Jefferson v. United States
Decision Date | 07 July 1983 |
Docket Number | No. 81-1301.,No. 80-103,No. 81-1376,No. 79-1151,80-103,81-1376,79-1151,81-1301. |
Citation | 463 A.2d 681 |
Parties | Warren JEFFERSON, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee. Melvin DOWNING, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee. |
Court | D.C. Court of Appeals |
Timothy Dyk, Washington, D.C., appointed by the court, with whom Richard F. Goodstein, Washington, D.C., appointed by the court, was on the brief, for appellant Jefferson.
James R. Klimaski, Washington, D.C., appointed by the court, with whom Katharyn M. Marks, Washington, D.C., was on the brief, for appellant Downing.
E. Anne McKinsey, Asst. U.S. Atty., with whom Stanley S. Harris, U.S. Atty., John A. Terry, Asst. U.S. Atty., Washington, D.C., at the time the brief was filed, and Daniel S. Seikaly, Asst. U.S. Atty., Washington, D.C., were on the brief, for appellee.
Before NEWMAN, Chief Judge, and NEBEKER and FERREN, Associate Judges.
This is an appeal from the convictions of Jefferson and Downing for felony murder while armed1, and armed robbery2 Jefferson additionally appeals his conviction for carrying a pistol without a license3, and Downing appeals his conviction of being an accessory after the fact.4 Jefferson argued he is entitled to a new trial because the government's principal witness recanted his testimony, and because the trial court erred in admitting evidence of a separate offense, the trial of which had been severed. Downing contends the trial judge erred in denying his Motion of Acquittal because the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction and that a mistrial should have been declared after a government rebuttal witness implicated him in another crime. Both appellants further claim that misstatements by the prosecutor in summation denied them a fair trial. We conclude that the prosecutorial statements concerning Downing, if error, were harmless and that the evidence was sufficient to support his conviction. Thus, we affirm his conviction. Jefferson's convictions must be reversed because the lower court abused its discretion in permitting the introduction of evidence from the separate offense.
On the evening of November 25, 1978, appellants Warren Jefferson and Melvin Downing were drinking beer and ingesting narcotics with Herman Williams and Bruce Dawson. Jefferson toyed with a .22 calibre pistol while consuming the narcotics. When the supply of drugs had been exhausted, they decided to get some more. Wilbert Anderson joined them for the ride. As they were driving near the corner of New Jersey and N Streets, N.W., Williams spotted two men, George Solomon and Walter Robinson, exchanging money on the street, and ordered the car to stop near them. Williams, sitting in the front passenger's seat of the car, asked these two men for some PCP. He then got out of the car alone, and approached the two men, brandishing a gun. Solomon surrendered a lady's purse containing $15.65 and some bus tokens; Robinson refused to relinquish anything. Jefferson testified that he then got out of the car for the purpose of extracting Williams from the altercation and to prevent its escalation. Jefferson stated that Williams resisted his peace-making attempts and fired two shots, killing Mr. Robinson. Williams testified that Jefferson grabbed the gun from him and fired the fatal shots. Solomon's testimony did not specify which of the two fired the weapon; he testified only that "they fired the shots." Neither Anderson nor Dawson were able to see which of the two fired the shots. Downing did not testify at trial.
After the shooting, Downing moved from the back seat of the car to the driver's seat. Once Jefferson and Williams were back in the car, Downing drove off at a high rate of speed, nearly colliding with a car as he rounded the corner. As they drove off, according to Anderson, Williams told Jefferson he had "made a bad move." According only to Williams, Jefferson responded, "Nobody's going to buck on me." Before dropping him off, Downing and Jefferson warned Anderson not to say anything about the incident. Both men threatened to hurt Anderson, and Downing added that Anderson's father's car might "get blew up" if anything was heard about that night. Upon returning to Jefferson's house, the four gathered in the basement where Williams distributed fourteen dollars, two to Downing, five to Jefferson and kept seven for himself.
On December 3, 1978, Jefferson, Williams and Downing were arrested in connection with an assault committed earlier that day. They were charged with felony murder, armed robbery and attempted armed robbery for their actions on November 25 and with a series of charges for the December 3, 1978 assault which were later severed and tried separately. Additionally as to the November 25 events, Downing was charged with being an accessory after the fact and Jefferson was charged with carrying a pistol without a license.
In exchange for leave to plead guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder, Williams turned "states evidence" and testified that Jefferson fired the fatal shots. Based in part on this evidence, Jefferson and Downing were found guilty on each of the charges.
On two occasions subsequent to the trial, once in an affidavit and once during the trial for the December 3 assault, Williams confirmed that he had testified falsely in this case, and that it was he, not Jefferson, who fired the shots. Based on this evidence, Jefferson filed a Motion for New Trial on March 16, 1981. His appeal was stayed by this court on April 2, 1981. On September 16, 1981, after briefing and oral argument but without an evidentiary hearing, Jefferson's Motion for New Trial was denied. He appealed this denial. His two appeals were consolidated with Downing's appeal.
While mere presence at the scene of a crime is insufficient to establish criminal participation in the offense, proof of presence at the scene of a crime plus conduct which designedly encourages or facilitates a crime will support an inference of guilty participation in the crime as an aider and abettor. Quarles v. United States, 308 A.2d 773, 774-75 (D.C. 1973).
To establish that Downing had aided and abetted the offenses alleged, the government was required to offer" proof that: (a) a crime was committed by someone; (b) the accused assisted or participated in its commission, and (c) his participation was with guilty knowledge. Byrd v. United States, 364 A.2d 1215, 1219 (D.C. 1977).5 When viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, Glass v. United States, 395 A.2d 796, 806 (D.C. 1978), and giving the government the benefit of all inferences, Calhoun v. United States, 369 A.2d 605, 607 (D.C. 1977), the evidence meets the standard. Mr. Robinson's murder fulfills the first element. Melvin Downing moved from the back seat to the driver's seat during the altercation. As soon as the shots were fired, and Jefferson and Williams got back in the car, Downing drove off, nearly colliding with another car in his haste as he rounded a corner. When the group dropped off their apparently unwitting passenger Anderson, Downing warned him not to tell anyone what he had witnessed, and threatened to "blew up" Anderson's father's car if he did. These factors are sufficient to permit a jury to conclude that Downing assisted or participated in the commission of a crime.
Mr. Downing's participation in the events of November 25 was sufficient also to enable a jury to infer that he had "guilty knowledge" of Jefferson's and Williams' intentions, thus meeting the third element. Downing was present when the group exhausted its supply of PCP and decided to go out and get some more. He was present when Jefferson was "playing with the gun" in Dawson's basement, and later when Williams ordered the car to a halt and got out with the gun in his hand. His act of moving to the front seat after hearing the shots and spiriting the two away was with the knowledge that he was facilitating their escape. Since an aider and abettor is liable as a principal in the District of Columbia, Downing's convictions for felony murder and armed robbery were correct. See D.C. Code § 22-105 (1981).
Downing's allegations, that the prosecutor's mischaracterization of his threat to Anderson, constituted reversible error and that the failure to grant a mistrial when a rebuttal witness implicated Downing in the December 3 assault was error, are meritless. The prosecutor's imprecise statement that Downing had threatened to kill Anderson, does not rise to the level of reversible error. See Smith v. United States, 315 A.2d 163, 166 (D.C. 1974). The implication of Downing in the subsequent assault was also harmless. Officer Armstrong, a government rebuttal witness, erroneously testified that Downing was the man he transported to a hospital for a show up identification in connection with the December 3 assault. The brief mention of Downing's name, however, was not repeated or reinforced by any other rebuttal witness. Additionally, if the jury did in fact draw the inference that Downing was involved, they could have done so without Officer Armstrong's testimony. Officer Butell had already testified in the government's case in chief, properly and without objection, that Downing was in the car that he stopped on December 3, 1976. Officer Armstrong's reaffirmation of that fact was therefore harmless. See Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 765, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 1248, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946).
When confronted with the pretrial motion to sever charges from the December 3 assault...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
McCoy v. US, No. 96-CO-660
...the act of carrying the pistols by the ... principals [to] be established." Halicki, supra, 614 A.2d at 503 (citing Jefferson v. United States, 463 A.2d 681, 683 (D.C.1983) (other citation omitted)). There was no evidence that Bracmort and Burner did anything to further the carrying of the ......
-
LYONS v. U.S.
...or facilitates a crime will support an inference of guilty participation in the crime as an aider and abettor." Jefferson v. United States, 463 A.2d 681, 683 (D.C. 1983) (citation The evidence showed that Cooper and Lyons shared a common purpose: to kill Royster in retaliation for stealing ......
-
BROOKS v. U.S.
...(b) the accused assisted or participated in its commission; and (c) his participation was with guilty knowledge." Jefferson v. United States, 463 A.2d 681, 683 (D.C. 1983). While I agree with the majority's observation that one cannot aid and abet himself, one need be shown only to have aid......
-
Downing v. U.S., 01-CF-1357.
...support an inference of guilty participation in the crime as an aider and abettor." Porter, supra, 826 A.2d at 406 (citing Jefferson, 463 A.2d 681, 683 (D.C.1983)). Viewed in the light most favorable to the government, the evidence presented at the second trial was sufficient to support the......