Ruffin v. State
| Decision Date | 03 December 2015 |
| Docket Number | No. 56, 2015,56, 2015 |
| Citation | 131 A.3d 295 |
| Parties | Ramon Ruffin, Defendant–Below, Appellant, v. State of Delaware, Plaintiff–Below, Appellee. |
| Court | Supreme Court of Delaware |
Santino Ceccotti, Esquire, Office of Public Defender, Wilmington, Delaware, Attorney for Defendant–Below, Appellant.
John Williams, Esquire, Department of Justice, Dover, Delaware, Attorney for Plaintiff–Below, Appellee.
Before STRINE, Chief Justice; HOLLAND, and VALIHURA, Justices.
Ramon Ruffin was charged in an eleven-count indictment with the following offenses: one count of Attempted Robbery First Degree, three counts of Possession of a Firearm During Commission of a Felony ("PFDCF"), one count of Assault First Degree, one count of Aggravated Menacing, two counts of Possession of a Firearm by a Person Prohibited ("PFBPP"),1 one count of Receiving a Stolen Firearm, one count of Disregarding a Police Officer's Signal and one count of Resisting Arrest.
Following a jury trial, Ruffin was found guilty of Assault Second Degree, the lesser included offense of Assault First Degree. He was convicted him, as charged, of all other counts. Ruffin was declared a habitual offender pursuant to 11 Del. C. § 4214(a). He was sentenced to be incarcerated for a minimum of 113 years.
Ruffin raises four claims on appeal: (1) the trial court erred in admitting the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ("ATF") trace report into evidence because it was inadmissible hearsay; (2) he was denied a fair trial due to improper, suggestive eyewitness identification; (3) the trial court erred in denying his request for a Lolly2 instruction regarding the State's failure to test allegedly exculpatory evidence; and (4) he was prejudiced by cumulative error. We have concluded that all of Ruffin's claims are without merit. Therefore, the Superior Court's judgment of conviction must be affirmed.
Robert Alan Cocozzoli is the owner of two McDonald's restaurant franchises in Dover, Delaware. On Monday afternoon, December 9, 2013, Cocozzoli was at his McDonald's restaurant located on the northbound side of U.S. Route 13. Cocozzoli was taking items outside to his Nissan Murano SUV parked on the south side of the restaurant.
As Cocozzoli was putting items into his car, a person approached from the rear asking for a cigarette. When Cocozzoli turned around, he heard, "Give me your wallet." At that point, he saw Ramon Ruffin pointing a gun at him.3 The gun Ruffin was holding looked to Cocozzoli like a .45 caliber weapon.4 After Ruffin's demand for Cocozzoli's wallet, Cocozzoli grabbed Ruffin's hand containing the gun and a struggle between the two men ensued in the parking lot. Ruffin struck Cocozzoli in the head several times with the gun.
While Cocozzoli was struggling with Ruffin, a Pepsi van operated by Robert Yaniak, Jr. pulled into the McDonald's parking lot. Yaniak saw Ruffin beating Cocozzoli in the face repeatedly with a gun. When Yaniak blew his van's horn, Ruffin was distracted from his attack on Cocozzoli and pointed the gun at Yaniak. Yaniak had stopped his van about twenty feet from the scene of the struggle. Yaniak saw Ruffin's face and thought Ruffin was going to shoot him.5
Yaniak then saw Ruffin run to the driver's side of a white Pontiac minivan. According to both Cocozzoli and Yaniak, Ruffin got into the driver's side of the van. The white Pontiac minivan backed out of a parking space in front of Yaniak, who wrote down the vehicle's Delaware license plate number.
After Ruffin fled northbound on U.S. Route 13 in the minivan, Yaniak exited his vehicle. Cocozzoli told Yaniak to call 911. In his 911 call, Yaniak described Ruffin's getaway vehicle and gave the Delaware license plate number. Paramedics arrived at the McDonald's and transported Cocozzoli to Kent General Hospital in Dover. Cocozzoli had cuts on his face, ear, and cheek as a result of Ruffin's attack. Hospital X-rays revealed that Cocozzoli had cheek bone fractures.
A police radio broadcast notified patrolling officers to be on the lookout for a robbery suspect fleeing northbound on U.S. Route 13 in a white Pontiac minivan with Delaware license plate number 57722. The police broadcast described the robbery suspect as a black male with a handgun.
Dover Police Department Corporal Brian Sherwood was driving on Scarborough Road near U.S. Route 13 in north Dover, when he received the police radio broadcast of a robbery in progress. Corporal Sherwood drove his unmarked police car to U.S. Route 13 and headed southbound. Corporal Sherwood spotted the white Pontiac minivan as it passed him from the opposite direction proceeding northbound on U.S. Route 13. Corporal Sherwood verified the license plate number and observed a black male with a red jacket driving. Corporal Sherwood made a U-turn at Kentwood Drive and then drove northbound on U.S. Route 13 in pursuit.
The white Pontiac minivan also made a U-turn and proceeded southbound on U.S. Route 13 until it turned right into the entranceway for a Holiday Inn and another McDonald's restaurant. At this point, Corporal Sherwood activated the lights and siren on his police vehicle. The white Pontiac minivan attempted to elude the police by returning to U.S. Route 13 southbound, turning right into an old Wal–Mart store parking lot, driving on Crawford Carroll Road and then Scarborough Road before returning to U.S. Route 13.
During the circular police pursuit, Corporal Sherwood observed the white Pontiac minivan run three stop signs, sideswipe a Dodge Ram vehicle, and bump a red car several times in an effort to push that vehicle out of the way. Corporal Sherwood also observed a passenger inside the minivan. Other Dover Police vehicles joined in the highway pursuit of the minivan. At Ruffin's trial, the jury observed three DVDs taken by Dover Police in-car dash cameras of the police chase.
After retracing its route past the old Wal–Mart store a second time, the white Pontiac minivan drove across Scarborough Road into the DelTech campus. At this point, four Dover Police Officers (Brian Sherwood, Ian Thompson, Harvey Jaksch, and James Paul Piazza) were all in pursuit of the white Pontiac minivan. As the minivan attempted to exit from the DelTech campus to turn left onto Denneys Road, the minivan slid over a curb and became lodged on a metal post.
The backseat passenger of the white Pontiac minivan, later identified as Wilbur Doughty, jumped out and ran towards Denneys Road where he was apprehended by Dover Police. The driver of the minivan also fled by running east toward the DelTech buildings where he was also taken into custody. Corporal Sherwood, who apprehended Ruffin, identified Ruffin at trial as the driver of the white Pontiac minivan. Similarly, Dover Police Officer Harvey Jaksch identified Ruffin at trial as the man who exited the driver's side door of the minivan and who was chased down by Corporal Sherwood. After the apprehensions of Ruffin and Doughty, Corporal Sherwood and Officer Jaksch observed a semiautomatic pistol on the minivan floor behind the front driver's seat.
Dover Police Department Crime Scene Investigator ("CSI") Lawrence Simpkiss went to the DelTech campus on December 9, 2013, after being advised of an incident involving a robbery with a gun and a police pursuit. CSI Simpkiss took several photographs of the white Pontiac minivan, and located a .45 caliber semiautomatic Hi–Point handgun behind the front driver's seat and in front of the rear passenger seat. The gun was loaded with one cartridge in the chamber and eight more shells in the magazine. The gun retrieved by CSI Simpkiss after the police chase was admitted without objection at trial as State's Exhibit # 11.
CSI Simpkiss found blood on the gun. CSI Simpkiss contacted the ATF for a trace report on the gun (the "ATF Report"). The ATF Report revealed that the gun was originally purchased on February 4, 2007 in Richmond, Virginia by Larry Alphonso Tucker. The ATF Report of the gun was admitted at trial as State's Exhibit # 12. A subsequent National Crime Information Center ("NCIC") search of the gun by Dover Police Detective Matthew Knight revealed that the gun had been reported as stolen.
Ruffin elected not to testify at his jury trial and the defense presented no witnesses.
The first issued raised by Ruffin challenges the evidentiary basis for his conviction of receiving a stolen firearm in violation of 11 Del. C. § 1450. During Ruffin's trial the State sought to admit the ATF Report, a federal government report concerning the purchaser of the gun that the Dover State Police recovered from the white Pontiac minivan Ruffin was driving leading up to his apprehension. Outside the presence of the jury, the prosecutor explained the circumstances of how CSI Simpkiss obtained a copy of the ATF Report from the federal government. Defense counsel for Ruffin objected to admission of the ATF Report as written hearsay.
The issue at trial was whether the ATF Report qualified as an exception to the rule against hearsay under either Rule 803(6) of the Delaware Rules of Evidence ("D.R.E."), as a business record, or D.R.E. 803(8), as a public record or report. The prosecutor initially argued that the ATF Report should be admissible as a business record. The trial judge was not persuaded and stated:
The trial judge then considered whether the ATF Report was admissible as a public record or report under D.R.E. 803(8). The trial judge concluded that a report from the ATF about the purchase of a firearm from a licensed dealer did not constitute a "finding of fact" but instead constituted a compilation of data. Accordingly, the trial judge stated: "So my ruling is that assuming that [CSI] Simpkiss can lay a proper foundation under 803(8), that [the ATF Report] comes in as a public record."
When defense counsel further argued that the ATF Report,...
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