Reid v. US

• Decision Date: 11 October 1990
• Docket Number: No. 87-682.,87-682.
• Parties: Lyman REID, Jr., Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

581 A.2d 359

Lyman REID, Jr., Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.

No. 87-682.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued March 22, 1990.

Decided October 11, 1990.

Lee H. Karlin, Washington, D.C., appointed by the court, for appellant.

Anthony P. Farley, Asst. U.S. Atty., with whom Jay B. Stephens, U.S. Atty., and John R. Fisher and Eileen Mayer, Asst. U.S. Attys., were on the brief, for appellee.

Before ROGERS, Chief Judge, BELSON and STEADMAN, Associate Judges.

BELSON, Associate Judge:

Lyman Reid, Jr. challenges his conviction for possession of a prohibited weapon (knife) in violation of D.C.Code § 22-3214(b) (1989) and presents several issues for review, including: 1) whether the evidence on specific intent was sufficient to sustain his conviction; 2) whether the trial court erred in failing to suppress a statement made by Reid to a police officer because the interchange constituted custodial interrogation without Miranda warnings; 3) whether the trial court improperly instructed the jury on the specific intent element of the offense; and 4) whether Reid was improperly denied a self-defense jury instruction by the trial court. Because we conclude that with respect to Reid's specific intent to use the knife unlawfully appellant was erroneously denied jury instructions that explained what relevant uses are unlawful in the District of Columbia, we reverse and remand this case to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I.

While on routine canine patrol in the Third District on July 22, 1985, Officer Gary R. Clearwater, a canine technician with the Metropolitan Police Department and an 11-year veteran of the police force responded to a radio run to the effect that two men and a woman were fighting with knives at approximately 5:45 p.m. in the vicinity of 7th and S Streets, N.W.¹ As Officer Clearwater approached the scene at the mouth of an alley and on the sidewalk along 628 S Street, N.W., he observed appellant "facing four or five other people with a knife in his right hand in a very threatening manner with a look like he was arguing with them."

The uniformed officer exited his marked police canine car unaccompanied by any other police officers, drew his service revolver and held it to his right side next to his leg as he ordered Reid to drop the knife. Reid then turned toward Officer Clearwater with the knife still in his hand. The Officer again ordered Reid to drop the knife. Officer Clearwater and Reid were then approximately 14-17 feet apart. Reid dropped the knife to the sidewalk and Officer Clearwater retrieved it. Officer Clearwater then re-holstered his service revolver.

Officer Clearwater then asked Reid "what he was doing with the knife and what has happening." Reid responded: "I'm going to show these motherfuckers they don't be fucking with me. I'll fuck them up."² Reid then "started yelling towards the people that were there, just becoming very disorderly." Officer Clearwater thereupon arrested Reid.³ Officer John Timbers, who arrived at the scene after Reid was arrested, transported Reid to the police station.

At trial, Reid presented two witnesses who testified in his behalf. Donald Watts testified, inter alia, that he and Reid were playing with knives on July 22, 1985, when several officers in plain clothes grabbed Reid. Watts also testified that he carried a knife for protection and work. Emma Johnson, the other defense witness, testified that she hosted a barbecue in her yard on July 22, 1985, at 626 S Street, N.W. but admitted during cross-examination by the government that Reid was not a guest at her party. She also testified that she knew Reid and Watts and had seen them together often, and knew that Reid had stayed on occasion at 626 S Street, N.W., at the home of Johnson's across-the-hall neighbor, Mr. Woods.

At the conclusion of trial, the jury found that Reid was guilty of carrying a knife in the District of Columbia with the intent to use it unlawfully against another in violation of D.C.Code § 22-3214(b) (1989). After Reid was sentenced, he filed a timely notice of appeal.

II.

We first address Reid's sufficiency of the evidence argument. Reid contends that the government failed to adduce evidence at trial sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he possessed the knife with the intent to use it in an unlawful manner against another in violation of D.C.Code § 22-3214(b) (1989) ("PPW(b)"). According to Reid, the only inference the jury could have drawn from the evidence presented by the government concerning Reid's alleged specific intent to use the knife unlawfully was that Reid had the intent to use the knife in an "assaultive manner." He further argues that the government failed to prove either an attempted-battery assault or an intent-to-frighten assault. Reid asserts that the absence of evidence surrounding Reid's display of the knife is a void from which an inference of his specific intent to use the knife unlawfully cannot be drawn.

The government contends that the evidence at trial, when viewed in the light most favorable to the government, amply supports the inference that Reid possessed the specific intent to use the knife unlawfully against another. The government argues that it was not required to prove all the elements of assault in order to prove the PPW(b) offense because assault and PPW(b) constitute separate crimes. The government asserts that the testimony of Officer Clearwater that he observed Reid "facing four or five other people with a knife in his right hand in a very threatening manner with a look like he was arguing with them," and that Reid responded to the officer's inquiries by saying "I'm going to show these motherfuckers they don't be fucking with me. I'll fuck them up," is sufficient to prove that Reid intended to use the knife unlawfully against another, impliedly in an intent-to-frighten assault.

The elements constituting a violation of D.C.Code § 22-3214(b) are well established.⁴

It is clear from the face of the statute that the government must establish not only that the accused possessed a proscribed article, but also that he possessed it with the intent to use it unlawfully against another. As an example ..., the statute clearly does not forbid the mere possession of an imitation pistol, but it is equally apparent that the provision does forbid the possession of such an imitation pistol with intent to use it in an assaultive or otherwise unlawful manner.

United States v. Brooks, 330 A.2d 245, 246-47 (D.C.1974) (footnote omitted). As in the imitation pistol example quoted from Brooks, the intent to use a prohibited weapon, in this case a knife, must also be "in an assaultive or otherwise unlawful manner." Id. at 247. "It is axiomatic that the burden rests on the government to prove beyond a reasonable doubt all elements of an offense, and there is no reason to assume that § 22-3214(b) admits of any exception to this basic principle." Id. at 246 n. 1. See also In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 364, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 1072-73, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970).

Although we find this issue of sufficiency of the evidence concerning Reid's intent to use the knife unlawfully a relatively close one, when we view the evidence admitted through the testimony of Officer Clearwater in the light most favorable to the government, allowing for all reasonable inferences in the government's favor as we must, Irick v. United States, 565 A.2d 26, 30 (D.C.1989) (citing Stack v. United States, 519 A.2d 147, 159-60 (D.C. 1986)), we find the evidence adequate to sustain Reid's conviction. See Jones v. United States, 401 A.2d 473, 475-76 (D.C. 1979); Curley v. United States, 81 U.S. App.D.C. 389, 392-93, 160 F.2d 229, 232-33, cert. denied, 331 U.S. 837, 67 S.Ct. 1512, 91 L.Ed. 1850 (1947). We agree with the government that it did not need to prove all the elements of an assault in order to make out its prima facie case of PPW(b). See Jones v. United States, supra, 401 A.2d at 475-76; United States, v. Brooks, supra, 330 A.2d at 247 ("assaultive or otherwise unlawful manner").

III.

Reid contends that his motion to suppress his pre-arrest statement to Officer Clearwater should have been granted. Officer Clearwater was the sole witness at the hearing on the motion. The trial court credited his testimony and found that Clearwater's questions to Reid after the officer was confronted with a possibly dangerous and ambiguous street situation were investigatory in nature and thus permissible under Miranda.⁵ Consequently, the trial court denied Reid's motion to suppress.

This court's review of the trial court's denial of a motion to suppress evidence is limited. Lawrence v. United States, 566 A.2d 57, 60 (D.C.1989). This court will not disturb the trial court's findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous. Id. Whether, on the duly established facts, Reid was subjected to custodial interrogation without the benefit of Miranda warnings, however, is a question of law. Accordingly, this court independently reviews the trial court's decision whether the statement was the result of custodial interrogation, "giving due deference to the trial court's findings of fact concerning appellant's encounter with the police." Richardson v. United States, 520 A.2d 692, 696 (D.C.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 917, 108 S.Ct. 267, 98 L.Ed.2d 224 (1987). See also Miley v. United States, 477 A.2d 720, 721 (D.C. 1984).

As the trial court found, when Officer Clearwater came upon the street scene in response to a radio run about a man and woman fighting with knives, he found Reid at the mouth of an alley along 628 S Street, N.W., facing four to five others and holding a knife in a menacing manner. The trial court found that upon approaching the group in his marked patrol car and in uniform, the officer "wasn't sure what the scenario of events was here, he still wasn't sure who was to blame for what. And before he took any precipitous action in making any...