Quinn v. State
| Decision Date | 28 October 2022 |
| Docket Number | 1740-2021 |
| Parties | ROYAL QUINN v. STATE OF MARYLAND |
| Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
Circuit Court for Baltimore County Case No. C-03-CR-19-004969
Wells C.J., Ripken, Battaglia, Lynne A. (Senior Judge, Specially Assigned), JJ.
Royal Quinn ("Quinn") appeals his convictions in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County of first degree rape and related offenses. Quinn filed a motion to dismiss in which he alleged a violation of State v. Hicks. [1] He also moved to suppress evidence obtained from his residence vehicle, and cell phone. The circuit court denied Quinn's motion to dismiss, finding good cause to delay Quinn's trial due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The circuit court also denied Quinn's motions to suppress, concluding the evidence was seized pursuant to a valid search warrant. A jury found Quinn guilty of first degree rape, attempted first degree rape, and kidnapping. Quinn was sentenced to life without parole for first degree rape, a concurrent life sentence for attempted first degree rape, and the kidnapping conviction was merged. On appeal, Quinn challenges the circuit court's denial of his motion to dismiss and his motions to suppress and argues he received ineffective assistance of counsel. For the reasons explained below, we shall affirm.
Quinn presents the following questions for our review:[2] I. Did the circuit court err in denying the motion to dismiss?
II. Did the circuit court err in declining to suppress evidence obtained from Quinn's residence and vehicle?
III. Did the circuit court err in declining to suppress evidence obtained from the search of the Samsung cell phone?
IV. Whether Quinn's ineffective assistance of counsel claim was properly brought on direct appeal?
Prior to trial, Quinn filed motions to dismiss for alleged Hicks violations and motions to suppress evidence obtained from the search of his residence, vehicle, and phone. These motions, argued in the circuit court on October 23, 2020, were denied.[3] The case subsequently proceeded to a four-day jury trial, which began on August 30, 2021. The following facts are drawn from the evidence presented at Quinn's trial.
On the morning of December 2, 2019, then 11-year-old A.[4] was assaulted and raped while on her way to school. A. was walking past Norwood Elementary School ("Norwood") on her way to a bus at Holabird Middle School, which would take her to Dundalk Middle School, where she was in the sixth grade. As A. was walking to Holabird Middle School, she noticed a car parked near her. As A. continued walking towards the school, a man grabbed her from behind, pulled her pants and underwear down to her ankles and told her to "shut the [] up." A. testified that the man hit her about three times and busted her lip open. A. further testified that the man touched her "private parts" with his hand and inserted his finger in her "private parts." A. stated that the man was "trying to rape [her]."
As the man was on top of A., she was screaming and trying to defend herself. She told the man to "let [her] go or else [she would] call the police." When the man first approached her, A. had a cell phone in her back pocket. Although she did not feel when the man removed her phone from her back pocket, A. could not call the police because the man "threw the phone," and she saw it on the ground a distance from her. A. was not sure exactly how long the man was on top of her, but at some point, she was able to pull up her pants and go get help.[5] A. came across C.A., a woman who was taking her nieces to school, and told her a black man tried to rape her and asked that she be taken to her dad.
At trial, A. described her attacker as a tall, dark skinned black man with a beard who looked like he was about 25 years old. On direct examination, when questioned about whether she would recognize the man if she saw him again, A. testified, "I really don't know but I think so." A. was also asked if she saw the man in the courtroom, to which she responded, "I don't know."
C.A. testified that on the date of the incident, she was dropping off her nieces at their respective schools. After she dropped off one of her nieces at Norwood, her other niece drew her attention to A. who was crying. According to C.A., A.'s clothes were dirty and her face was bruised. A. told C.A. that a black man placed his finger in her private parts, tried to rape her, and stole her cell phone. A. asked C.A. to take her to her father.
A.'s father, B.,[6] testified that, on the morning of the incident, he received a phone call from C.A. who told him that his daughter had been raped. When C.A. brought A. home, B. observed that she had been "hit in her eye, and in her mouth." B. saw that A.'s clothes were dirty, her pants were undone, and she was emotionally "destroyed." B. then took A. back to Norwood where the police were called. B. also testified that A. had an iPhone, but the cell phone only had service when connected to the internet.
Upon returning to the school, A. spoke with a school resource officer and told him that a man attacked and physically assaulted her while she was walking behind Norwood. The resource officer saw that A. was crying and upset and her clothes were disheveled with grass stains. The resource officer also observed A.'s right eye was bruised, and the lower part of her right lip was starting to swell. A. told the resource officer that a man ran up behind her, tackled her, and pulled her into a low-lying area. A. further indicated the man struggled with her for several minutes, was able to get her pants down below her knees, and digitally penetrated her while she was on the ground. A. described her attacker as a 25 to 30-year-old black male, who was about six feet tall, 160 pounds, and was wearing a black sweatshirt, black knit cap, black jeans, and black shoes. A. also indicated the man took her iPhone 7 from her.[7]
After speaking with A., the resource officer went to the administrator's office to review security camera footage from the incident location. The video depicted the incident and suspect as described by A., and it showed a black vehicle in the area. The resource officer relayed the information obtained from the surveillance video and A. to investigating officers. A. was then taken to the Crimes Against Children Unit to be interviewed by detectives before being taken to Greater Baltimore Medical Center ("GBMC") for a SAFE[8]exam. The resource officer did not know whether A. identified Quinn as her assailant.
A forensic nurse examiner with GBMC performed a SAFE exam on A. and documented her injuries. The nurse confirmed A. had a bruise, swelling and petechia[9]under her right eye, and abrasions and bruising on her lower lip. A. also had scratches on her upper right thigh, a scratch on her upper left thigh, dirt on her left knee, and broken fingernails. Mud and debris were found in A.'s labia majora, and there was erythema[10] on A.'s labia minora.[11] Debris was also found on the sheet that A. was sitting on during the exam. A.'s injuries were photographed, and the following evidence was collected from A.: swabs from her mouth, underneath her fingernails, each hand, and genital area; the debris found on her genital area and the sheet; and the clothing A. was wearing when she came to the hospital. A. told the nurse that she was digitally penetrated in her vagina and that she had been raped.
A detective from the Crimes Against Children Unit investigated the incident and directed that A. be brought to the Child Advocacy Center for an interview. The interview was conducted by a social worker. The detective observed A. in person and reviewed the recorded interview. He also requested that A.'s clothing be collected. The jeans and sweatshirt A. was wearing at the time of the incident were wet and muddy. On the same date as the incident, the detective went to Norwood, where he observed the area around the school was wet and muddy. A. indicated to the detective that her assailant appeared to be Mexican, "having a complexion that is not light and not dark," with a beard, and was wearing a black sweatshirt, black pants, and a black hat.
Various members of the Baltimore County Police Department collected surveillance videos from the incident area[12] and were able to identify the suspect vehicle as a black Nissan Maxima with distinct chrome trim and alloy wheels. The surveillance videos collected from the incident scene showed A. on her walk to school holding her cell phone. The videos also depicted the suspect vehicle slow down, park outside of Norwood and showed the driver exit the vehicle and head towards the field, which is the same direction in which A. was walking. The video then showed the suspect running in A.'s direction on the path before grabbing her in a "bear hug," picking her up, carrying her and then falling down on her and remaining on top of her. Nothing further appeared in the video for just over five minutes until the suspect can be seen running back from the field behind Norwood, where he pulled up his pants. He picked something up off the ground, got into the suspect vehicle, and drove it away. A. pulled up her pants and walked along the path closer to Norwood.
The surveillance videos then captured the suspect vehicle traveling away from the scene, where it eventually was driven onto I-95 south and through the EZ Pass toll lane, revealing the vehicle's tag number. Investigators obtained the vehicle's registration and determined the vehicle was registered to Quinn's mother. They also obtained the address associated with the vehicle and subsequently executed a search warrant at that address. The officers recovered...
To continue reading
Request your trial