State v. Brown
| Decision Date | 31 August 2022 |
| Docket Number | Appellate Case No. 2019-000781,Opinion No. 5942 |
| Parties | The STATE, Respondent, v. Joseph Lamar BROWN, Jr., Appellant. |
| Court | South Carolina Court of Appeals |
Appellate Defender Susan Barber Hackett, of Columbia, for Appellant.
Attorney General Alan McCrory Wilson, Deputy Attorney General Donald J. Zelenka, Senior Assistant Deputy Attorney General Melody Jane Brown, Assistant Attorney General Julianna E. Battenfield, and Assistant Attorney General Caroline Scrantom of Columbia, all for Respondent.
Joseph "Joe-Joe" Lamar Brown, Jr. appeals his convictions for murder, first-degree burglary, attempted armed robbery, and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, arguing the circuit court erred in (1) failing to find the retrial of his armed robbery charge violated the bar of double jeopardy, (2) prohibiting evidence of third-party guilt, and (3) declining to suppress evidence secured by a problematic search warrant. We affirm.
Shortly before 1:00 p.m. on Friday, December 23, 2016, an intruder entered Johnny Glen Pritchard's (Victim) Lincolnville home, demanded money, and shot and killed him. After shooting Victim in the neck, the perpetrator went through Victim's pockets, took some money, and ran out the front door.
On July 11, 2017, a Charleston County grand jury indicted Brown for murder, first-degree burglary, armed robbery, and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. Brown pled not guilty, and the Honorable Kristi L. Harrington presided at the four-day jury trial. During their deliberations on June 14, 2018, the jury asked several questions. One of the jury's notes indicated the jury had reached a unanimous verdict of "not guilty" as to the armed robbery indictment but was unable to reach a unanimous decision on the remaining indictments. The circuit court responded with an Allen charge.1 Despite this, the jury remained deadlocked, and the foreperson reported that the jury had "just not been able to come to a unanimous decision on any of the indictments." Thus, the circuit court declared a mistrial.
The State called the case for a second jury trial before the Honorable J.C. Nicholson, Jr. on November 5, 2018. Pretrial, the circuit court heard Brown's motions to dismiss the armed robbery indictment, admit evidence of third-party guilt, and suppress evidence retrieved during the execution of a search warrant. After considering the testimony of witnesses and arguments from the parties, the circuit court denied the motions.2
The State called Victim's second cousin Hugh Potter Pritchard (Cousin) as its first witness at trial. Cousin testified he spent the night of December 22, 2016 at Victim's home because he was helping Victim pack his belongings for a move. Cousin was in Victim's kitchen boxing up dishes when an intruder entered the home. Cousin hid under the kitchen table and witnessed the shooting through a doorway. Immediately after the shooter ran out the front door, Cousin exited through the back door, ran across the lawn, and jumped over a fence to reach a neighbor's house and call for help. Cousin and the neighbor, James Eric Jordan,3 then called 911 together.
CCSO was dispatched to Victim's home at 12:57 p.m. and arrived on scene at 1:03 p.m. Cousin described the perpetrator as a black man of medium height, approximately 5’8" or 5’9", with a small-frame, and hair that "wasn't long." According to Cousin, the perpetrator was dressed in dark clothing, was wearing a face covering, and had on "some kind of hat." Cousin admitted he did not see the intruder going through Victim's pockets, but testified he heard Victim's cash was taken.4 Cousin explained that while he "didn't know exactly how old [the intruder] was," he thought he was "older than eighteen" and believed he was in his thirties. Cousin was adamant the murder weapon was "a black pistol, automatic handgun," not "a revolver." Officers found some coins and keys on Victim's person and a note on Victim's coffee table indicating Trey Coleman owed Victim $200. Officers also recovered a Speer nine millimeter Luger shell casing from Victim's living room floor.
Celest McBride, who was twenty years old at the time of Brown's second trial, lived with her family approximately one hundred yards from Victim's home. She heard "a boom" around 1:00 p.m. on the day of the shooting. McBride stated she was "being nosey" and "looked outside because [she] thought maybe someone had gotten into a car crash or something had fallen out of someone's vehicle onto the concrete." McBride testified that less than a minute after she heard the boom, she saw a man running from the direction of Victim's home:
Once the runner was out of sight, McBride told her father she saw the man drop something by the telephone pole. Her father retrieved the object, an iPhone with a lock screen photo of a man and a woman, and placed it on his porch for safekeeping. McBride explained, "We were being good Samaritans and we wanted the rightful owner to pick it up because there were thieves in the neighborhood." She initially described the runner as a medium-build black man of 5’10" to 6’ with dreadlocks, wearing "stone-gray sweatpants" and a dark-colored shirt.5 At trial, McBride stated an enhanced photograph of Brown—taken from surveillance video—looked "very similar" to the man she saw running in front of her house; however, she agreed with the State that it was possible she mistook the man's hoodie for dreadlocks in giving an earlier description of him.6 On cross-examination, McBride admitted she could not remember what color shirt the man was wearing.
Merit Williams was driving from Jordan's house to the store when he saw "a young man running from the direction from [Victim's] house." Williams recalled the runner was wearing "[r]ed Converse, black pants, a hoodie with the number 23 on it multicolored, [and a] skull cap."7 He told law enforcement the runner had dreadlocks, the hoodie was "jet black," and the skull cap had white writing on it.8 Williams thought the runner was "a young kid, you know, maybe into sports" and saw him drop something and then turn off to the left from East Owens Drive on to Brenda B Lane.9 Williams identified the man in the video clip—also shown to McBride—as the man he saw running on December 23, 2016.
Martin Perez, who lived at the end of Brenda B Lane, was standing outside his house shortly before 1:00 p.m. on December 23 when he noticed a black car "that arrived very fast, quickly" and parked on the side of his house. The driver got out and started waving at a person and yelling for him to hurry up. Another person ran to the car, he and the driver got in, and the car sped off. Perez recalled the driver wore a red and black cap and a black T-shirt with "white figures, design, [on] it." Perez later approached law enforcement and shared what he saw. He also told the officers about his video surveillance equipment and invited them to review the footage.10 Perez provided "the master machine that runs his system" to the police for their investigation.11 Approximately eighteen months after Victim's death, Perez informed law enforcement he recognized the driver because the man frequently visited Perez's neighbor. Perez also knew where the driver lived. He admitted he declined to tell the police he recognized the driver on the day Victim was killed because he "was afraid something would happen to [him]."
Detective Goldstein began his investigation by interviewing Cousin shortly after Victim's death. He then interviewed McBride and her father. Detective Goldstein subsequently took into evidence the iPhone McBride's father retrieved from the ditch by the telephone pole. As the device was passcode protected, law enforcement was initially unable to retrieve its contents; however, Detective Goldstein was able to identify Brown and his girlfriend, Nautica Manigault, as the individuals in the photograph on the iPhone's lock screen.
On December 26, 2016, Detective Goldstein interviewed sixteen-year-old Manigault at her grandmother's home, which is less than a mile from the crime scene and in the same apartment complex where Brown lived. Manigault told Detective Goldstein that Brown was called "Joe-Joe" and did not have dreadlocks. Regarding Brown's clothing, Manigault explained Brown only wore Adidas or Converse shoes and "black jeans, all he wears is black."12 Manigault confirmed she was the female in the lock screen photograph on the iPhone, and noted she had the same photograph on her own device.13 Manigault admitted that around the time Victim was killed, Brown told her he lost his phone.
Once Manigault identified Brown in connection with the iPhone, Detective Goldstein obtained Brown's records from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to verify his identity and address. Brown's driver's license identified him as a 5’9" black male weighing 155 pounds. At this point, Detective Goldstein applied for arrest and search warrants.
On January 3, 2017, CCSO took Brown into custody and searched his home, where officers found two boxes of ammunition, one of which contained Speer nine millimeter Luger bullets—the same type and caliber as the shell casing recovered from Victim's living room. When Detective Goldstein interviewed Brown, Brown identified the iPhone as his own and claimed he was near the crime scene looking for it after he lost it in the area. Brown gave Detective...
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