State v. Griffin
| Decision Date | 18 November 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 19781,19781 |
| Citation | 1993 NMSC 71,866 P.2d 1156,116 N.M. 689 |
| Parties | STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Matthew James GRIFFIN, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | New Mexico Supreme Court |
Matthew James Griffin appeals his convictions of felony murder, aggravated burglary, five counts of armed robbery, and tampering with evidence. The five armed robberies were bank holdups; the aggravated burglary was an attempted car theft; the felony murder occurred in the course of the attempted car theft; and the tampering-with-evidence conviction involved the dismantling of a gun. The armed robbery and aggravated burglary sentences were enhanced due to use of a firearm. Griffin was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder and, consecutively, to fifty years imprisonment for the enhanced burglary and robbery convictions. We affirm.
Operative Facts. On January 21, 1988, a grey Camaro with a National Guard license plate was stolen in Albuquerque. The next day, an Albuquerque branch of New Mexico Federal Savings and Loan was robbed. The robber wore clothing that covered his entire body, including gloves, sunglasses, and a mask, and he carried a black automatic-type pistol and a walkie-talkie or radio. The robber jumped onto and then over the teller counter and told the tellers to put money in his gym bag. He drove away in a grey Camaro with a license plate similar to the one on the stolen Camaro. Witnesses described the robber as being five feet, ten inches to six feet tall, weighing between 150 and 180 pounds, athletic, and light-skinned. Griffin is five feet, eleven inches tall, weighs 160 pounds, and is anglo.
The second bank robbery was of a Sun Country Savings Bank on June 28, 1988. The robber again jumped onto and then behind the teller counter. He wore black clothing, gloves, sunglasses, and a ski mask. He had a "radio-type thing" on his belt with a wire attached to a set of earphones. The robber put the money into his gym bag and made his escape in a grey or silver Camaro with a Colorado license plate. Two witnesses testified that the getaway car matched a photograph of the stolen grey Camaro.
The third bank robbery occurred on September 21, 1988 at a Western Bank location. The robber wore dark clothing, gloves, a ski mask, and headphones, and he had the money put into a knapsack or gym bag. He carried an Uzi-type gun with a shroud and a brass catcher (a basket-type attachment to catch empty shell casings). Griffin had purchased a weapon of that type in 1988. The robber left the bank in a grey, silver, or black Camaro with a Colorado license plate, but the license number was different than that seen in the second bank robbery. Again, two witnesses testified that the car used by the robber matched a photograph of the stolen grey Camaro.
Authorities recovered the grey Camaro on November 10, 1988. On December 30, 1988, a rust-colored Camaro was stolen. When the rust Camaro was recovered on February 13, 1989, it had a hole drilled into the plastic molding on the driver-side window that had not been there previously, and the ignition-switch area of the steering column was broken out.
In the meantime, the fourth bank robbery occurred at a First Interstate Bank on January 19, 1989. The robber wore black clothes, gloves, sunglasses, a ski mask, and a gun and holster on a black webbed belt. The gun was a semi-automatic or automatic-type pistol that looked like a Glock pistol. The robber jumped over the counter and ordered the tellers to place money into his gym bag. He left the bank in a rust or maroon Camaro with no license plate. Present at the bank during this robbery was Willis Drake, a convenience store manager. Drake told an FBI agent at the scene that he recognized the robber's voice, but could not yet place it. When he returned to work, he told an employee that the voice was that of Matt Griffin, who had been coming into the store two or three times a week for several months to buy coffee and donuts.
On April 3, 1989, an unsuccessful attempt was made to steal a Trans Am in the parking lot of an apartment building. The Trans Am had a hole drilled into the plastic molding on the driver-side window and the ignition- switch area was broken out. A resident of the apartment building, Michael Howard, was found shot to death next to the car, apparently having approached the car before the theft could be completed. Howard had been shot four times with a .9 millimeter pistol.
The fifth robbery occurred when the Sun Country Savings that had been robbed the previous June was robbed again on April 17, 1989. Again the robber was dressed in black clothes, gloves, sunglasses, and a ski mask, wore earphones, and had a box on his hip. He used a gym-type bag for the money. The robber drove away in a wine or maroon-colored Camaro with no license plate. Later that day, FBI agents investigating the robbery spotted a car matching the description, but with a license plate, in the driveway of Griffin's home. Griffin told the agents that the car was his. Witnesses identified a photograph of Griffin's Camaro as the car driven by the April 17 robber.
-The bank robberies were similar and distinctive. All of the bank robberies took place on or near Juan Tabo Boulevard in the Northeast section of Albuquerque. Griffin was not at work on any of the dates when the bank robberies occurred. The robber in each case used a similar method of operation and drove away in a car that in the first four robberies matched the description of recently-stolen cars, and in the fifth matched the description of Griffin's car.
Julian Gonzales, an FBI agent, testified that the five bank robberies were the first ones using that particular modus operandi in Albuquerque or other western locations. Between the time of Griffin's arrest and the trial, no robberies using the same method of operation occurred. The total amount taken from the five banks was over $35,000.
-Two of the car thefts were similar and distinctive. The grey Camaro was stolen while it was unlocked and the keys were in it, so there was no need for the thief to break in and start the engine without a key. However, the modi operandi of the theft of the rust Camaro and the attempted theft of the Trans Am were identical. An expert witness with fifteen years of experience investigating car thefts testified that he had never before seen that method of drilling a hole into the plastic molding, and no reference to such a method was found on file in the National Automobile Theft Bureau. A bent rod that could be inserted through the hole to reach the electric door-lock release was found among the items seized from Griffin's house, as was a cordless drill and a drill bit with plastic residue matching the plastic molding on the two stolen cars.
-The guns. The five bank robberies involved different guns, including a Glock pistol and an Uzi handgun. Sometime between December 1987 and February 1989, a Glock 17 pistol disappeared from the evidence room of the Albuquerque Police Department ("APD"). Griffin worked in the evidence room during the summer of 1988. Griffin had at least three New Mexico driver's licenses (two with false names and addresses), and he had used false identification in purchasing one or more guns. In early 1989 Griffin purchased two Glock 19 pistols. An expert testified that Glock pistols are very easy to take apart, that the serial number is stamped on three places on each gun (on the frame, the slide, and the barrel), and that some parts of the gun are interchangeable.
Before his arrest, Griffin contacted Dave McCutcheon. He told McCutcheon that he was concerned that he was under investigation and asked McCutcheon to hold some guns for safekeeping. McCutcheon agreed, and Griffin gave him a Glock pistol, an Uzi, and a shotgun. McCutcheon contacted the police and turned the guns over to them. The serial numbers stamped on the Glock's frame and slide were the same, but the barrel was stamped with a different number. Marks on shell casings found by Howard's body matched marks made by the ejector on the Glock to the exclusion of all other slides. Marks on casings made by the firing pin in the Glock also matched marks made by the firing pin of the pistol that had disappeared from the APD evidence room.
-Miscellaneous evidence. When Griffin was arrested, the police seized articles of clothing like those worn by the robber including a ski mask, a black webbed belt with a holster for a Glock pistol, guns that matched descriptions of those used in the robberies, a police scanner and a set of headphones, a toolbox containing keys that fit the stolen grey Camaro, and black canvas bags. In addition, between the time of the first bank robbery and his arrest, Griffin had used cash to make several large purchases, including guns and several cars.
It was not error to deny the motion to sever the charges. Before the trial began, the trial court denied Griffin's motion asking that the charges for armed robbery be severed and tried separately. Our rules of criminal procedure authorize joinder of two or more offenses in one complaint, indictment, or information if the offenses "are of the same or similar character, even if not part of a single scheme or plan" or if the offenses are "based on the same conduct or on a series of acts either connected together or constituting parts of a single scheme or plan." SCRA 1986, 5-203(A) (Repl.Pamp.1992). As noted in our recitation of the facts, the bank robberies were similar and distinctive and the cars used in the bank robberies were stolen using a distinctive method. The tampering-with-evidence charge involved altering or hiding a gun allegedly used in both the murder and the bank...
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