State v. Johnson, 54562-1-I.

• Decision Date: 10 April 2006
• Docket Number: No. 54562-1-I.,54562-1-I.
• Citation: 132 P.3d 767,132 Wn. App. 454
• Court: Washington Court of Appeals
• Parties: STATE of Washington, Respondent, v. Jamaal L. JOHNSON, Appellant, Deavondia Taylor and Binyam Beyene, and each of them, Defendants.

Page 767

132 P.3d 767

132 Wn. App. 454

STATE of Washington, Respondent, v. Jamaal L. JOHNSON, Appellant Deavondia Taylor and Binyam Beyene, and each of them, Defendants.

No. 54562-1-I.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 1.

April 10, 2006.

Christopher Gibson, Nielsen Broman Koch PLLC, Kathryn A. Russell Selk, Russell Selk Law Office, Seattle, WA, for Appellant.

Alice Degen, James Morrissey Whisman, King County Prosecutor's Office, Seattle, WA, for Respondent.

PUBLISHED IN PART

AGID, J.

¶ 1 A jury convicted Jamaal Johnson of second degree robbery. The trial court suppressed victim Abraham Castillo's identification of Johnson, ruling it was based on an impermissibly suggestive showup. Johnson argues that the court erred by allowing Castillo to identify a black jacket with patches as the jacket worn by one of the three robbers. We hold the trial court properly allowed Castillo's in-court identification of the jacket under the independent source doctrine. Identification of physical evidence, including clothing, is not subject to the same due process safeguards as is identification of a suspect. The trial court correctly left it to the jury to determine the weight to be given to Castillo's testimony identifying the jacket. We affirm.

FACTS

¶ 2 Around 9:30 p.m. on March 13, 2004, three African-American men in their mid-20's robbed Brendan Barr. One of them threatened him with a gun. After taking Barr's wallet and bag, they ran about one block and got into a white car. Around 10:30 p.m., Abraham Castillo walked past three young African-American men at a bus stop. One of the men ran up behind Castillo and pulled him to the ground into a seated position. The other two men helped the third take Castillo's shoulder bag. The bag contained a CD player, CDs, wallet, keys, cell phone, pictures, and school related items. The incident took place near a street lamp. Castillo testified that a car then pulled up nearby, and the three men got in the car and drove off. He ran five blocks to a phone booth and called 911. When the 911 operator asked him if any of the robbers' clothing stood out, Castillo stated that "One had a white beanie on, they all were wearing super baggy jeans, I think one had a two-tone jacket that was like white, blue and white[.]" He also gave a description of the car, including a license plate number.

¶ 3 A few minutes later Officer Aaron Sausman talked to Castillo at the phone booth and, after learning that another officer had found a car matching Castillo's description, took him for a showup identification.¹ The car was registered to the driver, Jamaal Johnson. The passengers were Deavondia Taylor, Binyam Beyene, and a fourth man, who escaped before he could be arrested and was not involved in the showup. Police found Barr's bag on the front passenger side floor. They also found Castillo's CD player and headphones on the front passenger seat, his CDs and insurance card in the back passenger area, and his credit or ATM card in the center console. When police searched Johnson's pockets, they found two credit cards in Barr's name.²

¶ 4 At the time of the arrest and showup, Johnson was wearing a black jacket with patches or logos on it, Taylor wore a blue beanie/skull cap and black jacket, and Beyene had a beanie/skull cap. At the showup, Castillo identified Johnson, Taylor, and Beyene as the three men who robbed him.³ The State ultimately charged Johnson with one count of first degree robbery for Barr and one count of second degree robbery for Castillo. Johnson moved to suppress Castillo's identification, arguing the showup was impermissibly suggestive.

¶ 5 At the suppression hearing, Castillo said when Officer Sausman arrived at the phone booth, Castillo told him that the suspects' clothing included a black jacket with patches, a blue and white oversized t-shirt, and a white beanie. Officer Sausman said Castillo began describing the suspects just as he heard over the radio that another officer had found the suspects' car. The radio diverted his attention from Castillo's description, so he was unsure what Castillo told him about the suspects' clothing. Castillo did not get a good look at the suspects' faces during the robbery, but did notice their clothes, and he identified the men at the showup only from their clothing. He also said he identified the men because the police brought him to the showup and he thought he had to identify them, although he would have said that he did not recognize them if he did not. The court ultimately found the showup impermissibly suggestive and suppressed Castillo's identification of Johnson.

¶ 6 Before trial Johnson also moved to suppress Castillo's identification of the black jacket with patches. The court denied the motion and said it believed Castillo's testimony that he remembered the black jacket with patches from the robbery, not the showup. The court ruled that the credibility of Castillo's identification was properly left to the jury.

¶ 7 At trial, Johnson's defense was that he was only driving the car and had no idea that his three passengers were robbing people when they were not in the car.⁴ Castillo testified that when he passed the three men at the bus stop he noticed one of them was wearing a black jacket with patches on it. He said that during the robbery he focused on the robbers' clothing. In addition to the jacket, he noticed one of the men was wearing an oversized blue and white shirt and another was wearing a white or silver skull cap/beanie. The jury found Johnson not guilty of first degree robbery in the count involving Barr, but convicted him of the second degree robbery of Castillo. Johnson appeals.

DISCUSSION

I. Jacket Identification

¶ 8 Suggestive identification procedures potentially violate due process because they increase the likelihood of misidentification.⁵ Identification evidence is excluded when there is "`a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification.'"⁶ In Neil v. Biggers, the United States Supreme Court adopted safeguards to ensure the reliability of witness identification and to guarantee a defendant's due process rights.⁷

¶ 9 Johnson argues the trial court used the wrong analysis in denying his motion to suppress Castillo's identification of the black jacket. He contends that the clothing identification should be subject to the same Biggers "irreparable misidentification" analysis the court applied to Castillo's identification of Johnson. The State argues the trial court properly found that Castillo's jacket identification had an origin independent of the faulty showup, and therefore it was admissible even under the more stringent test Johnson urges us to apply. It also contends that physical evidence is subject only to a relevance standard, and the accuracy of Castillo's testimony was an issue of credibility properly left to the jury. The admission or refusal of evidence lies within the discretion of the trial court, and we will not reverse its decision absent an abuse of that discretion.⁸ We review issues of law de novo.⁹

A. Independent Source Doctrine

¶ 10 Even if an identification procedure was impermissibly suggestive, courts will uphold an in-court identification if it has an "independent source."¹⁰ The trial court allowed Castillo's identification of the jacket because it found credible his testimony from the initial suppression hearing that he remembered the jacket from the robbery, not the showup. This ruling was well within the court's discretion.

¶ 11 Castillo testified that he identified the suspects at the showup from their clothing rather than their faces. He walked past them at a bus stop just before the robbery took place.¹¹ The robbery happened at night and lasted only a couple minutes, but the area had adequate lighting from a nearby streetlight. During the robbery the men were right next to him, and he watched them walk away and get into a car. Further, he accurately reported several clothing details and most of the license plate number in his 911 call.¹² He also testified that he described the black jacket with patches to Officer Sausman when Sausman arrived at the robbery scene. Sufficient evidence established that Castillo had an independent source for identifying the jacket, and the trial court properly admitted the testimony.

B. Due Process

¶ 12 In order to clarify the apparent confusion about the standard for identifying clothing or other inanimate objects, we address Johnson's argument that Castillo's identification of the jacket warrants the same due process protections as his identification of Johnson. State v. King¹³ is the only Washington case to address whether a court must apply the Biggers test to a witness's identification of clothing. King has never been overruled, and it is still the law in Washington.

¶ 13 King matched the description of a robbery suspect, and police drove him to the crime scene for a witness identification. The victim walked around the police car looking at King. He did not recognize King, but he identified King's brown leather coat as the one the robber was wearing.¹⁴ Although it found the identification procedure inherently suggestive, the trial court refused to apply the Biggers test because the witness identified the jacket, not King.

¶ 14 Division Two affirmed, holding that United States Supreme Court cases about the dangers of a suggestive identification addressed their concerns only to identification of people.¹⁵ Because every person is unique, when a "witness identifies an individual as the perpetrator of a crime, not only will that be direct and highly persuasive evidence against defendant, but also the eyewitness will be reluctant to change his identification."¹⁶ In contrast, the court held that when a witness identifies clothing, which is essentially the same in appearance as "hundreds or thousands of others," he is more likely to change his mind.¹⁷ Further, the witness's credibility may be challenged through...