State v. Crawford

• Decision Date: 01 September 1985
• Docket Number: No. 61,61
• Citation: 308 Md. 683,521 A.2d 1193
• Parties: STATE of Maryland v. Leonard Rollon CRAWFORD. ,
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 683

308 Md. 683

521 A.2d 1193

STATE of Maryland v.Leonard Rollon CRAWFORD.

No. 61, Sept. Term, 1985.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

March 6, 1987.

Deborah K. Chasanow, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Stephen H. Sachs, Atty. Gen., on the brief), Baltimore, for appellant.

George E. Burns, Jr., Asst. Public Defender(Alan H. Murrell, Public Defender, on the brief), Baltimore, for appellee.

Argued before MURPHY, C.J., and SMITH^*, ELDRIDGE, COLE, RODOWSKY, COUCH and McAULIFFE, JJ.

COLE, Judge.

We granted certiorari in this case to determine whether the defense of necessity is available to a charge of illegal possession of a handgun under Maryland Code(1957, 1982 Repl.Vol., 1986 Cum.Supp.), Art. 27, § 36B(b).

The facts in this case are peculiar and must be recounted in detail to retain their full effect.The defendant, Leonard Crawford, was charged in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County with two counts of assault on a police officer and one count of carrying a handgun in violation of Art. 27, § 36B(b).At trial, police officer Joseph Wiggs testified that in the early morning hours of April 3, 1983, he saw Crawford standing beside a halted automobile and pointing a handgun into the driver's side of the vehicle.Wiggs testified that he turned on the emergency equipment in his patrol car, parked it near Crawford, and alighted from his car.He then identified himself as a police officer and asked Crawford to drop his weapon.Wiggs testified that he was surprised by Crawford's response: "[Crawford] spun around [and] took several steps toward me.He then crouched into a combat position using both hands with the weapon and pointed [it] at me."Wiggs further testified that he fired at Crawford and then lost sight of him.When Wiggs saw Crawford again moments later, Crawford was lying on the ground still grasping the gun.According to Wiggs, Crawford "attempted to fire again," at which time Wiggs and another uniformed police officer shot at Crawford.Wiggs stated that he implored Crawford to discard his weapon and Crawford finally threw it away.When the police later recovered Crawford's gun, they discovered that its trigger was missing.Various state witnesses verified Wiggs's rendition of the facts.

Crawford also testified at trial, but he offered a somewhat different story to the jury.According to Crawford, he and some friends were in his apartment and planned to go to a nightclub that evening.After walking out to the parking lot, however, Crawford reconsidered and informed his friends that he was going to stay home instead.Nevertheless, he allowed his friends to use his car to go to the nightclub.Crawford then returned to his apartment and relaxed on his bed.A few minutes later, he heard a knock on his door, and he went to answer it.Through the closed door, his friends informed him that his car had a flat tire.

Up until this point, Crawford's night was not particularly unusual.After this point, however, his night can be described as nothing less than bizarre.Crawford testified as follows:

As I got ready to open the door, I heard movement behind me in my apartment.I turned around in time to see in the back of the apartment about between the bathroom and the bedroom something moving.At that point a gun was fired at me several times in my direction.I moved away from my door and said, "Stand there.Get away from here.Get some help.Somebody's in my apartment."

I moved into the shower.I heard the bathroom door close.I assume the person or persons moved back into the bathroom.I cross[ed] the living room to the bar and picked up the phone to call the police.At that point, when I picked the phone up, I realized I hadn't paid the bill.It had been cut off.I reached behind the bar where I had a short piece of wood, about, maybe, 16 inches long, crossed over [to] my stereo, began to beat on the floor and turn the volume up on my stereo to attract attention on the neighbors.

I sat there approximately, maybe it seemed like an eternity, but I was so scared it probably could have been one or two minutes.At that point I heard movement again.I looked toward the door and decided, well, if the person is going to keep coming out [of] the bathroom--if I run out the front door, maybe this person will shoot me and hit me in the back so I better not do that.

Hearing a door shut, I wasn't sure then what door it was.I decided the best thing to do would be to crawl into the bedroom, shut the door, and then decide what to do because it had a lock on it.

As I got on my knee--and what I did, I pushed the door to the bedroom open, began to stand up.There were several flashes--I don't recall if I heard shots; I just know there [were] several more flashes there.There [wasn't] any light[n]ing going on or anything.Someone to my left moved from behind the door.At that point, another individual standing in front of me raised a handgun in my direction.I hit him as hard as I could with that stick, closed the hand he was holding the gun in.At that point the other person tried to grab me.The person that I hit with the stick at first attempted to fire the gun at me several times.

I reached out to grab the gun.I think I gripped it by the barrel.In the process, I fell out through the glass and out of the window down to the front below and landed in the dirt.It was very wet and rainy outside that night.I was very disoriented.I didn't know how long I had been there.I knew that my head was hurting.I had trouble seeing because there was blood running out [of] my eyes, and my shoulder was hurting terribly.There was blood coming from my shoulder.I believed myself to have been shot.I tried to get up, but I kept staggering and falling back down.There were footsteps coming in my direction.

I realized the gun was there, and I picked the gun up to defend myself if the person or persons who had assaulted me in my apartment were coming back out [of] the apartment after me.I couldn't get up.Then I began to crawl inside.It's like a little gully way.I had to slide or scoot, rather down to the next building where there was a little brick wall and grab hold of that in order to start--to ascend the incline that I fell down off of.

When I got up to the sidewalk, I began to walk looking around me in all directions because I was scared.I saw a light coming from the parking lot.I went towards that light.I saw a car door open.I went toward those people asking for help.As I got as far as from here to where this lady is in the white jacket [indicating], the individual in the car turned around, and I realized it was the same person that had been in my apartment and had shot at me.

He said to the other person, "Hand me the other gun."I think he seen my face.I turned at that point to run.I ran across the parking lot, but I slipped and I fell.He came around me from in front of two or three more cars and shot me in the right leg.My leg, it felt like somebody hit me with a pipe or something.I fell again on my face.I got up.I fell.I laid there.I heard the engine of a car start.I heard more footprints--footsteps.I got up and proceed[ed] to run.Again, the car went on ahead in front of me.I was holding onto the various cars trying to walk because it hurt so bad.

At this point, as soon as I stepped out in front of another car, I was shot two more times in the left leg.I fell.I couldn't get up.At that point, I had to try and get myself together.I couldn't see.Everything was going on around me, and there was this blood just kept on running out [of] my face and my legs were hurting real bad.I didn't think I could get up.

When I did manage to pull myself up [from under] the bumper of a car, I decided to cross over.Again, I assume, well, they are on this side of the parking lot.Before I could cross over, the car pulled back down the parking lot, [and] slammed on [its] brakes.I tried to turn.I dropped the gun, and then I fell myself.I heard the foot[steps].I looked and I saw the same man coming at me with the gun.I reached out to pick out the gun.He turned around, went back to the car.He got in the car.The driver of the car, I imagine, put it in reverse because the wheels began to spin, and they took off backwards out [of] the parking lot.

I proceeded up the parking lot in the direction of the 7-Eleven where I believe the people would be.My path was totally disoriented.I bumped into the car, [in]to [a] tree, [in]to [a] building.I fell in the gutter.I don't know.At some point I laid there for several minutes before I could regain my strength to get up again.

As I neared the entryway to the apartment complex in the driveway where this occurred, the same car, and the same individuals, tried to hit me.And trying to avoid it, I ran toward the right which carried me out into the roadway of Marlboro Pike.This car almost hit me, but it missed me, and it went past me.I tried then to cross from that lane over to the next lan[e].I was going to run across the street.At this point that car came directly toward me.I put my hands forward in a futile attempt.I guess I must have thought I could stop the car or something.I couldn't.

We were there for, say, it seemed like almost about 30 seconds.I was just looking at the driver in a gesture as to why because I knew I knew one of the guys.I just wanted to know why, why my house, why me?And I heard the engine of the car and off in the distance behind me I heard another gunshot.The bullet struck me in my leg.It hurt so bad that my right leg almost gave.I took my right hand and reached behind my leg.I began to fall.Another bullet struck me on the inside of my left knee.I grabbed my left knee.As I turned, I was shot.Again, this time it hit me in the stomach.Several times I fell to the ground.I laid there.I put my hand in front of me.I was semi-conscious, off and on.I tried to lift myself up off the ground.

I looked.I tried to look up,...