appellant. They located in Miami, Florida, where he was finishing his residency. Appellant continued to work as a private duty nurse until the birth of their daughter the following autumn. In 1974, the family moved to Washington, D. C., where the doctor, assisted by his wife, established a private practice out of an office in their home.

The marriage was marred by recurring violent episodes separated by periods of relative harmony. In 1974, for example, the doctor accused his wife's visiting friend of being a lesbian and abruptly ordered her to leave their apartment. When Mrs. Ibn-Tamas later protested his rudeness, he struck her with his fist, a shoe, and another object, and dragged her and their six-month-old baby off a bed and onto the floor. Several weeks later, during an argument at his mother's house, the doctor allegedly pulled the appellant from her chair onto a cement porch and caused her to lose consciousness by putting his knee to her neck.2 Days later, he threatened her with a loaded gun when she hesitated over co-signing some financial documents. Shortly thereafter, while they were driving north to Washington to establish their new residence, the doctor and his wife argued over whether

Life improved for the Ibn-Tamases temporarily after their move to Washington; but throughout the first two months of 1976 their relationship became increasingly marked by violence. Although Mrs. Ibn-Tamas was several months pregnant with their second child, the doctor on two occasions in January and February punched her in the neck and hit her in the head and face with his fists,3 leaving her in one instance with a split and bleeding lip. During this period, Dr. Ibn-Tamas also abused appellant verbally, saying that the child she was carrying was not his and threatening her with a fractured skull should she attempt to leave or seek a divorce.

In addition to this first-hand experience, Mrs. Ibn-Tamas claimed at her trial to have been aware, prior to February 23, 1976, of similar violent incidents involving her husband and others.4 The testimony of Olga Powell indicated that on April 7, 1971, Dr. Ibn-Tamas, then known as Robert Gamble,5 ordered Ms. Powell out of the apartment that she shared with the doctor and his first wife. When she demurred, the doctor broke down her door, fired a .38 caliber revolver in her direction, and threw her belongings out the window. A criminal complaint for assault with a weapon was later reduced to an administrative fine. The decedent's first wife, Barbara Gamble she would have to stay at his mother's house while their new home was being prepared. He ended the argument by forcing her out of the car along an interstate highway and driving off with their infant daughter. Carter, testified that on March 23, 1971, she called the police after the doctor had pushed her onto the floor and hit her with a clenched fist during a fight. The doctor left for work just before the police arrived in response to her call.6 Finally, Marshall Whitley, a relative of the decedent's sisterin-law, testified that on June 29, 1974, the doctor had come to his family home, got into an argument, and pulled a gun on Mr. Whitley and his father. As a result of the incident, Mr. Whitley filed a citizen's complaint against the doctor with the United States Attorney's Office.7

B. The Events on the Morning of the Shooting

Appellant testified that on February 23, 1976, she was aware of her husband's past violence toward herself and others, as well as the fact that her husband kept loaded revolvers and shotguns in the house and the adjoining office.8 That morning, a dispute erupted at the breakfast table. Despite his wife's protests that she was pregnant and that he had promised not to hit her again, Dr. Ibn-Tamas hit appellant over the head, first with a magazine and then with his fists. He then dragged her upstairs, pulled out a suitcase, and told her to pack and get out of the house by 10 a. m. Appellant further testified that when she objected, he hit her with his fists and then with a wooden hairbrush. Trying to protect her abdomen from the attack, appellant turned her body and absorbed the blows on her buttocks and thighs.9 Dr. Ibn-Tamas then grabbed a .38 caliber revolver, pointed it at his wife's face, and said, "You are going out of here this morning one way or the other."

Thereafter, the doctor went downstairs to his office adjoining the house, and Mrs. Ibn-Tamas remained with her daughter in the bedroom. She called her husband in his office to plead with him to be reasonable, but he told her he did not want to argue anymore and that she should just pack.

Shortly thereafter, the doctor came back into the main part of the house. The events which took place during the next few moments were a matter of sharp controversy at trial. There was conflicting testimony based on the recollections of appellant and of Lynette McCollom, the doctor's secretary, who had just arrived at work and overheard the shooting from the adjoining office area.

Appellant testified that the doctor returned to the bedroom and resumed the attack. She was pushed toward the bureau on top of which her husband had left the gun that he had threatened her with moments earlier. Thinking that he was going to grab the gun, she picked it up, begged him to leave her alone, and fired the gun toward the bottom of the door to scare him. The doctor then left the room; and, according to appellant, she took her daughter in hand and started toward the stairway leading down to the first floor and the door. As she reached the top of the front stairway, however, her husband allegedly jumped out from behind the wall at the landing. Appellant fired twice more. Although it was not immediately apparent to appellant, one of these two shots struck the doctor in the abdomen. There was no immediate external bleeding; and the doctor remained standing as he backed down the stairs and into an examination room connected to the house by a swinging door at the bottom of the stairs. Appellant proceeded down the steps. As she reached the bottom landing, however, her daughter jumped out in front of her, looked into the examination room, and called out "Daddy." When appellant glanced through the open door, she saw her husband crouching with what she thought was a gun in his hand.10 She fired again, striking the doctor in the head with what proved to be the fatal blow.

Ms. McCollom testified that she arrived for work at approximately 9:00 a. m. The doctor let her in as he was passing through the office to return upstairs. Although Ms. McCollom did not see what occurred between appellant and her husband, she testified that she heard a shot approximately three seconds after she had seen Dr. Ibn-Tamas pass through the door from the examination room into the house. The shot sounded as if it had come...

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  • State v. Kelly
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court (New Jersey)
    • 24 Julio 1984
    ...Kelly's state of mind, namely, it was admissible to show she honestly believed she was in imminent danger of death. Ibn-Tamas v. United States, 407 A.2d 626 (D.C.1979) (on remand, trial court excluded expert testimony on battered-woman's syndrome; the Court of Appeals affirmed the exclusion......
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    ...same circumstantial circumscription is discernible in the line of cases involving abused or battered wives. See Ibn-Tamas v. United States, D.C.App., 407 A.2d 626 (1979); Smith v. State, 247 Ga. 612, 277 S.E.2d 678, 18 A.L.R.4th 1144 (1981); State v. Griffiths, 101 Idaho 163, 610 P.2d 522 (......
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3 books & journal articles
  • Navigating expert reliability: are criminal standards of certainty being left on the dock?
    • United States
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    ...disorder can be traced to hysteria exhibited by railway accident victims in the nineteenth century). (57) See Ibn-Tamas v. United States, 407 A.2d 626, 631 (D.C. 1979) (noting that the trial court refused to permit the testimony of Dr. Lenore Walker regarding the extent to which the defenda......
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    • Emory University School of Law Emory Law Journal No. 59-3, 2010
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    ...ed. 1979) (advancing the concepts of "learned helplessness" and the "cycle theory of violence"). 54 See, e.g., Ibn-Tamas v. United States, 407 A.2d 626, 631-35 (D.C. 1979) (allowing the defendant to introduce evidence of BWS in support of a self-defense claim). 55 There is a tension-buildin......

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