Riley v. U.S.
| Decision Date | 03 May 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-CF-1045.,No. 98-CF-1169.,No. 98-CF-1218.,98-CF-1045.,98-CF-1169.,98-CF-1218. |
| Citation | 923 A.2d 868 |
| Parties | Marquette E. RILEY, Sayid Muhammad, and Antonio T. Marks, Appellants v. UNITED STATES, Appellee. |
| Court | D.C. Court of Appeals |
Robert S. Becker, Washington, appointed by the court, for appellant Riley.
Kenneth H. Rosenau, Washington, appointed by the court, for appellant Muhammad.
Peter N. Mann, Washington, appointed by the court, for appellant Marks.
Heather R. Phillips, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Roscoe C. Howard, Jr., United States Attorney at the time the brief was filed, John R. Fisher, Assistant United States Attorney at the time the brief was filed, and Elizabeth Trosman and J. Patrick Rowan, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on the brief, for appellee.
Before WASHINGTON, Chief Judge, and TERRY and SCHWELB, Senior Judges.*
Appellants Riley and Marks were convicted of two counts of first-degree murder while armed, one count of assault with intent to kill while armed, and one count of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. Appellant Muhammad was convicted of the same offenses, plus one count each of unauthorized use of a vehicle and destruction of property. On appeal, Riley and Muhammad argue that their Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights were violated during police questioning and that the statements they made to the police should therefore have been suppressed. Muhammad also contends that the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion to sever his case from those of his co-defendants and in limiting the scope of his counsel's cross-examination. Additionally, each appellant maintains that the admission of his co-defendants' confessions violated the strictures of Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004). We affirm.
In the early 1990s, a group of teenagers from Suitland, Maryland, formed a group called the Rushtown Crew.2 The Rushtown Crew was friendly at first with another group from the District of Columbia known as the Fairfax Village Crew. A feud developed between the crews, however, after a fistfight involving members of both groups occurred at a go-go concert. The feud continued to escalate, and in July of 1996, Russell Tyler, a member of the Rushtown Crew, was shot and wounded (but not killed) by members of the Fairfax Village Crew. Following this shooting, the three appellants, who were associated with the Rushtown Crew, discussed going to the Fairfax Village area and shooting at members of the rival crew.
A few weeks after Russell Tyler was shot, Lawrence Lynch, also a member of the Rushtown Crew, was shot and killed. The day after this shooting, some members of the Rushtown Crew, including the three appellants and two of their acquaintances, Wayne Brown and James Stroman, were discussing Lynch's murder. Appellant Muhammad was "doing more of the talking than others." He declared that the Rushtown Crew "should go [to Fairfax Village] and handle their business," that the Fairfax Village Crew had "gone too far," and that it was time that "they got theirs." Appellant Marks then asked to borrow Brown's pump shotgun "to have it around his house just in case Fairfax Village came back through, shooting again."
On the evening of August 20, 1996, Muhammad told Stroman that he had found out where some members of the Fairfax Village Crew were going to be that night. Stroman, Muhammad, and Riley then drove to Marks' house and picked him up. They were riding in a blue Chevrolet Spectrum that Muhammad had stolen the night before from Shadyside Gardens. Muhammad told Stroman that the four of them — Stroman, Muhammad, Riley, and Marks — were "going to deal with" the Fairfax Village Crew. When they left Marks' house, it was after dark. Muhammad was carrying a rifle, Riley had a .38 caliber revolver, Marks had a pump shotgun (which belonged to Brown), and Stroman had a sawed-off shotgun. Muhammad told Stroman, who was driving, to head toward the Fairfax Village area, and eventually he instructed Stroman to stop the car outside a bank on Pennsylvania Avenue.
At that time Annabelle Littles was living in a house on Pennsylvania Avenue, S.E., with her two sons, Larnell, age nineteen, and Larell, age twelve. Her house was next door to a bank and was attached to another town house on the opposite side. At approximately 9:00 p.m. on August 20, Ms. Littles was at home with her two sons. She was inside the house, while her sons were outside in the front yard tossing a football with Larell's friend, Robert Johnson, Jr.
When Stroman stopped the car outside the bank, Muhammad got out and "ran up behind" a "tall guy and two other shorter guys." Muhammad pulled out his gun and began shooting. After Muhammad fired the first volley, "the tall boy fell [and] the other shorter guy was like crawling up toward the house." Muhammad then shot at "the shorter guy." Muhammad looked back at his three friends in the car and said, "Get out and kill him." Riley and Marks then jumped out and started shooting while Stroman waited in the car. The "other shorter guy" got away by "running on the side of the house behind the bushes."
After being shot, Larnell Littles, the "tall guy," was able to get up and run to the front door. His mother, hearing the shots, went to the door to see what was happening, and as she opened the front door, she saw Larnell standing there. Larnell came inside and said, "Ma, I been shot," then fell to the floor. Robert Johnson, Jr., the "shorter guy" who did not get shot, ran into the house as appellants drove away and told Ms. Littles that Larell was hurt and would not get up. She immediately went outside and found Larell lying on the ground.
The police arrived about a minute later. An ambulance took Larnell to District of Columbia General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Larell was transported by ambulance to Children's Hospital, where he was placed on a respirator, but he died the next day.
Larell had two bullet wounds, and Larnell had shotgun pellet wounds as well as bullet wounds. Crime scene search officers recovered .22 caliber shell casings and 12-gauge shotgun shells from the scene of the shooting. During the course of the ensuing investigation, the police recovered a .38 caliber revolver from Marks' home, a Ruger .22 caliber sawed-off semi-automatic rifle from an alley behind Muhammad's home, and a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun from Riley's home, as well as the Mosberg 12-gauge shotgun which Brown had lent to Marks earlier that evening. Forensic evidence linked the shell casings and bullets recovered at the scene to two of these weapons. The .22 shell casings were determined to have been fired from the Ruger semi-automatic rifle, while the shotgun shells were found to have been fired from the Mosberg shotgun.
Later that evening, all three appellants, along with other members of the Rushtown Crew, were gathered at Marks' house. Marks and Muhammad were bragging about how they had shot "two boys" from Fairfax Village on Pennsylvania Avenue. Stroman said that he had been driving, and Riley said that his gun had jammed when he tried to shoot Larnell Littles. Muhammad told everyone that he had shot both victims. All three appellants stated that they shot at the Littles brothers because they thought they were members of the Fairfax Village Crew.3
As the conversation continued, Brown told appellants that they should burn the car that they had used in order to destroy any fingerprint evidence. Brown then called his friend Robin Milbourne to ask for a ride. When Milbourne arrived, Brown went with her to get gasoline. After they returned from the gas station, they followed Riley and Muhammad, who were driving the blue Spectrum, to a deserted area of the District of Columbia, where Muhammad set the Spectrum on fire. After the car had been burned, Milbourne drove Brown, Riley, and Muhammad back to Marks' house in her car. During the ride back, Riley and Muhammad discussed their actions that night in detail.
Early in the morning of September 9, almost three weeks later, police officers arrested all three appellants for the murders of the Littles brothers. Officers from both Prince George's County, Maryland, and the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department were involved in the investigation, arrest, and questioning of appellants. All three appellants confessed to the murders.4
After appellant Riley was arrested on September 9, he was taken to the Prince George's County police station and placed in an interview room by himself. At approximately 9:00 a.m., two Metropolitan Police detectives, Oliver Garvey and Donald Sauls, entered the room. Detective Garvey read Riley his rights from a Prince George's County rights waiver form and told Riley that he had been arrested for the murders of Larnell and Larell Littles. The detective instructed Riley to read the rights form himself and to answer the four questions printed on the form by checking either the "yes" or the "no" box next to each question. Riley checked the "no" box next to the question, "Do you want to make a statement at this time without a lawyer?" Detective Garvey asked him if he was "sure he did not want to talk to us," and he said "yes." Garvey then told Riley that he "couldn't talk to him any more since he did not want to make a statement without a lawyer present" and left the room. Detective Garvey gave the signed rights form to a Prince George's County detective and told him that Riley had "invoked." In his testimony Garvey explained that the term "invoked" in this instance meant that Riley did not want to make any statements, either with or without an attorney.
At about 10:45 a.m., Detective Dwight DeLoatch, of the Prince George's County Police, briefly entered...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Burno v. U.S., No. 97-CF-1698.
...Court "decline[d] to adopt a rule requiring officers to ask clarifying questions." Id. at 46, 114 S.Ct. 2350; see also Riley v. United States, 923 A.2d 868, 882 (D.C.2007) (applying Davis to ambiguous invocation of right to counsel). As stated earlier, Burno argues that the Davis holding sh......
-
Crawford v. U.S.
...at the time of arrest." United States v. Gouveia, 467 U.S. 180, 190, 104 S.Ct. 2292, 81 L.Ed.2d 146 (1984); see Riley v. United States, 923 A.2d 868, 880-881 (D.C.2007) (Sixth Amendment right does not attach at time of arrest; filing complaint to obtain arrest warrant is "not the same forma......
-
Dorsey v. United States, 06–CF–1099.
...a suspect invoked his Miranda rights, remained in his memory when he decided to resume speaking with police. See Riley v. United States, 923 A.2d 868, 884 n. 17 (D.C.2007). But even on the assumption that we are obligated to attempt such “metaphysical unscrambling,” 16 what the majority opi......
-
Dorsey v. United States, No. 06-CF-1099.
...police if, previously, police have continued questioning him despite his invocation of his Miranda rights. Cf. Riley v. United States, 923 A.2d 868, 884, 885 n. 17 (D.C.2007). Rather, we have asked whether any taint from the detectives' failure to honor scrupulously the defendant's invocati......