Pinkney v. State

• Decision Date: 20 June 2003
• Docket Number: No. 2529,2529
• Citation: 827 A.2d 124,151 Md. App. 311
• Parties: Walter PINKNEY v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

827 A.2d 124

151 Md. App. 311

Walter PINKNEY v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 2529, Sept. Term, 2000.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

June 20, 2003.

Sherrie B. Glasser, Asst. Public Defender, Amy L. Kneep (Stephen E. Harris, Public Defender, on brief), Baltimore, for appellant.

Zoe Gillen White, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Atty. Gen., Patricia Jessamy, State's Atty. for Baltimore City, on brief), Baltimore, for appellee.

Argued before MURPHY, C.J., DAVIS, HOLLANDER, SALMON, EYLER, JAMES R., SONNER, KENNEY, EYLER, DEBORAH S., ADKINS, KRAUSER, BARBERA, GREENE, THEODORE G. BLOOM (Ret., specially assigned), JJ.

JAMES R. EYLER, J.,

Appellant, Walter Pinkney, challenges his first degree murder and child abuse convictions for the brutal killing of his step-grandson, six-month-old Ta'mar Hamilton. Following a four-day trial on the merits, the jury returned verdicts of guilty on the first degree murder and felony child abuse counts, and appellant was subsequently sentenced to a term of life imprisonment for the first degree murder conviction and 30 years imprisonment for the child abuse conviction, to be served consecutively.

On appeal, appellant alleges three errors. First, he argues that the evidence was legally insufficient to sustain a conviction of first degree murder, i.e., that the court erred in failing to grant his motion for judgment of acquittal. Next, he contends that the trial court erred in admitting the prior statements of Renita Pinkney, Ta'mar's paternal grandmother, who was appellant's girlfriend at the time and who is now appellant's wife.¹ Finally, appellant claims that the court erred in precluding the defense from pursuing relevant testimony about the actions and behavior of Larry Hamilton, Jr., Ta'mar's father. Perceiving no error in the trial court's evidentiary rulings and finding that there was sufficient evidence to sustain the first degree murder conviction, we affirm appellant's convictions.

Factual Background

On the evening of November 27, 1999, officers of the Baltimore City Police Department went to The Johns Hopkins Hospital in response to a call of suspected child abuse of six-month-old Ta'mar Hamilton. David Peckoo, one of the investigating officers, interviewed Renita Pinkney and appellant, who, he had been told, were responsible for the care and custody of Ta'mar, before Ta'mar was rushed to the hospital earlier that day.

Ta'mar died from his injuries on December 1, 1999. On December 3, 1999, after an autopsy had been performed on Ta'mar, police investigators again interviewed Ms. Pinkney and appellant. On December 14, 1999, appellant was arrested and charged with first degree murder and child abuse.

The evidence at trial portrayed the following chronology of events surrounding Ta'mar's death. On Thursday, November 25, 1999, Thanksgiving, arrangements were made for Larry Hamilton, Sr., Ta'mar's paternal grandfather, and appellant to pick up Ta'mar and his brother, Davon Hamilton, then 15 months old, from their mother, Shawntel Rice, and take them to the home of Ms. Pinkney and appellant to stay for the remainder of the Thanksgiving weekend. The men arrived at the home of Ms. Rice and placed both children in their car seats. During the car ride to Ms. Pinkney's and appellant's house, Ta'mar was cranky and cried for most of the trip.

Upon their arrival, Larry Hamilton, Sr. instructed his son, Larry Hamilton, Jr., the boys' father, to remove the children from the car and bring them into the house. There is conflicting testimony about Hamilton, Jr.'s actions following his father's demand, suggesting varying levels of harshness with which Hamilton, Jr. physically brought the children into the home. According to Ms. Pinkney, Hamilton, Jr. removed the children from the car and, while they still were strapped into their car seats, threw them up several steps into the vestibule of the house. Hamilton, Jr. testified that he retrieved one child at a time and handed the first car seat off to someone before retrieving the second. Finally, another witness described Hamilton, Jr.'s dropping the car seats into the vestibule, after carrying them up the stairs, because his pants were falling down. There was undisputed testimony that the car seats were padded, and that they landed upright.

Once the children were inside the house, Hamilton, Jr. and other visitors remained for one to two hours. They then departed, leaving Ms. Pinkney and appellant alone with Ta'mar and Davon. Ta'mar continued to cry and was generally cranky. Before putting the children to bed, appellant gave Ta'mar a bath. Ta'mar slept only a few hours on Thursday night. He awoke at 3 a.m. on Friday morning and required feeding and changing. He did not fall back to sleep until 6 a.m.

On Friday afternoon, after observing Ta'mar's continued crankiness, Ms. Pinkney took Ta'mar to a clinic. Davon remained in the care and custody of appellant. Ms. Pinkney waited several hours only to be told that the clinic would not treat Ta'mar because he was not covered by insurance. She returned home with Ta'mar late Friday afternoon. When she tried to feed him, Ta'mar would not eat or drink.

Ms. Pinkney and appellant fell asleep on the couch for a few hours with both children. They then took the children upstairs to bed, keeping Davon in the room with them, and putting Ta'mar to sleep in another room. During that night, Ta'mar cried constantly, and Ms. Pinkney and appellant took turns patting his back, walking him around the room, and trying to calm him. Ta'mar briefly slept between the hours of 3 and 6 a.m. Thereafter, he slept only for short periods of time. At approximately 10 a.m., Ms. Pinkney went to the store for diapers, leaving the children in appellant's care. She checked and saw that Ta'mar was asleep before she left. According to appellant, while Ms. Pinkney was away, Ta'mar awoke and began crying, so he went into the room where Ta'mar was and picked him up to try to calm him. He tried to feed Ta'mar from a bottle, but Ta'mar only drank a small amount, approximately 3 and a half ounces. Appellant testified that he was changing Ta'mar's diaper following a suspected bowel movement when Ta'mar gasped for breath and stopped breathing. Immediately, he called 911 and began giving Ta'mar CPR. He was still trying to resuscitate Ta'mar when Ms. Pinkney returned home. An ambulance then arrived and transported Ta'mar to The Johns Hopkins Hospital ("Hopkins").

Ta'mar was admitted to the Pediatric Emergency Department. Dr. Allen Walker, Director of that Department, was contacted to evaluate Ta'mar. Dr. Walker diagnosed Ta'mar as having sustained a severe brain injury. Dr. Walker interviewed Ms. Pinkney and appellant, trying to ascertain what had happened before Ta'mar was brought into the hospital. During the interview, appellant described Ta'mar's constant crankiness, refusal to eat, how Ta'mar had stopped breathing while he was changing his diaper, how he had immediately contacted 911, and his attempts at CPR. Thereafter, Dr. Walker spoke with the police.

Officer Brian Rice arrived at the hospital and interviewed Ms. Pinkney and appellant. During the interview, appellant again explained that Ta'mar had been cranky and crying all weekend and that he had stopped breathing on Saturday morning.

Devoark Maddox, a clinical social worker at Hopkins, testified regarding her completion of a child maltreatment form, based on her interview with appellant and Ms. Pinkney at the hospital. During the interview, appellant described the events, including his telephone call to 911 and his attempt to resuscitate Ta'mar. Ms. Maddox described appellant as calm and forthcoming during their interview.

Detective David Peckoo also interviewed appellant and Ms. Pinkney at the hospital that day. The interview revealed much of the same information discussed above.

The autopsy revealed that the cause of Ta'mar's death was blunt force trauma as a result of four injuries to his head. After receiving the autopsy results, Detective Peckoo asked Ms. Pinkney and appellant to come to the police station for a second interview. They did so voluntarily on December 3, 1999, and he took recorded statements from them both. During this second interview, appellant indicated that he might have hit Ta'mar's head on the bed rail while trying to get him to respond after he stopped breathing. He also admitted that he had shaken Ta'mar a few times.

As part of the investigation, Detective Peckoo removed the bed rail from Ms. Pinkney's home and tested it for blood, semen, and hair. The test results were negative for those substances and did not reveal any evidence of human contact. On December 14,1999, appellant was arrested and charged with first degree murder and child abuse of Ta'mar Hamilton.

Following selection of a jury and an unsuccessful pre-trial suppression hearing,² a trial on the merits began on September 19, 2000. The State presented the testimony of eight witnesses in the following order: Officer Brian Rice, Devoark Maddox, Dr. Allen Walker, Shawntel Rice, Renita Pinkney, Detective David Peckoo, Larry Hamilton, Jr., and Dr. Joseph Pestaner. The defense offered the testimony of Larry Hamilton, Sr., Sheena Watkins, and appellant. These witnesses testified to the following additional information.

Dr. Walker testified in great detail about the extent and cause of Ta'mar's fatal injuries, explaining that (1) severe brain injury was his initial diagnosis, (2) Ta'mar's chance for survival was almost non-existent, (3) the injuries were almost everywhere, i.e., the brain and skull had been virtually destroyed, (4) violent force, similar to the force when someone is thrown through the windshield in a car crash or falls from a third floor window, was required to inflict the type of injuries that Ta'mar had sustained to his head, and (5) such violent blows would have rendered Ta'mar immediately unconscious so as to make him incapable of crying or drinking...