Jacobs v. State, 399
| Decision Date | 11 June 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. 399,399 |
| Citation | 415 A.2d 590,45 Md.App. 634 |
| Parties | Randy JACOBS, Lawrence Rufus Jackson, Robert Galloway A/K/A Robert Lewis A/K/A Robert Lewis Jackson v. STATE of Maryland. |
| Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
Thomas J. Saunders, Asst. Public Defender, Patrick D. Hanley, Towson, Peter M. Levin, Baltimore, with whom was Alan H. Murrell, Public Defender on the brief, for appellants.
Alexander L. Cummings, Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom were Stephen H. Sachs, Atty. Gen., William A. Swisher, State's Atty. for Baltimore City, and Dale Kelberman, Asst. State's Atty., on the brief, for appellee.
Argued before MORTON, MOYLAN and WEANT, JJ.
This appeal, in its most significant aspect, requires us to stand far back and observe some fundamental characteristics of the criminal justice system that are too easily lost sight of when we get in so close that we lose perspective. It requires an appreciation of the functional difference between the common law of evidence and the constitutional law of evidence. It requires a sensitivity to the distinct traditions, purposes and rules of procedure surrounding those basically different limitations upon the fact-finding process. Macroscopic vision is sometimes as needed as microscopic vision. But first the backdrop:
On the evening of February 5, 1978, Robert Lashley was murdered by four gunshot wounds to the head and one to the neck, two of the shots at point-blank, contact range. A Baltimore City jury, presided over by Judge David Ross, convicted all three appellants, Randy Jacobs, Lawrence Rufus Jackson and Robert Lewis (a/k/a Robert Galloway and Robert Lewis Jackson) of murder (Jacobs and Lewis of first-degree murder and Jackson, by way of obvious compromise, of second-degree murder) and related handgun charges. Their respective appellate contentions diverge as widely as did their trial tactics.
(As to Appellant Jackson Only)
Lawrence Rufus Jackson alone challenges the legal sufficiency of the evidence, claiming that Judge Ross erred in ruling that there was enough proof to go to the jury on the issues of murder in the second degree and the use of a handgun to perpetrate a crime of violence. In this regard, Jackson does not contest the adequacy of the proof to establish the corpus delicti of the two crimes. He challenges only the sufficiency of the evidence to establish his own criminal agency in those crimes. His challenge is without merit but will serve to place the contentions that follow in factual context.
Curtis Carter, a close friend of the murder victim, received via telephone ongoing "spot reports" on the progress of the murderous evening. He knew both the appellant Jackson and the appellant Lewis and knew, as well, that they were both acquainted with the victim Lashley. All of the actors in this case were homosexual acquaintances of each other. Both appellants Jackson and Lewis as well as Lashley had been together on one occasion in Carter's home within a week prior to the murder. On the evening of the murder, the victim Lashley was expecting an imminent visit from the appellant Jackson, and he communicated that expectation to Carter. The first call came from Lashley to Carter relatively early in the evening (the times of the various calls were established with less than pinpoint precision) wherein Lashley informed Carter that Lashley expected the appellant Jackson to "pay him a visit that night." While the conversation was in progress, Carter overheard a knock at Lashley's door and heard Lashley say, "Oh, hi, Robert." Carter then had a brief conversation with the appellant Lewis, whose voice he recognized. Lewis then hung up the phone. This occurred at some point between 8:30 and 10:00 p. m.
Approximately 20 minutes later, the victim Lashley called Carter back. Lashley indicated to Carter that he, Lashley, had taken Lewis and Jackson to the bus stop. He indicated further that he was angry at the appellant Jackson for having brought his brother (the appellant Lewis) along on this visit. The conversation concluded with Lashley saying,
Carter, in the meantime, was also in telephone contact with Ronald Whitfield, a mutual friend of Carter and the victim Lashley, keeping Whitfield apprised of his growing sense of dread. At one point, following Carter's second telephone conversation with Lashley, Whitfield called Lashley and determined that all was well. Whitfield communicated that reassurance to Carter, but Carter was not reassured. Carter called Lashley again. A voice answered which Carter recognized to be that of the appellant Lewis. The answer, however, was to the effect that Carter had the wrong number, and the phone was then hung up at Lashley's end. Carter immediately called back. The appellant Lewis again picked up the phone but this time identified himself. The appellant Lewis told Carter that Lashley and the appellant Jackson had gone out to get some beer. Carter heard background noises similar to those made when furniture is being moved. Following this conversation, Carter telephoned the police and asked them to check out Lashley's apartment. The call to the police was made at approximately 11:40 p. m.
In the meantime, one David Bavis, a neighbor of Lashley's, heard the sound on Lashley's television set or stereo suddenly turned up very loud at approximately 11 p. m. Bavis interpreted this as a signal from Lashley to stop the band rehearsal which Bavis had been conducting in his own apartment. Bavis testified further that some five to ten minutes later, he heard a thumping noise come from Lashley's apartment, along with noises which he interpreted as emanating from a fight.
In response to Carter's call, Officer Charles Scharmann of the Baltimore City Police Department responded to check out Lashley's apartment at 11:42 p. m. On the parking lot outside, he found the appellant Jackson and the appellant Jacobs cleaning snow off an automobile registered to the victim Lashley. Although the two appellants were cooperative in other regards, the appellant Jacobs falsely identified himself as one Michael Jones. Officer Scharmann observed a Philco television set sitting on the back seat of the automobile. Both appellant Jackson and appellant Jacobs explained to the officer that Lashley had already left the area and that they, at the request of Lashley and as an accommodation to him, were delivering his automobile and the television set to Carter's apartment. Officer Scharmann insisted that the two accompany him to Lashley's apartment. The officer knocked on the door several times but received no response. He inquired of neighbors as to whether they had heard or seen anything unusual and learned that they had not. Solicitous of the murder victim's Fourth Amendment rights, the officer did not enter the apartment. He left the scene, and the appellants Jacobs and Jackson were free to go.
While Officer Scharmann had the appellant Jackson and the appellant Jacobs "in tow," two of Lashley's neighbors made significant observations to which they testified in court. Deborah Sammons observed that after the officer and these two appellants entered the apartment building, a third man crawled out from underneath a car parked beside the one from which the two appellants had been cleaning snow. Another neighbor, Marie Carter (no apparent relationship to Curtis Carter) testified that she saw one of the individuals who entered the building with the police officer later come outside, walk down to the corner of the building, stand there a second and then go back into the building. The next day, Marie Carter's husband, John Carter, found the victim Robert Lashley's wallet on the ground at the spot where his wife had noticed this man standing on the night before.
Shortly after this police visit, Curtis Carter received two interesting phone calls from the appellant Jackson. In the first, Jackson informed Carter that Jackson was calling from Jackson's home. Jackson then said, "Curtis, I don't know what's wrong with your buddy, he took me to the No. 5 busline and he act as though he wanted Robert Galloway to go back to his house." Carter, skeptical as to whether the call had been placed from Jackson's home, then called Jackson at home. A young man answered. Carter asked to speak to Jackson but was unable to make contact. Approximately ten minutes later, Jackson called Carter again, this time saying, "Curtis, if anything happens to your buddy, I don't want you to think I had anything to do with it." 1 Carter inquired of Jackson as to why Jackson would say something like that. Jackson replied, "Because he gave me the keys to his car and told me to take his television in the car." Carter asked Jackson what Jackson was supposed to do with the car keys and the television, and Jackson replied that he did not know.
Just before receiving these two calls from Jackson, Carter had called his friend Whitfield and the two determined to go and make their own investigation of Lashley's apartment. En route, they stopped and informed a police officer of their concern. When they arrived at the apartment, Carter found the door unlocked and Lashley's body lying in a pool of blood. His television set was missing, and his bedroom appeared to have been ransacked. The phone rang. Carter picked it up and heard the appellant Jackson's voice on the other end. Carter hung up without responding. He immediately had a neighbor call the police, who arrived at Lashley's apartment at 1:43 a. m. There were no signs of a forced entry.
A lookout was immediately broadcast for Lashley's car and for the three appellants. At approximately 3:10 a. m., Lashley's automobile was found in the 500 block of W. Lafayette Avenue, within a block of the homes of all three appellants. All three appellants were shortly thereafter found in the same area where the car was...
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