Roach v. State, 2523

• Decision Date: 26 April 2016
• Docket Number: No. 2711,No. 2523,2523,2711
• Parties: ANTHONY ROACH AND QUINCY CHISOLM, v. STATE OF MARYLAND
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

ANTHONY ROACH AND QUINCY CHISOLM, v. STATE OF MARYLAND

No. 2523

No. 2711

COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS OF MARYLAND

SEPTEMBER TERM, 2013

April 26, 2016

UNREPORTED

Eyler, Deborah, S., Berger, Reed, JJ.

Opinion by Eyler, Deborah, S., J.

*This is an unreported opinion and therefore may not be cited either as precedent or as persuasive authority in any paper, brief, motion, or other document filed in this Court or any other Maryland court. Md. Rule 1-104.

A jury in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City convicted Anthony Roach and Quincy Chisolm, the appellants, and Robert Moore of conspiracy to murder Alex Venable, his family members, and their associates. Roach also was convicted of attempted first-degree murder of Venable's brother, Allen Venable ("Allen"), use of a handgun in the commission of a felony or crime of violence, and possession of a firearm after a felony conviction. The court sentenced Roach to life imprisonment for conspiracy to commit murder; life imprisonment for attempted murder in the first-degree, to run consecutively; 20 years' imprisonment, the first five without parole, for use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence, to run concurrently; and five years without the possibility of parole for the possession of a firearm after a felony conviction, to run concurrently. The court sentenced Chisolm to life imprisonment, all but 40 years suspended, with a mandatory five years' supervised probation upon release, for conspiracy to commit murder.¹

Roach raises nine issues on appeal and Chisolm raises four. Some of the arguments on those questions include sub-issues. In its brief, the State has rephrased, reorganized, and consolidated the questions raised by Roach and Chisolm. We shall adopt and address the issues as presented by the State:

Questions Presented By Both Roach And Chisolm:

I. Did the trial court properly decline to grant the motion to sever?

II. To the extent Appellants' contentions are addressed and preserved for review, did the trial court properly exercise its discretion to admit Moore's recorded calls?

III. If addressed as to Roach and if preserved, was Moore's voluntary absence from trial not unduly prejudicial as to Appellants?

IV. Was the lunch between [two witnesses for the State] during trial neither a sequestration nor Brady violation?²

V. To the extent preserved, was the evidence sufficient?

Questions Presented Only By Roach:

VI. Was there sufficient evidence from which the jury could find that the recorded calls were authentic?

VII. If addressed, did the trial court properly exercise its discretion in denying three of Roach's mistrial motions?

VIII. To the extent preserved, did [the trial court] have good cause to issue the protective order?

IX. Did the trial court properly exercise its discretion to strike three prospective jurors for cause?

X. Should this Court decline to address Roach's claim that his right to a public trial was violated?

Questions Presented Only By Chisolm:

XI. If preserved, was the jury's verdict finding Chisolm guilty of conspiracy to commit murder not infirm and was his sentence on that conviction illegal?

XII. Did the trial court properly exercise its discretion in responding to the jury's notes during deliberations?³

For the following reasons, we shall affirm the judgments of the circuit court.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

The evidence adduced at trial established that on April 27, 2011, at around 8:00 p.m., Darian Kess was stabbed to death in his apartment located in a complex off The Alameda, in Northeast Baltimore. Kess was Moore's cousin. Earlier that evening, Kess was in his apartment with Maria Randle and Rokia Lewis. Kess decided to order food and left the apartment to borrow carryout menus from a neighbor. Randle and Lewis saw that when he returned he was accompanied by three men whose faces were covered with a "t-shirt type material." One man had a grip on Kess's arm and was holding a gun to his head.

The men ordered Randle and Lewis to lie face-down on the floor in the living room, which they did. Randle could not see anything, but overheard one of the men demand money from Kess and say he knew that Kess "hit like 30 today." Two of the men walked Kess around the apartment while the third man stayed in the living room with Randle and Lewis.

After about 10 minutes, the two men brought Kess back into the living room. Randle heard a noise that "sounded like . . . some type of liquid or something was hitting the floor." The three men ran out of the apartment. Randle waited about five minutes, stood up, and saw Kess lying on the floor, holding his neck with one hand and "bleeding real bad, losing a lot of blood." He had been stabbed. Lewis assisted Kess while Randle went door-to-door in the apartment building seeking help. (The men had stolen her cell phone.) A neighbor called 9-1-1. About 30 minutes later, an ambulance arrived and transported Kess to The Johns Hopkins Hospital ("Hopkins"). Randle reported the incident to the Baltimore City Police Department ("BCPD"). Kess died three days later.

On the night of the stabbing, Moore and his wife, Sarah Hooker, went to the hospital to see Kess. The next morning, April 28, 2011, Hooker contacted Randle by phone to find out what had happened. Randle did not want to discuss the events over the phone and agreed to meet with Hooker. Hooker drove a black SUV with dark, tinted windows, and picked Randle up at around noon. Moore and Hooker's brother, Donnie Adams, were in the vehicle. Randle described the events of the previous night. Moore asked her if she would be able to identify any of the assailants' voices and she responded yes. Hooker then drove the group to the 1900 block of North Collington Avenue, between East 20^th Street and North Avenue, stopping in front of a row house in the middle of the block. According to Randle, "four or five" people exited the row house and approached the SUV. Moore and Adams got out of the vehicle and asked the people if they knew anything about Kess's stabbing. Randle, who remained inside the SUV out ofsight, recognized a voice as being one of the assailants. Moore and Adams got back in the SUV and Hooker drove Randle to the hospital to see Kess. Randle had no further contact with Hooker, Moore, or Adams.

That same day, Gloria Johnson was standing in the 1900 block of North Collington Avenue with a group of people, including Venable and a man she knew as "Kevin." An SUV pulled up and two men got out. Adams, who she knew from the neighborhood, was one of them. Adams briefly spoke to Venable. Johnson overheard Adams say he would "come back and spray the block." Adams and the other man got back in the SUV and drove away. Johnson walked down the street to a carryout store to buy a pack of cigarettes and returned ten minutes later. She saw someone come "out of 20^th onto Collington" and start shooting in the area where she had been standing. Later, in a photo array she identified Adams as the shooter. She wrote on the photo array: "This is Donnie [Adams]. He came on the 1900 block of Collington and stated, I will spray this block and he was talking to Venable."

Venable, Thomas McNeil, and Derrick Vaughn all sustained gunshot wounds and were transported by ambulance to Hopkins. Venable died of his wounds. McNeil was shot three times in the stomach, twice in the right arm, and once in the left arm. He underwent surgery to remove the bullets from his stomach and place a metal plate in his right elbow. He remained in the hospital for a month. Vaughn was shot in his left leg. He was treated and released that day.

At trial, Adams testified pursuant to a plea agreement with the State.⁴ He stated that he had spoken to Kess on the afternoon of April 27, 2011, while Kess was selling drugs in the 1900 block of North Collington. They discussed how much money Kess had made that day. Venable, Vaughn, and McNeil were standing nearby when that conversation took place. Kess believed they overheard the conversation and were involved in Kess's stabbing later that night.

Adams's testimony conflicted in some minor respects with that of Randle and Johnson. According to Adams, the day after the stabbing, Hooker picked him up at around 10:00 a.m. Randle and Moore already were in the SUV. Randle was there to let them "know who did it." He and Moore "were going to handle it" and "take care of it." Hooker drove them to North Collington Avenue. Adams got out of the SUV to speak to Venable. He denied making any threats. He got back in the SUV. Randle identified Venable as one of the assailants at Kess's apartment the night before. They drove away, let Randle "out of the car" "[o]nce it got back to North Avenue[,]" and then parked the car at the corner of North Avenue and Castle Street. Moore contacted Roach and it was Roach who shot Venable.

Hooker likewise testified pursuant to a plea agreement with the State.⁵ She explained that Moore and his associates were drug dealers in the area of North Collington and North Avenues. Venable and his associates were rival drug dealers. On April 28, 2011, she contacted Randle and picked her up in a black SUV she had rented. She drove Randle, Moore, and Adams to the 1900 block of North Collington Avenue. After they left there, she dropped Randle off at the hospital and dropped Adams off on Preston Street. Moore called Roach, and she and Moore went to Gary Williams's house to meet him. Tavon Price was there. Moore said he "wanted something done about" Kess's stabbing.

Hooker testified that Roach and Price were responsible for shooting Venable, McNeil, and Vaughn on April 28, 2011 (the "April 28 Shooting"); that she, Moore, Adams, Chisolm, Roach, Price, Emanuel Deminds, and Taylor Flemming agreed to retaliate against Venable for killing Kess; and that the April 28 Shooting was the first of several retaliatory acts that Moore and she orchestrated against Venable, his family members, and their associates.

Tavon Baker was one of Venable's associates. On June 7, 2011, he was shot while...