State v. Hall
| Decision Date | 30 January 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. 2006-84-C.A.,2006-84-C.A. |
| Citation | 940 A.2d 645 |
| Parties | STATE v. Joseph L. HALL. |
| Court | Rhode Island Supreme Court |
Virginia M. McGinn, Esq., Providence, for Plaintiff.
Paula Rosin, Esq., Providence, for Defendant.
Present: WILLIAMS, C.J., GOLDBERG, FLAHERTY, SUTTELL, and ROBINSON, JJ.
"There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm."1 The defendant, Joseph L. Hall, appeals four convictions stemming from what first appeared to be a routine traffic stop on a stormy South Providence night. After the jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts, the trial justice deemed the defendant to be a habitual offender and enhanced his sentence pursuant to G.L. 1956 § 12-19-21.2 The issues raised before this Court are (1) whether showing a single photograph of the defendant to a police officer, while the suspect still was at-large and only an hour after the officer struggled with him, was an identification procedure so unnecessarily suggestive and unreliable that its admission into evidence denied the defendant due process of law and thereby tainted the officer's subsequent in-court identification; (2) whether another witness had sufficient personal knowledge to testify about the identity of the perpetrator; (3) whether the statements made by the defendant at the police station should have been ruled, inadmissible because they were improperly induced by promises and therefore involuntary; and (4) whether the Habitual Offender Act's3 requirement that a judge determine the fact of prior convictions violates a defendant's right to a jury trial under both the United States and Rhode Island Constitutions. We affirm the judgment of conviction.
The weather took a decided turn for the worse immediately after Providence Police Officer Michael Gammino began his tour of patrol duty during the evening hours of October 22, 2005. While on his way back to the police station to pick up his raincoat, Officer Gammino saw a white Mitsubishi make a right turn without using a turn signal. Activating his siren and overhead lights, the officer attempted to make what he thought would be a routine traffic stop. However, instead of stopping, the driver of the white car "put the pedal to the metal" and fled. A chase ensued, and the officer continued to pursue as the driver of the white car traveled at excessive speed through several neighborhood streets, making a U-turn at one point. Officer Gammino later testified that when the driver made the U-turn, he could see that a black male was alone in the car. Finally, in a last-ditch effort to lose the police car, the driver of the fleeing vehicle attempted a hard right turn onto Potters Avenue. This maneuver was unsuccessful because the white car collided with the front driver's side of a green Honda that was stopped at a red light at Potters Avenue and Broad Street. The crash ended the vehicle chase, but not the storm that was now raging.
The driver of the green vehicle was Ramona Nunez; also in this car were a front-side passenger, Jelissa Batista, and Janette Paolino in the backseat.4 Nunez later testified that while she was stopped at the traffic light, police sirens caused her to look to her left. When she did, she saw a police car chasing a white Mitsubishi down the street. She testified that the driver tried to "fake" a turn, but instead collided with the left-front-quarter of her car.
Nunez also testified that despite the rainy conditions she had a clear view of the driver because the street was well lit and the interior light of the white car went on at some point. Furthermore, she said that after the collision, the driver of the white Mitsubishi was "right there" in front of her.5
Nunez and Batista both testified that there was only one person in the white car. Nunez further said that she never took her eyes off him. She described him as a tall black male, approximately six feet three inches, with a "fade" style haircut,6 who was wearing a black leather jacket and probably a black shirt underneath.
Nunez and Batista said that immediately after the collision the driver looked down and appeared to search for something in the car. Within seconds, Officer Gammino approached the white car with his service weapon drawn, yelling through the rain for the driver to come out with his hands up. When he did not do so, Officer Gammino forcibly removed him. The officer and Nunez both noticed that the driver had a small black handgun in his hand. A fierce struggle ensued between the officer and the driver, and a shot was fired.
Officer Gammino testified that when the driver stepped out of the white car, he had to look up at him because of the differences in their respective heights. Officer Gammino said that he was six feet one-inch tall, but the driver was significantly taller, at about six feet five inches. He testified that he was face-to-face with the driver during the struggle, describing the suspect as a black male weighing about 240 pounds. The officer testified that after the driver's gun discharged, the driver immediately dropped it, letting it fall onto the driver's side floor of the white car.
Ultimately, the driver broke free from Officer Gammino's grasp and escaped into the night. Officer Gammino and other police officers, including Sgt. Carl Weston, Officer Gammino's supervisor, did not give up; they spent approximately forty minutes searching the area, but to no avail.
Back at the scene of the collision, the police searched the white Mitsubishi. They found a small black handgun and a payroll check made out to a Monica Moralez.7 Sergeant Weston and Officer Gammino immediately went to the address printed on the payroll check. A young woman, who said she was Moralez's sister, gave them defendant's name as the possible driver of the car. Sergeant Weston already was familiar with Hall, and he went to the police substation to retrieve a photograph of him from the known-person database. Sergeant. Weston showed this solitary photograph of Hall to Officer Gammino, who instantly identified the person depicted as the driver of the white Mitsubishi with whom he had struggled. Officer Gammino's positive identification occurred approximately an hour after the search for the driver ended and while the driver still was at-large.
Four months after the collision, Nunez was invited back to the station to give a written statement to the police. She was shown a six-photograph array of men who fit the approximate description that she previously had given to the investigating officers. She positively identified Joseph Hall's picture from the array, and she signed her name beneath it.
On January 7, 2006, Joseph Hall was arrested and brought to the police station. About an hour after his arrest, Hall was given a standard form, constituting a waiver of his Miranda rights8 by Officer David Marchant and then-Det. John Garcia. Officer Marchant testified at a subsequent suppression hearing that even though Hall had one arm handcuffed to the wall, he read at least the first two portions of the rights form aloud. Officer Marchant also testified that he had directed Hall to read the rest of the form to himself silently, after which Hall signed the bottom of the form, indicating that he understood his rights. Officer Marchant then said that he asked Hall whether he wanted to waive his right to be silent and give a statement to the police. Officer Marchant testified that Hall was cooperative after the arrest and that he also was eager to tell his side of, the story, even though he declined to commit his statement to writing. In his oral statement, Hall admitted to driving the white Mitsubishi, and claimed that he was out that night looking to buy marijuana. Hall told Officer Marchant that he picked up a man whom he did not know, but who he thought would have marijuana. According to Hall, this unidentified, would-be marijuana provider possessed the gun later recovered from the white Mitsubishi. Together, the pair decided to seek out drug dealers whom they could rob for money, but instead they ended up in a police pursuit when Hall took his inopportune turn in front of Officer Gammino. Hall admitted only to crashing the car and pushing the officer in an effort to escape. Even though Hall said he did not know the name of the man with the gun, he described him as a black male who was approximately five feet nine inches tall.
At approximately ten o'clock that same night, Agent Edward Troiana of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATFE) arrived at the police station to speak with Hall. Agent Troiano had Hall read aloud all the rights enumerated on the standard rights form. Hall also initialed each point enumerated to indicate that he understood the form. Agent Troiano then told Hall that if he understood his rights, he needed to check off the box on the form and sign beneath it. Hall did so. Agent Troiano then indicated he would take a taped statement from Hall; the agent spoke with him briefly before turning on the tape recorder. During this conversation, Agent Troiano testified that he spoke to Hall about the potential for both federal and state charges, and he also said that if Hall was cooperative and truthful, he would advise the prosecutor and judge of his cooperation. Hall then gave an oral statement that was recorded on a compact disc and later transcribed for the jury. It was consistent in substance with the earlier statements made to Officer Marchant, which were not provided to the jury.
On the recording, Hall repeated his story that he had borrowed his girlfriend's mother's car to look for marijuana. He said that a man got into his car and showed Hall a small black handgun. Hall said that he held the gun for a moment as he drove, but then gave it back to his passenger. He maintained that the two had hatched a plan to rob drug dealers, when Officer Gammino attempted to pull them over. Hall...
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