People v. Lane

• Decision Date: 13 November 2014
• Docket Number: Docket No. 313818.
• Citation: 308 Mich.App. 38,862 N.W.2d 446
• Parties: PEOPLE v. LANE.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US

308 Mich.App. 38

862 N.W.2d 446

PEOPLE

v.LANE.

Docket No. 313818.

Court of Appeals of Michigan.

Submitted Nov. 4, 2014, at Detroit.

Decided Nov. 13, 2014, at 9:15 a.m.

Bill Schuette, Attorney General, Aaron D. Lindstrom, Solicitor General, Kym L. Worthy, Prosecuting Attorney, Timothy A. Baughman, Chief of Research, Training and Appeals, and Jason W. Williams, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for the people.

Jonathan B. D. Simon, Bloomfield Hills, for D'Andre L. Lane.

Before: WHITBECK, P.J., and FITZGERALD and MURRAY, JJ.

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Defendant, D'Andre Louis Lane, appeals as of right his convictions, following a jury trial, of first-degree felony murder¹ and first-degree child abuse.² The trial court sentenced Lane to serve terms of life imprisonment for his murder conviction and 11 to 30 years' imprisonment for his child abuse conviction. We affirm.

I. FACTS

A. BACKGROUND FACTS

Lane was the father of Bianca Jones, who was two years old when she disappeared. In 2011, Bianca primarily lived with her mother, Banika Jones; her grandmother, Lilia Jones Weaver; her uncle, Gerry Weaver; and Mary Ford–Gandy on Custer Street in Detroit. Lane, Anjali Lyons, and Bianca's seven-year-old half-sister and two-year-old half-sister lived with Lisa Dungey on Mitchell Street in Detroit.

Jones testified that after Bianca was born, Lane often visited her. In late 2011, Lane agreed to help Jones with child care by taking temporary custody of Bianca. Jones testified that Lane was glad that Bianca would be able to spend some time with her sisters. According to Jones, Lane picked Bianca up on November 26, 2011. At that time, he was driving Dungey's silver Grand Marquis because his car had broken down. Lane was going to keep Bianca until before Christmas, and Bianca was to share a bed with her two-year-old sister.

Lyons testified that Lane was responsible for child discipline in the house. Dungey testified that Lane used time-outs, but testified that Lane hit the children with a homemade paddle, fashioned from a wooden stick with a duct-tape-covered sponge on one end. According to Lyons, Lane kept the paddle in a linen closet down the hall from the children's room. The closet door squeaked when it was opened. Lyons could not recall if Lane ever used the paddle on Bianca, but the seven-year-old testified that Lane had used the paddle to give Bianca “a whooping.”

Jones testified that Bianca was almost toilet-trained, but still had accidents and wore pull-up diapers at night. Jones did not pack any pull-ups for Bianca when Lane picked Bianca up. Lyons testified that if Bianca or the two-year-old had an accident at night, Lane would ask them questions, spank them, and give them a time-out.

According to Lyons, between November 26 and December 2, 2011, Bianca had diarrhea and more than one accident. At trial, Lyons testified that she did not remember how Lane reacted to Bianca's accidents. Lyons's preliminary examination testimony was admitted as substantive evidence. At her preliminary examination, Lyons testified that Lane became angry, frustrated, and irritated, and in response to an investigative subpoena, Lyons testified that Lane was “more upset” the second time that Bianca had an accident.

Clinton Nevers testified that he worked out in Lane's basement every morning. According to Nevers, on November 29, 2011, he was sitting in Lane's living room after working out. He heard “three hard paddles” and a baby begin to cry. Nevers went to investigate and Lane met him in the doorway of a bedroom where Bianca was crying. Lane told him that Bianca had urinated and defecated on his floor and “he don't play that s* * *.”

According to Dungey, she picked Lyons up from work on December 1, 2011. She also picked up the seven- year-old and Lane's teenage nephew and dropped them off at her house. She did not return until the following morning. Lyons testified that she put the children to bed around 10:30 p.m., sat with Lane and Lane's nephew for an hour, and then went to bed.

According to Lyons, the sound of Bianca crying woke her during the night. She heard “a couple taps” from the downstairs bathroom and a toilet flushing. Lyons heard Lane ask Bianca about wetting the bed, heard the closet door open, and heard Lane hitting Bianca with the paddle. Lyons did not get up to investigate. Lyons agreed at trial that in response to the investigative subpoena, she had stated that she heard four or five smacking sounds and that Bianca was crying “like she was really intensely in pain.”

In a video interview with the police that was played for the jury, Lane stated that Bianca had a little diarrhea that night and did not sleep well. According to Lane, at some time around 1:00 a.m., Bianca fell out of bed while getting up to go to the bathroom and hit her head on the floor. Lane took her to the bathroom, then kept her awake for a few hours in case she had a concussion.

Lane's nephew testified that he spent the night at Dungey's house and that he and Lane stayed up until 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. According to the nephew, Bianca soiled herself in her sleep and Lane brought her out to the living room. Lane tried to keep Bianca awake by “standin' her up” and “tapp[ing] her with a paddle” on the buttocks. The nephew testified that Bianca was not crying and that Lane eventually put Bianca back to bed.

Lyons and Dungey both testified that Lane usually drove the seven-year-old to school while Bianca and the two-year-old stayed home, and neither could recall Lane ever taking Bianca along on the ride. Lane took Bianca out to the car with him on December 2, 2011.

According to Lane, he woke at around 6:45 a.m. and took Bianca and the two-year-old to the bathroom. Bianca seemed tired and “out of it a little bit.” Lane's nephew testified that Lane brought Bianca into the living room before they left and sat her on the couch. Bianca was “[j]ust looking.” The seven-year-old testified that she could not remember if she saw Bianca moving that morning. The seven-year-old testified that she had told the truth when she previously said that she did not see Bianca up, moving, talking, walking, or standing on her own.

Lane's nephew testified that Lane put a blanket over Bianca's head when he carried her to the car. According to Lane, he draped a blanket over Bianca's head when he took her outside because it was cold. He removed the blanket from Bianca's head when he put her in the car, but she went back to sleep, so he covered her back up. Lane's nephew testified that Bianca's eyes were open in the car and she was “just looking” and did not make any noises.

Rico Blackwell, a friend of Lane, testified that he was walking to Wayne Community College on the morning of December 2, 2011. According to Blackwell, he heard Lane call his name and Lane pulled up to him in “a white nice vehicle.” Lane was the only person in the vehicle, and Blackwell saw bags in the backseat. Blackwell and Lane spoke briefly, and Blackwell told Lane that he was late to class. Blackwell gave Lane his phone number, and Lane called him briefly so that Lane's phone number registered in Blackwell's phone. Lane looked “distraught” and did not offer Blackwell a ride to school. According to FBI Agent Christopher Hess, cell phone towers showed that Lane's phone placed a 14– to 18–second call to Blackwell at 8:55 a.m.

According to Dungey, Lane called her briefly to mention that he was going to Banika Jones's house to pick up more clothes for Bianca. Some time after that, Lane called back, crying and saying that someone had taken Bianca. Lyons testified that she could hear Lane screaming on Dungey's phone. Dungey testified that she heard a woman take Lane's phone. The woman said that someone had taken Bianca, that she was going to call the police, and hung up.

According to Ford–Gandy, who lived with Jones, she was still in bed when someone began banging on her door and yelling outside. It was between 9:00 and 9:15 a.m. Weaver testified that he heard a loud crash that sounded like “someone was busting down the door.” When he went downstairs, Lane was in the living room. According to Weaver, Lane was sobbing uncontrollably and kept saying “they got her.” Weaver could not make sense of what Lane was saying, but Lane eventually said that he had been carjacked by people with guns.

Weaver assumed that Lane had called the police, and Weaver called Lilia Jones Weaver, Bianca's grandmother. According to cell phone records, Lane called Dungey at 9:40 a.m. Ford–Gandy testified that, after Lane admitted he had not called the police, she used his phone to call them. Lane's cell phone records indicated that the 911 call was placed at 9:47 a.m.

Detroit Police Officer Patrick Lane testified that he arrived at Lane's house within five minutes of the 911 call. According to Officer Lane, Lane was very “shaken up” and it took a while for him to respond to any questions. Lane eventually stated that he had been driving “a black Crown Vic.”³ When Officer Lane asked Lane where the carjacking occurred, Lane pointed to the nearby corner of Custer and Brush.

In his recorded interview, Lane stated that he met Blackwell on Howard Street. Then he drove along Woodward to Warren, turned right, took Warren to Brush, turned left, and headed south on Brush to Grand Boulevard. On Grand Boulevard, he stopped at a stop sign and someone behind him was honking at him. The other car was small, red, and had square headlights. Someone in the other car said that Lane's lights were out, so he left his car to see if they were out. At that point, the front seat passenger got out of the other car holding a gun, jumped into Dungey's car, and drove off.

Detroit Police Officer Richard Arslanian testified that he heard a broadcast that a “black Mercury” with a child in the backseat was carjacked, and he began looking for the vehicle in the area of Brush, Custer, and Philadelphia Streets. At 10:15 a.m., Officer Arslanian found Dungey's car in an alley. According to Officer Arslanian, the car's door was...