Robinson v. US

• Decision Date: 02 May 2002
• Docket Number: No. 95-CF-1815., No. 98-CO-499, No. 95-CF-1809, No. 00-CO-262
• Citation: 797 A.2d 698
• Parties: Ronald W. ROBINSON, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee. Ricky Bailey, Jr., Appellant, v. United States, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

797 A.2d 698

Ronald W. ROBINSON, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.

Ricky Bailey, Jr., Appellant, v. United States, Appellee.

Nos. 00-CO-262, 98-CO-499, 95-CF-1809, 95-CF-1815.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued September 26, 2000.

Decided May 2, 2002.

Jonathan E. Rubens, appointed by the court, for appellant Robinson.

Peter L. Goldman, appointed by the court, for appellant Bailey.

Barbara J. Valliere, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Wilma A. Lewis, United States Attorney at the time the brief was filed, and John R. Fisher, Roy W. McLeese, III, and Albert A. Herring, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on the brief, Washington, DC, for appellee.

Before TERRY, FARRELL, and REID, Associate Judges.

TERRY, Associate Judge:

Appellants Robinson and Bailey were convicted of one count each of first-degree murder while armed, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, and carrying a pistol without a license. On appeal, both appellants contend that the evidence as to all counts was legally insufficient to convict them, that the court erred in admitting the opinion testimony of an investigating detective, and that the court erred in denying their respective motions under D.C.Code § 23-110 (2001) based on claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. Bailey also maintains that the government violated his rights under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), by failing to make timely disclosure of a witness' name and grand jury testimony. We reject all of these arguments and affirm both appellants' convictions, as well as the orders denying both § 23-110 motions.

I

A. The Government's Evidence

Janet Blakeney testified that on December 17, 1993, her nineteen-year-old son Frank and his close friend, eighteen-year-old James Harris, were repairing Frank Blakeney's car, which was parked at the curb in front of the Blakeney home. At one point Harris went inside to watch television while Frank Blakeney remained outside working on the car. A short time later, a friend, Quindell Mercer, called and spoke with Harris briefly,¹ whereupon Harris "slammed the phone down" and ran out the front door.

From inside the house, Mrs. Blakeney heard gunfire and heard her son cry out for her. She quickly called the police and then ran outside, where she found her son lying on the ground, with Harris close beside him. She also saw "a grey car ... parked extremely close to Frank's car with the windows down ... on the wrong side of the street" and facing in the wrong direction. Mrs. Blakeney did not see anyone in the car because she "wasn't that close ... and they were like leaning back in the car...." When she knelt down beside her son, he made a "death growl." Leaning forward, Mrs. Blakeney put her ear next to his chest and heard his heart slowly stop beating. Frank Blakeney was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

James Harris testified that when he received the telephone call from Mercer, he became "concerned" as a result of what Mercer told him. He ran outside to the front yard, and from about midway between the sidewalk and the house he called out to Frank Blakeney, but Blakeney was busy working on his car and did not respond. Harris briefly headed back toward the house, but then turned again toward Blakeney. As he did so, he saw a blue car² with its headlights off pull up next to Blakeney and stop. Some of the occupants of the car began to shoot at Blakeney. Harris stated that at first he "froze up," and that he "was in shock and then fell to the ground after calling [Blakeney's] name." He heard Blakeney cry out for his mother, then heard someone in the car yell, "Bail out." The car quickly sped away in the "wrong direction" (i.e., against traffic).

Frank Blakeney and his car were between Harris and the shooters. The shots were fired from the driver's side of the shooters' car, which was the side nearest to Harris. Harris testified that he saw at recognized two of them as appellants Reobinson and Bailey, whom he knew as "Ron" and "Little Rick." They were both firing at Blakeney from inside the car.³ Bailey was on the passenger side of the car, and Robinson was in the back seat. Harris also said that at least two other individuals, including Telly Wilson,⁴ were in the car. According to Harris, the firing of the guns lit up the inside of the car so that he could see appellants' faces.⁵ Harris was unable to state how far he was from the shooters at the time, but the investigating officer estimated from what Harris told him that the distance was approximately forty to fifty feet.

The police soon arrived and attempted to speak with Harris, but he was not cooperative and gave them a false name. Harris admitted this when he testified at trial, but he said he was "upset and mad" and was "thinking about getting revenge." He was also concerned about the likelihood that Mrs. Blakeney or others, including himself, might get hurt.

Harris was then taken to the police station, where Detective Daniel Whalen questioned him. Harris initially told Whalen that he had "heard gunshots and had seen a car leaving the area...." Whalen testified that Harris was "very nervous, very upset, and intentionally vague as to what he knew about the shooting," and that he could extract information from Harris only "with difficulty." The prosecutor then asked Whalen:

Q. Did he ever tell you at that time that he had actually seen the shooting?

A. No.

Q. Did he tell you that he didn't see the shooting?

A. Yes, he did.

Q. Did you believe him when he told you that?

MR. MCCARTHY [counsel for Robinson]: Objection, Your Honor.

MR. ENGLE [counsel for Bailey]: Objection, Your Honor.

MR. HERRING [the prosecutor]: It goes to the detective's state of mind relating to why he subsequently did what he did.

THE COURT: The objection is overruled.

Q. Did you believe him when he told you that he had not seen the shooting?

A. No.

A. Why not?

A. Based on other information I had that he was outside at the time the shooting happened. He told me he was inside, in essence giving him an excuse as to why he could not have seen what happened, and his demeanor.

Finally, Detective Whalen said that his efforts to contact Harris after the night of the shooting were unsuccessful because Harris had given him a "fictitious last name and address."

In 1994 Harris pleaded guilty to attempted robbery in Montgomery County, Maryland, and was incarcerated there. Whaeln eventually learned of this and, on August 8, 1994, went to the Montgomery County Jail to question Harris again.⁶ Harris was reluctant to talk at first and did not reveal who shot Blakeney until Detective Whalen mentioned a letter that Harris had written to Blakeney's mother from jail.⁷ Harris then admitted that, in the letter, he had indicated that Robinson and Bailey were the shooters.⁸ Whalen then showed him an array of photographs, and Harris, with tears in his eyes and "shaking a little bit," selected a photograph of Robinson and identified him as "one of the ones shooting." He admitted that he had withheld this information earlier because he was afraid that he or his family might get hurt. Harris also named Bailey as a shooter, even though his picture was not in the array. Whalen later returned with another group of photographs, and from that group Harris picked out a photo of Bailey and confirmed that he was also one of the shooters.⁹

Defense counsel cross-examined Detective Whalen about how he came to interview Harris the second time. Using the detective's nine pages of interview notes from the night of the shooting, counsel sought to establish that Whalen's description of Harris on the night of the shooting as "uncooperative" was inaccurate and misleading. On redirect, the prosecutor asked Whalen whether he believed Harris when he said he was inside the house at the time he heard gunshots. When both defense attorneys objected, the court overruled the objections, stating:

The thrust of the cross-examination, at least with respect to [Robinson's counsel], is the detective's characterization that [Harris] was not cooperative, despite the fact that there were a lot of notes. There is a suggestion that that is inconsistent with not being cooperative. So I'm supposed to ask the question [sic] why didn't he think he was cooperative despite the fact that he gave him a lot of information.

Asked to explain why he did not initially believe Harris, the detective repeated that he had "interviewed [another] person who had heard the gunshots outside ... [and] immediately looked out the window and saw ... [Harris] outside at the time the shooting happened."

The shooting occurred sometime between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m. on December 17, and the sun had already set. Mrs. Blakeney testified that street lights "two car lengths" ahead and "three car lengths" behind Frank Blakeney's car were fully lit, as was the light on the Blakeneys' porch. Mrs. Blakeney also stated that she had clamped a light to the hood of her son's car before the shooting¹⁰ so that the engine, on which he was working, would be illuminated. Officer Stephen McDonald, the first officer to arrive at the scene, testified that there were two street lights near Blakeney's car, that the light attached to the car's hood was on, that the porch light was on, and that the lighting was good enough for someone "to see people and faces." Officer Michelle Tate stated, however, that the diagram she made of the scene indicated that the street light in front of Frank Blakeney's car was off when she arrived some time later.

Robert Poole, an expert on firearms and ammunition, testified that at least three and possibly four guns were involved in the shooting and that a flash is produced when a bullet is fired. No additional expert testimony concerning the light produced from a gun flash was presented by the government or by either defendant. Fourteen shell casings were recovered from the scene,...