Odum v. State

• Decision Date: 23 February 2010
• Docket Number: No. 41, September Term, 2008.,41, September Term, 2008.
• Citation: 412 Md. 593,989 A.2d 232
• Parties: Robert Alan ODUM, Jr. v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

989 A.2d 232

412 Md. 593

Robert Alan ODUM, Jr. v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 41, September Term, 2008.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

February 23, 2010.

Bradford C. Peabody, Asst. Public Defender (Nancy S. Forster, Public Defender, Baltimore, MD), on brief, for Petitioner.

Steven L. Holcomb, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Douglas F. Gansler, Atty. Gen. of Maryland, Baltimore, MD), on brief, for Respondent.

ARGUED BEFORE BELL, C.J., HARRELL, BATTAGLIA, GREENE, ADKINS, BARBERA and JOHN C. ELDRIDGE (Retired, specially assigned), JJ.

BARBERA, J.

During the early morning hours of June 10, 2001, five men, one of whom was Petitioner, came into contact with Michael Patten and Lee Ann Brown. That contact led to the armed robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, and murder of Mr. Patten and Ms. Brown. Petitioner was tried before a jury on charges related to those crimes. The jury acquitted him of all charges save for two counts of kidnapping. He challenged the kidnapping convictions on appeal and won the right to be retried on those charges. See Odum v. State, 156 Md.App. 184, 846 A.2d 445 (2004). At the retrial, the State presented, over Petitioner's objection, evidence concerning the crimes of which he was acquitted. Petitioner again was convicted of both kidnapping charges.

Petitioner has challenged those convictions, arguing that the jury should not have been presented with evidence of the murders and other criminal conduct involving Petitioner and his cohorts. He advances two grounds in support: (1) the State was collaterally estopped from presenting evidence of the crimes of which he was acquitted at the first trial; and (2) the evidence was not relevant to prove the kidnappings and, even if relevant, the trial court should have excluded it because its probative value was outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice to his right to a fair trial. For the reasons that follow, we reject both arguments and hold that the court neither erred nor abused its discretion in admitting the evidence.

I.

The jury heard the following evidence at Petitioner's retrial. On the night of Saturday, June 9, 2001, Petitioner attended a party in the Fort Washington area of Prince George's County, near where he lived. Aaron Hollingsworth, Cortez Carroll, and Marco Butler, all neighbors and friends of Petitioner, were also in attendance at the party. After the party, the four men were joined by another friend from the neighborhood, Eric Thomas. The five men—Petitioner, Hollingsworth, Butler, Carroll, and Thomas—found their way during the early morning hours of June 10 to a nearby wooded area adjacent to the parking lot of the Fort Washington United Methodist Church. Butler and Carroll were carrying handguns.

Sometime after 2:00 a.m., an Acura was driven onto the church parking lot. Michael Patten, the owner of the Acura, was behind the wheel. In the passenger seat was his friend, Lee Ann Brown. Mr. Patten and Ms. Brown had come from a night of entertainment at a nightclub in Washington, D.C. Mr. Patten, a congregant at the Fort Washington United Methodist Church, evidently pulled the car onto the church parking lot to allow Ms. Brown to step out and relieve herself. Shortly thereafter, the two were confronted by Petitioner and his companions.

Aaron Hollingsworth, who testified for the State as part of a plea bargain, described what happened next. One of the men approached the car and ordered Mr. Patten out of it. Hollingsworth then went up to Mr. Patten and demanded money. When Mr. Patten claimed he had no money, Hollingsworth searched him and found $30. Hollingsworth, angered that Mr. Patten had lied to him, struck Mr. Patten several times. When Mr. Patten fell to the ground, Hollingsworth kicked him.

Meanwhile, others in the group approached Ms. Brown, who by this time was standing next to the passenger side of the car. Hollingsworth and one other member of the group, whose identity Hollingsworth did not recall, put the unconscious Mr. Patten into the trunk of the Acura. Hollingsworth and a second, unnamed member of the group then forced Ms. Brown into the trunk. Hollingsworth hit Ms. Brown, and Carroll pistol whipped her, to make her duck down into the trunk. Hollingsworth closed the trunk by sitting on its lid.

Then, with Eric Thomas behind the wheel of the Acura and the victims in the trunk, the five men drove ten to fifteen minutes to a secluded spot in the Accokeek area of Prince George's County. During the drive to Accokeek, Hollingsworth gave $5 to each of the men from the money he had taken from Mr. Patten. Upon arrival at their destination, Hollingsworth, with help from one of the others whose identity he could not recall, removed Mr. Patten and Ms. Brown from the trunk of the car. Soon thereafter, one or more persons (not Hollingsworth) shot and killed Mr. Patten and Ms. Brown.

The five men, including Petitioner, got back into the car, with Eric Thomas once again in the driver's seat. Thomas, who was drunk, almost crashed the car after driving it a short distance. Petitioner then took over the driving. The five men drove to Southeast Washington, where they pooled the $30 that Hollingsworth had earlier distributed to them and used $20 of it to purchase marijuana. The five men then drove to an ATM machine and withdrew $20, using Ms. Brown's ATM card and PIN that at some point during the episode one of the five men had obtained from her.¹ Thereafter, the men headed home. During the ride, they discussed that "this shouldn't come back up no more," which, according to Hollingsworth, meant that they were "not to talk about it."

The State presented significant forensic evidence and witness testimony corroborating the testimony of Hollingsworth. Specifically, the State introduced evidence that the victims' bodies were discovered in Accokeek on the afternoon of June 10, 2001, the abandoned vehicle was found several days later, and blood stains on the church parking lot were created by Mr. Patten's blood. The State offered evidence that the exterior of the Acura had Mr. Patten's blood on it, the trunk of the Acura contained an earring and the blood of both Mr. Patten and Ms. Brown, and the rearview mirror contained a latent fingerprint matching Petitioner's fingerprint. The State also offered evidence of shell casings that were found under and near the victims' bodies.

The Motion in Limine

All of the above evidence relating to the murder of Mr. Patten and Ms. Brown and the subsequent activity of Petitioner, including use of the robbery proceeds to purchase drugs, was admitted over the continuing objection of the defense. Petitioner challenged the admissibility of that evidence at a pretrial hearing. He argued that evidence relating to the murders and other criminal activity was barred by the doctrine of collateral estoppel, among other related constitutional and common law doctrines. Petitioner also argued that evidence of those crimes was not relevant to the kidnapping charges because the kidnappings were complete as soon as the victims were placed in the trunk of their car and driven away. He further argued that the challenged evidence, even if relevant to the kidnappings, was unduly prejudicial to his right to a fair trial, rendering it inadmissible under Maryland Rule 5-403. Petitioner offered to stipulate that the victims were unavailable to testify and to agree to an instruction "that the jury is not to draw any negative inferences from that."²

The State responded that the doctrine of collateral estoppel neither prohibited retrial on the kidnapping charges nor foreclosed admission of evidence of the crimes of which Petitioner was acquitted. The State also argued that evidence of those crimes was relevant to make sense of the charged kidnappings, show Petitioner's role in the entire episode, and corroborate Hollingsworth's testimony concerning what happened and the part Petitioner played. The State said: "I can't imagine a jury listening to a case involving a kidnapping, not being presented with information as to the force used, as to the location of the transportation, and where the journey ended. And why it ended. And how it ended." The State argued further that the jury naturally would question the failure of the State to have the victims testify. The State also pointed out that the jury needed to hear corroboration of Petitioner's statement (which, as it turned out, was not admitted into evidence) and Hollingsworth's testimony implicating Petitioner as an accomplice. Finally, the State argued: "What happened afterwards is very much relevant to show whether or not [Petitioner] was part of the team."

The trial court denied Petitioner's motion to exclude evidence of the crimes of which he had been acquitted at the first trial:

[T]he court finds that the events leading up to the course and aftermath of the kidnappings are certainly relevant to the kidnappings charge [sic], to the overall criminal venture and to the Defendant's role and participation with others in it. Having viewed the transcripts of the prior trial and proceedings, the course of the State's order and burden of proof, the fact that the series of events and crimes are so inextricably intertwined in time and circumstances and that the evidence integral to prove one is similarly integral to proof of the other, the Court finds that the probative value of evidence of events leading up to the kidnappings and evidence of events that take place after the kidnappings outweigh any unfair prejudice.

Assuming that there are no problems of identity, however, the Court finds, certainly, with respect to the scene, photographs of victims and the autopsy photographs, that the prejudice to the Defendant would outweigh any probative value in that light. The Court will reserve its ruling on the autopsy report depending upon the course of certain events that may or may not take place during trial.[³]

The court granted Petitioner a continuing objection to any and all evidence or testimony...