State v. Mead, 87-361

• Decision Date: 11 July 1988
• Docket Number: No. 87-361,87-361
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE v. William MEAD. C.A.

Page 1146

544 A.2d 1146

STATE v. William MEAD.

No. 87-361 C.A.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

July 11, 1988.

James E. O'Neil, Atty. Gen., Thomas Dickinson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for plaintiff.

Barbara Hurst, Asst. Public Defender, for defendant.

OPINION

KELLEHER, Justice.

The defendant, William Mead (Mead), is before us on appeal after a Superior Court jury returned guilty verdicts on charges that the defendant had committed first-degree murder, burglary, first-degree sexual assault, robbery, and kidnaping.

The record before us presents a rather unusual set of coincidences. On February 20, 1986, Mead went to East Providence police headquarters and complained about being harassed by some fellow employees because he had been found "in a stolen car." Mead was told that if he wished to press this complaint, it would be necessary for him to return to headquarters and fill out a report.

On February 21, 1986, at approximately midnight, a neighbor of the deceased looked out her bedroom window and observed a car coming down the deceased's driveway. The neighbor, who was familiar with the deceased's daily routine, thought the car's departure was strange because the deceased usually retired at approximately 11:30 p.m. The following morning the neighbor looked across the street to the deceased's driveway and noticed that the garage door was open and the deceased's new car was nowhere to be seen. After an hour-long wait for the deceased's return, the neighbor called the deceased's daughter. The neighbor, at the request of the daughter, went to the mother's residence to see if anything was amiss. The neighbor soon returned to her home and her report caused the daughter to call the East Providence police.

On February 22, 1986, the East Providence police department received a telephone call in the early afternoon from the daughter who reported what she had heard from the neighbor. Upon arriving at the mother's residence, the police soon learned that both the mother and her car were missing. They found what appeared to be a pool of blood on the kitchen floor, together with several pieces of broken china. A brick was also found lying on the floor, and the telephone cord had been cut.

Police questioned the neighbor who told the police that about "a year or so before," she had observed a "tall, slender, black man leave a note at [the mother's] door." The neighbor noted that when the visitor left, he ran through the backyard into a nearby white house.

The daughter told the police that while talking to her mother by phone on the evening of February 21, 1986, her mother described an incident where a week earlier she had been frightened by "a tall, black youth at her door." According to the daughter, when the visitor asked to use the phone, her mother refused to grant the request. Then, according to the daughter, the visitor asked her mother to give him a ride in her new car because his car was broken down.

Relying in part on this information, the police questioned Mead's mother, who lived in the white house which we referred to earlier. A detective was sent to Mead's place of employment on Dexter Road in East Providence to determine his current address. The detective was met by a company representative who told him that Mead had been sleeping in the guard shack on the premises that week. This officer testified that when he knocked at the door of the shack "[w]ithin * * * a few seconds or so, a black male appeared at the door. I identified myself as an East Providence police officer. I asked what his name was. He said William Mead. Then he stated to me at this time, 'This must be in reference to the incident that happened yesterday. I was supposed to go into the station and make a statement. Do you want me to come with you now?' I said 'Yes.' "

This detective testified that Mead, of his own volition, returned with him to the police station. The detective also stressed that when he went to defendant's place of employment, he had no knowledge of any details about the investigation except that his task was to determine Mead's address. The detective also noted that he was totally unaware of what incident Mead was talking about when he volunteered to go to the station.

Detective Donald Tremblay testified that when Mead arrived at the police station, it was approximately 6:15 p.m. He was not handcuffed or restrained in any way, nor was he closely watched by any of the officers. This detective questioned him after first advising Mead of his constitutional rights at about 6:20 p.m. Tremblay told Mead that he was a suspect in the crime of larceny of an automobile. Mead denied any knowledge regarding the missing vehicle, although he acknowledged he knew the mother.

Some twenty minutes later, Tremblay left the interrogation room and learned from another officer that the police had recovered the mother's car in back of the warehouse where Mead worked. The car contained a dried substance that appeared to be blood.

The detective again advised Mead of his rights and Mead signed a second rights-waiver form at approximately 7:30 p.m. Ten or fifteen minutes later, Mead gave a confession. In his confession that was introduced at trial, Mead stated that he decided to steal a car. He remembered the woman who lived alone who had the blue Ford Escort. He knew of her from having lived in the neighborhood. We see no necessity for giving a detailed description of Mead's violent and gruesome acts, which were set forth in his confession. The pertinent facts are as follows.

Mead gained entry into the mother's residence by picking up a rock or a brick and smashing the glass panes of the storm door and the interior door. He physically assaulted the mother and asked where her car keys were. After she surrendered the keys, she was told that she was going for a ride, and then he drove her to the area behind his place of employment. When he got to an area that was out of sight of his place of employment, he forced the mother to have sexual intercourse with him and then grabbed her by the throat and strangled her with the scarf she was wearing.

The medical examiner reported that the mother died of "asphyxia due to ligature strangulation." The mother suffered a fractured rib, and scattered bruises that were described by the medical examiner as "defense-type wounds" that occurred when "the arms and hands would be held to ward off an assailant."

Mead's appellate counsel raises four issues--they relate to

1. The trial justice's allowing evidence relating to two previous incidents involving a black male at the mother's home.

2. The denial of the defense motion to suppress Mead's statements.

3. The alleged inflammatory and prejudicial remarks made by the prosecutor in the final argument.

4. The trial justice's refusal to instruct the jury that police officers' testimony is to be assessed by the same standards that are applied to other lay witnesses' testimony.

Mead, who is black, claims there was a complete dearth of evidence linking him to the two episodes relative to the "young black male" who came to the door of the mother's home. One incident occurred a year prior to the homicide. The other incident, however, occurred just one week prior to her death. In fact, Mead admitted at the police station that he had gone to the mother's home a week before the homicide to ask about borrowing the car. Certainly Mead's testimony and that of the mother's daughter provided a link between the crimes that occurred and Mead. The admission of this evidence might not have...