Lambert v. State, 691

Citation70 Md.App. 83,519 A.2d 1340
Decision Date01 September 1986
Docket NumberNo. 691,691
PartiesWilliam Lee LAMBERT v. STATE of Maryland. ,
CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland

Scott E. Blitz (Lester V. Jones, P.A., on brief), Bel Air, for appellant.

Valerie W. Loftin, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Stephen H. Sachs, Atty. Gen., Baltimore, Joseph I. Cassilly, State's Atty. for Harford County and William G. Christoforo, Bel Air, on brief), for appellee.

Argued before MOYLAN, BLOOM, and ROBERT M. BELL, JJ.

BLOOM, Judge.

A jury in the Circuit Court for Harford County, presided over by Judge Albert P. Close, convicted appellant, William Lee Lambert, of assault and battery, assault with intent to murder, carrying a weapon openly with intent to injure another, and attempt to commit murder. Appellant was sentenced to prison terms of three years for the assault and battery, twenty years for assault with intent to murder, and three years for the weapons offense. For the attempted murder conviction he received a sentence of life imprisonment, with all but twenty years suspended. All sentences were concurrent.

The issues in this appeal are as follows:

1. Whether the trial judge erred in refusing to instruct the jury on the doctrine of self-defense;

2. Whether the trial judge erred in failing to instruct the jury on the doctrine of imperfect self-defense.

For the reasons set forth below, we answer both questions in the negative and, therefore, affirm the convictions.

Facts

All of the charges against appellant stem from the stabbing of Thomas Malone on 14 April 1985. Malone was stabbed with a knife some 26 times in the face, arms, chest, abdominal region and right flank.

The victim and some of his friends, Kevin Kahoe, Charles Offney and Michael Snyder, left a party which appellant and his friends, Mark Rodano, Jeffrey Hoffman and Glen Nealy, had also attended. Appellant's version of the incident, as testified to at trial, is as follows. A car in which the victim was riding pulled up to the place where appellant and his companions were standing and someone "yelled something" at the victim's group. Kevin Kahoe and the victim asked appellant and his group if they "had a problem." Appellant replied in the negative. The car then pulled away. Shortly thereafter, however, the victim and several others ("four or more") returned and approached appellant's group. The victim and appellant's friend Rodano had a verbal confrontation, but appellant testified it was peaceably terminated.

The events subsequent to the termination of the verbal confrontation between the victim and Rodano were described by appellant, on direct examination, as follows:

[APPELLANT]: I felt as if Tom Malone was getting pretty uptight. He was playing with his hands and everything. I didn't know what he was doing. He was just upset. And I felt like things were getting pretty boring. So I said, "if you guys are going to end it, let's end this." And I took off my jacket and laid it on the car.

[COUNSEL FOR APPELLANT]: What happened then?

A. At that time Tom Malone made a remark to me.

Q. What did he say to you?

A. I can't remember what the remark was.

Q. Who advanced to whom, if anyone?

A. I turned around and faced Thomas Malone and we faced each other.

Q. And then what happened?

A. I remember falling against the car.

Q. How did you fall against the car?

A. Thomas and I made contact with each other. I was knocked back.

Q. When you hit the car, did you hit anything?

A. I remember my body hitting the door side of the car, and I fell to the ground, hitting my head and everything.

Q. You hit your head on what?

A. Against the body of the car.

Q. What happened next?

A. I just remember as I was starting to get up, Tom came at me and we started confronting each other.

Q. What happened then?

A. We were swinging. I just remember getting hit. We were swinging. Fighting. I can't picture anybody that was around me. I felt really light-headed.

Appellant recalled fighting with the victim and being hit in the head from behind by someone other than the victim. He also remembered having a knife with him on the night in question, to open beer cans. He testified, however, that he could not recall using the knife on the victim or throwing it away in an effort to conceal it. He attributed his inability to recall using the knife to his hitting the car when the victim pushed him, to the blow he received on the head, and to his intoxication. On cross-examination, appellant proffered that he had not taken off the jacket because he was "bored" but because "I know for a fact when you do drink you get very hot. And I had a thick wool sweater on that night."

Several pre-trial statements that appellant had made to the police were admitted into evidence. A police officer, Sergeant Walter G. Shultz, testified to their content. In appellant's first statement, made to Sgt. Shultz on the scene immediately after the incident, he denied stabbing the victim and claimed he never carried a knife. He made no statement respecting how the fight was initiated or his state of mind during the fight.

In appellant's second statement, made in the early morning hours after the incident, he said he noticed the victim "putting on a ring or something on his right hand" after the disagreement between the victim and Rodano. Appellant then said to the victim, "What are you, a tough guy?" and the victim replied affirmatively. The two had "words" and the victim "punched [appellant] with his right hand on the left side of [his] head." Then somebody hit him in the back of the head and dazed him. Appellant remembered punching the victim, but said it was in "self-defense." He denied owning a knife and could not recall stabbing the victim.

In his third statement to the police on August 1, 1986, appellant admitted having a knife with him on the night in question to "torpedo" (open) beer cans. He stated the victim and about six persons walked toward him and his group as if they wanted to fight. The victim, according to appellant, was acting belligerently and challenging Rodano. When it was apparent Rodano would not fight, the victim badgered appellant and then charged toward appellant and knocked him on the ground. Appellant admittedly went into a rage and started punching the victim while the knife was in his hand. He claimed he did not realize what he had done until after the fight was over and then he became scared and threw the knife into the yard. On cross-examination, Sgt. Shultz was asked whether appellant then told him he was scared of the crowd. The sergeant replied, "he may have made that statement. I don't have it anywhere in my notes to indicate that."

Mark Rodano, one of appellant's group, admitted he and the victim had resolved their differences when appellant threw his jacket off and set it on the car. He testified the victim then said, "that's right, you better take off your jacket." At that point, appellant and the victim "just met ... coming right at each other." He also said "they both hit and it's just like they went back against the car and went down to the ground." The fight looked "pretty even" to Rodano. He saw the victim's friend Charles Offney hit appellant once in the head and then Offney "just stopped." He said appellant did not appear dazed. Although Rodano did not see the knife during the struggle, he had seen it earlier at the party, and he saw appellant throw his hands up after the fight and what appeared to be "a flash of something that must have been the knife."

Jeffrey Hoffman, another of appellant's friends, admitted the victim and his companions were not intimidating appellant and his group. He could not recall who initiated the struggle between appellant and the victim and said, "they just came together at the same time, and I saw Bill [appellant] fall back" against the car. Appellant then "caught himself and started punching." He remembered Offney trying to intervene and hitting the victim and "everyone just said let him go, let them get it out of their system...." He said the fight was "fairly even" and "no one was slacking off" or yielding. Hoffman did not see the knife being used during the altercation although appellant had shown him the knife earlier, outside the party.

In his testimony at trial, the victim portrayed appellant as the initial aggressor. The testimony of Charles Offney and Michael Snyder essentially corroborated the victim's testimony. Offney testified that during the fight appellant and the victim were "in a huddle position. They almost had their heads together, their upper shoulders together." He added that after he saw the victim fall, and then stand up, he wondered why the victim was weak. He saw appellant thrust a long sharp object into the victim several times and then Offney struck appellant on the right side of his face with his fist to get appellant away from the victim. Appellant then stabbed Offney in his left hand. Offney yelled, "he's fighting with a knife," at which point appellant raised his hands and threw the knife behind him. Appellant then said, "I'm not using a knife. I'm using my hands."

Snyder also corroborated Offney's testimony respecting the latter's efforts to get appellant off the victim. He also testified that after Offney hit appellant, "that's when everything stopped." While he did not see the knife during the fight, he heard Offney yell that appellant had a knife. He then saw appellant step back and throw his hands up.

Corporal James Reinhart, an officer of the Maryland State Police, who lived in the immediate vicinity, was awakened by screaming and shouting in the street. He testified the victim and appellant "were like two bulls. They had their heads together and their bodies were humped over." In response to a question as to which of the two combatants was the aggressor, he testified he saw appellant "pushing the other person [the victim] backwards." Reinhart pulled the boys apart. The...

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