State v. Taylor

• Decision Date: 17 July 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-180-C,88-180-C
• Citation: 562 A.2d 445
• Parties: STATE v. Sydney Earl Scott TAYLOR. A.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 445

562 A.2d 445

STATE v. Sydney Earl Scott TAYLOR.

No. 88-180-C.A.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

July 17, 1989.

James E. O'Neil, Atty. Gen., Jane M. McSoley, and Jeffrey J. Greer, Asst. Attys. Gen., Providence, for plaintiff.

Richard Casparian, Public Defender, Catherine A. Gibran, and Barbara Hurst, Asst. Public Defenders, for defendant.

OPINION

MURRAY, Justice.

A Superior Court jury found Sydney Taylor guilty of one count each of burglary, in violation of G.L. 1956 (1981 Reenactment) § 11-8-1; kidnapping, in violation of G.L. 1956 (1981 Reenactment) § 11-26-1; first degree child molestation sexual assault, in violation of G.L. 1956 (1981 Reenactment) §§ 11-37-8.1 and 11-37-8.2, as enacted by P.L. 1984, ch. 59, § 2; and obstructing a police officer in violation of G.L. 1956 (1981 Reenactment) § 11-32-1. The jury acquitted defendant of breaking and entering, in violation of G.L. 1956 (1981 Reenactment) § 11-8-2, as amended by P.L. 1985, ch. 426, § 1. The defendant appeals his conviction. We affirm.

In the early morning hours of July 19, 1985, Susan Traylor was asleep in her second floor apartment at 70 Corinth Street in Providence, Rhode Island. She awoke to hear the dog barking loudly and constantly. She went to the window that overlooked her backyard to tell the dog to quiet down. Approximately fifty feet below her in the back yard, Traylor saw a black man running towards the back fence. The man was shirtless, carrying a white bundle, and had very short hair. When he reached the fence, the man threw the bundle over and climbed the fence. Once over, he grabbed the bundle and continued running until he reached another fence about three feet high. The man leaped over this fence, and ran into another yard. At this point Traylor could no longer see him. She woke her boyfriend and told him that things were being stolen in the backyard. Traylor then went downstairs to the front porch where she met her first-floor neighbor, Lydia Gray.

Lydia Gray lived in the first-floor apartment below Traylor's. Her address was 68 Corinth Street, where she lived with her boyfriend and her six children. Upon meeting Traylor on the front porch, Gray told Traylor that the sound of an intruder had woken her. She and her boyfriend had gotten up, but by then the person was gone and nothing appeared to be missing from their apartment. Traylor responded that the man must have grabbed something because he had something in his bundle and she saw him throw it over the fence and then carry it with him. At this time a police car was stopped farther up Corinth Street, and a policeman there was talking to several people. Gray motioned to the policeman that she wanted to speak to him, and then went back into her house. One of Gray's children asked Gray where her daughter Sally was. Gray responded indignantly "[w]hat do you mean 'where is [Sally]?' She's in her bed." Sally, however, was not in her bed and was no where to be found in the apartment. Upon discovering Sally missing, everyone ran outside calling her name. Gray became hysterical. (The victim's and her mother's names have been changed.) In response to the commotion, some of the neighbors came outside and gathered in front of 68 Corinth Street.

Later, after Sally's return, the following account of her abduction was revealed. Sally was seven years old at the time of the attack. She had gone to bed the evening before in her home, but as she woke up she became aware that a man was carrying her. Sally couldn't see anything, however, because she had a blanket over her head. The man carried Sally outside, and then she felt him throw her over a fence. At that point the blanket came off and Sally recounted that she saw a big black man, who was thin, shirtless, and wearing jeans. The man picked her up and carried her. It was dark out and Sally was scared. The man slapped Sally and told her that if she screamed he would kill her. The man kissed Sally, and she said when he did so she saw his face. He pulled his jeans and undershorts down and made Sally feel "his thing" with her hand. (At trial when Sally was asked what "his thing" was, Sally testified that it was what a boy goes "pee-pee" with.) He ordered Sally to "suck his thing." Sally obeyed. The man also took off Sally's underwear. The man then climbed up a tree, and Sally ran home. When Sally got home, her mother, the neighbors, her siblings, and the police were in the front yard.

Five members of the Providence police department testified at trial. These officers were Carl Weston, Jr., Mary Day, Michael Moise, Jr., Stephen Balestra, and Robert Turchetti. Each made an in-court identification of defendant. Carl Weston testified that on July 19, 1985, he was on patrol on the south side of Providence when at approximately 4:45 a.m. he was flagged down by some persons on Corinth Street who reported that a man had tried to break into their house. They gave Weston a description of the man as a slim black male, shirtless, barefoot, and wearing blue jeans. Weston broadcast on the police radio that there was a breaking and entering in progress, and the description of the suspected perpetrator. Lydia Gray approached Weston and told him that her daughter had been taken. Weston then broadcast the possible kidnapping.

At this time, Officers Mary Day and Michael Moise were on patrol together. In response to the report of a break in progress and a possible abduction, they drove to 68 Corinth Street. In front of the building was a crowd of people. Soon a little black child came running down the street. The officers described Sally as hysterical, crying, dirty, and her nightgown torn. Sally and her mother ran to each other and embraced. When Sally was asked to describe her assailant, she said he was a black man, skinny, no shirt, and wearing jeans. Sally said he was in the area one street over. Day and Moise got into their police car and went to that area. At approximately 5 a.m., another announcement came over the radio stating that a person fitting the description had been sighted near Broad and Colfax. Day and Moise proceeded to this area. There they heard a dog barking ferociously. They got out of their car and walked toward the backyard of the house where the dog was located. Officer Day recounted that fifty feet in front of her toward the back of the yard, she saw a black man standing on top of a fence and holding onto the branch of a tree. He had his back to Day, and was shirtless and wearing jeans. When Moise testified, his recollection was that the man was in the tree. In any case, Day then yelled to the man, "[h]old it! Police!" at which point the man jumped over the fence into the vacant lot. Day ran to the fence, climbed over, and pursued the man into the vacant lot. Moise returned to the car, and broadcast the sighting.

One policeman described the fenced vacant lot as a junkyard. It had trees, bushes, approximately three-feet-high grass, trash bags, beer bottles, cans, tires, and rubble. Once in the lot, Day could no longer see the suspect. It was still dark and she started searching the brush. Day saw her police lieutenant over on the sidewalk and told him that she had chased the subject into the lot. The lieutenant replied that no one had come out. By this time Officers Moise and Robert Balestra had arrived and also had entered the lot. Balestra searched using his flashlight, and spotted the man lying underneath a tree. The man had buried himself under leaves, a tree limb, and a piece of sheet metal. His feet, however, were sticking out. Balestra called out to the other officers, and grabbed the man's foot. The man leaped up, and pushed everything he had covering him onto Balestra. A violent struggle ensued between the man, Balestra, Day, and Moise. Officers Weston and Turchetti had arrived and witnessed the struggle. The police officers subdued defendant and put handcuffs on him.

The police lieutenant at the scene instructed Turchetti to put defendant in the back of Turchetti's police car and transport him to 68 Corinth Street for possible identification. Turchetti did as instructed and at trial testified that at this point it was approximately 5:05 a.m. When he pulled up at Corinth Street, Turchetti parked directly in front of the building, opened the driver's door and left it open, and got out of the police car. Sally and her mother were on the front porch. He stayed near the car and called to Gray to bring Sally over. Sally and her mother approached the car. At trial Turchetti testified that he said he wanted Sally to tell him if she had seen defendant before. Other witnesses recalled Turchetti as phrasing the question "is this the guy?" Turchetti then opened the back door of the police car because the windows don't roll down and he wanted Sally to get a good look. The inside car light was on. As soon as the door was open, Sally yelled "[t]hat's him!" At this point there were roughly fifteen to twenty neighbors present. Some of them were armed with such things as an axe and a baseball bat. For the suspect's safety, Turchetti left Corinth Street and took defendant to the central police station.

During the time the suspect was in custody in front of 68 Corinth Street, one of the neighbors told a policeman that the man in the backseat of the police car had entered the neighbor's house earlier that morning. As yet, the neighbor had not reported the episode. The neighbor was Manuel Duran, Jr., who lived with his brother in the first-floor apartment at 60 Corinth Street. Earlier that morning, Duran had awakened to the sound of footsteps in his apartment. He thought his brother was making this noise. Duran was lying in bed on his back, and he felt someone touch the mattress. He opened his eyes to see a face six inches in front of his own. Duran screamed. He tried to grab the man around the neck and shoulders, but the intruder kept slipping Duran's grip. Duran followed the intruder into the living room, where he dove...