Maynard v. Gov't Of The V.I.
| Decision Date | 25 August 2010 |
| Docket Number | D.C. No. 01-cr-325,No. 09-2273,09-2273 |
| Parties | KENRICK MAYNARD, Appellant, v. GOVERNMENT OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Michael C. Quinn Dudley, Topper & Feuerzeig Counsel for Appellant
Elliott Davis Richard S. Davis Joel H. Feld Department of Justice Counsel for Appellee
On Appeal from the District Court of the Virgin Islands-Appellate Division Chief Judge: Hon. Raymond L. Finch District Judge: Hon. Curtis V. Gomez Superior Court Judge: Hon. Patricia D. Steele
Before: SMITH, CHAGARES and JORDAN, Circuit Judges.
Kenrick Maynard appeals from the judgment of the Appellate Division of the District Court of the Virgin Islands of the United States, which affirmed the judgment of the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands1 sentencing him to life imprisonment following his conviction for first degree murder. Maynard contends that the government violated Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), when it failed to disclose the identities of individuals who were potentially linked to the murder weapon and the drug treatment history of a key prosecution witness. For the reasons that follow, we will affirm. However, we note that the prosecutor involved in Maynard's case exhibited a disturbing disregard for his obligation to respond to the defendant's production requests and that his actions should prompt the Attorney General of the Virgin Islands to undertake remedial action to prevent similar prosecutorial neglect in the future.
The criminal prosecution against Maynard arises from separate incidents in which he allegedly assaulted Leslie Hyman and murdered Hyman's father, Adolph Hyman, Sr. For purposes of completeness, we will relate the facts from which all charges arise; however, the Brady challenges raised on appeal pertain exclusively to the murder of Adolph, Sr.2
On July 4, 1999, Leslie and his cousin, Kimba George, attended the festival of Carnival3 on the island of St. John in the United States Virgin Islands. According to both men's trial testimony, Maynard approached them at the festival and punched George twice before retreating into the crowd. Later, as Leslie and George were leaving the festival, Maynard and his brother, Ricky Kanasha, 4 again accosted them. Maynard allegedly stabbed George's hand with a six-inch blade, and George responded by wresting the weapon from Maynard's grasp, knocking him to the ground, and stabbing him fourtimes with the same blade. As this was happening, Kanasha attempted to hit George with a chair that was sitting nearby. Leslie rushed to George's defense and stabbed Kanasha with a four-inch switchblade. The struggle then subsided, and the four men went their separate ways.
Three weeks later, on the night of July 26, 1999, Leslie was shot five times while exiting a tavern on the island of St. Thomas. He survived, and, when the police responded to the incident, Leslie informed them that he did not know who had assaulted him. At trial two years later, however, Leslie testified that Maynard was responsible for the shooting.
On July 28, 1999, two days after the tavern shooting, Leslie's father, Adolph Hyman, Sr., and his brother, Adolph Hyman, Jr., were walking along a road at night with Maria Weeks, Adolph, Sr.'s common law wife. Adolph, Sr., Weeks, and Adolph, Jr. had been stranded after their car stalled. As they walked, they observed an individual they knew only as "Baylor" signal to someone whom they could not see, and they were initially confused by the gesture. Soon after Baylor's signal, however, they saw Maynard approaching them rapidly on foot, brandishing a firearm that Adolph, Jr. described as "a big gun." (App. at 226.) All three turned and fled, and Adolph, Jr. soon pulled ahead of Adolph, Sr. and Weeks. Adolph, Jr. testified that he looked back as he ran and saw Maynard "right behind [Adolph, Sr.], shooting after him." (Id. at 229.) The shots passedthrough Adolph, Sr.'s upper body, causing his shirt to become blood-stained as he ran. Adolph, Jr. then rounded a corner, which obscured the scene from his view.
Weeks corroborated Adolph, Jr.'s testimony. She explained that she was several paces behind Adolph, Sr., that she tried unsuccessfully to jump over a wall along the side of the road, and that Maynard passed her as she did so. She then mounted the wall and watched as Maynard shot the fleeing Adolph, Sr. five times in the back, eventually causing him to fall face-down on the pavement. She testified that Maynard stopped, stood over Adolph, Sr.'s body, and fired seven more shots into his back. Adolph, Sr. died as a result of the assault.
Police responded to the scene, where they recovered sixteen shell casings and a bullet, which were catalogued and retained in the police department's evidence locker. A warrant was issued for Maynard's arrest, but he was not immediately apprehended. The record contains no indication of what, if any, investigation occurred from the time of the murder until early 2000.
Within days after the fatal shooting of Adolph, Sr., Maynard fled to Atlanta, Georgia, where he assumed the name of Samuel Blyden. According to Maynard, he moved after the July 4 stabbing incident at the Carnival festival on St. John. He claimed that he never saw his attackers and did not know their identities. He also claimed to believe that fleeing under a false identity was necessary to protect his safety.
On January 1, 2000, Virgin Islands police officers heard shots being fired in the Hospital Ground area of St. Thomas. They investigated the gunfire and apprehended six individuals (hereinafter "the January 1 arrestees") who were about to flee the scene. They also discovered several spent shell casings nearby. The individuals had no weapons in their possession, but police seized two high-caliber firearms, an AK-47 and an MP-45, which were hidden near the scene of the arrest.5 No one had been injured by the shots, and the record contains no indication of whether any of the six arrestees were actually connected to the firearms. The arrestees were initially charged with firearms-related offenses, but those charges were later dropped because the government could not link any of them to either the AK-47 or the MP-45.
For reasons not discussed in the record, the Virgin Islands police suspected that the AK-47 may have been used in the murder of Adolph, Sr., and they submitted the gun seized on January 1 and the casings collected at the time of the murder to a firearms examiner at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to the examiner's trial testimony, at least ten of the casings collected at the scene of Adolph, Sr.'s murder were fired using the AK-47.
The discovery of the AK-47 prompted police to devote renewed attention to the warrant for Maynard's arrest, which remained outstanding. Through means not described in the record, police discovered that Maynard had fled to Atlanta, and they filed a request for extradition with Georgia state authorities, who apprehended him. Maynard voluntarily agreed to be extradited to the Virgin Islands, where he was charged with assault in connection with the shooting of Leslie and with first degree murder in connection with the death of Adolph, Sr.
During the final pretrial conference on September 10, 2001, Maynard's attorney requested disclosure of two pieces of information. First, Maynard requested disclosure of the names of the January 1 arrestees. As part of the government's pretrial disclosures, the prosecution had given Maynard several documents that identified the arrestees using arrest numbers rather than their names. The prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Lofton Holder, represented that the arrestees' names were in a document listing property seized during the arrest. The prosecutor further stated that the document with the names had already been provided to the defense. He said that the government "ha[d] no further information" and that defense counsel was "asking for blood out of a rock." (Id. at 106.) Maynard contends-and the government does not now dispute-that the arrestees' identities did not, in fact, appear in that document.
Second, Maynard was aware from personal knowledge that Weeks had a history of using crack cocaine, and defense counsel requested any records in the government's possession regarding Weeks's drug use or treatment. The prosecutor responded that he had "no knowledge" of any such information. (Id. at 108.) Defense counsel asked the government to check for records about Weeks with the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Clinic, a division of the Virgin Islands Department of Health. Two days later, the prosecutor responded that he had contacted the clinic but that, without a court order, clinic personnel would not discuss whether records existed for Weeks. Neither party requested any such court order, and the prosecutor did not take any other steps to obtain the records.
Trial commenced in the Superior Court on September 24, 2001. Maynard renewed both of his disclosure requests in advance of opening statements to the jury. With respect to the identities of the January 1 arrestees, the prosecutor said, "I have provided counsel with all of the documents in my possession with reference to the recovery of t[he] weapon," and he went on to assert that none of those documents contained the identity of the arrestees.6 (Id. at 128.) He also reiterated that he had contacted the Substance Abuse Clinic but could not obtain Weeks's treatment records without a court order. Trial then began.
Following the lunch recess that same day, the government called as a witness Officer Miguel Perez, who had investigated the January 1, 2000 shooting incident involving the AK-47 and the MP-45. During Perez's testimony, the government sought to admit a...
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