State v. Wright

• Decision Date: 06 July 2021
• Docket Number: No. 80348-4-I,80348-4-I
• Court: Washington Court of Appeals
• Parties: THE STATE OF WASHINGTON, Respondent, v. TEDGY CARNELL WRIGHT, Appellant.

THE STATE OF WASHINGTON, Respondent, v. TEDGY CARNELL WRIGHT, Appellant.

No. 80348-4-I

COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON DIVISION ONE

July 6, 2021

PUBLISHED IN PART OPINION

BOWMAN, J. — Tedgy Carnell Wright appeals several convictions resulting from a jury trial involving joined charges for two separate victims. Wright contends reversal is required because a jury question amounted to a statement of deadlock and the trial court violated his constitutional right to be present when it consulted with counsel in his absence. We hold that the jury question was not a declaration of deadlock prompting a critical stage in the proceedings and the court did not violate Wright's right to be present. In the unpublished part of this opinion, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying Wright's motion to sever his charges and his counsel's failure to renew that motion did not prejudice Wright based on the evidence as it developed at trial. And the trial court did not deprive Wright of confrontation clause protections by excluding impeachment evidence, the prosecutor did not commit reversible misconduct during closing, and the court did not abuse its discretion by admitting two photomontages using Wright's booking photograph. Finally, cumulative error did not deprive Wright of a fair trial. We affirm.

FACTS

Wright appeals joined charges related to two separate incidents, one involving Jeanette Beasley and one involving Nicole Fowler.

Beasley Incident

Beasley is a single mom with a young son. She started working as an escort in 2018, advertising her services on websites. On May 29, 2018, a man, later identified as Wright, asked about engaging her services. She agreed to meet him at her home in Auburn.

Beasley let Wright in the house and he "immediately" began undressing. When Wright was undressed, Beasley noticed that "his body was saggy," as if he had "lost a lot of weight." Wright "said something about oral . . . without a condom" and Beasley "told him no." Wright "got upset" and began putting his clothes on. As he dressed, Wright took a silver gun out of his jacket. Beasley told him to leave because she did not allow guns in her home. Wright "refused," took Beasley's cell phone out of her hand, and told her to go upstairs. Wright threatened that if she "said anything about what's going on, . . . he'd kill [her] and [her] son."¹

Once they were upstairs, Wright "started basically telling [Beasley] what to do" while pointing the gun at her. He forced her to give him oral sex. Then Wright put on a condom and forced her to have vaginal sex. Afterward, Wright had Beasley walk with him to the bathroom, where she thought he put the condom in the toilet and washed his hands.

Wright returned to the bedroom and put on his clothes. He began searching Beasley's room and her dresser while holding the gun. He took a pair of black Air Jordan tennis shoes with pink soles, two gold and diamond "grills,"² a picture of Beasley and her "ex," and Beasley's wallet. He returned Beasley's cell phone before he left in what "looked like" a black "newer Chrysler."

After Wright left, Beasley was "scared" to call the police so she "called somebody close to [her]." The friend went to Beasley's home and told her that she "needed to call the police." Beasley then called the police, who came to her home to take her statement and photographs. She also went to the hospital for a sexual assault examination. A forensic scientist from the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory (WSPCL) later testified that male DNA³ obtained from the perineal swabs in Beasley's sexual assault kit matched a reference sample from Wright.

Fowler Incident

Fowler was not actively working as an escort. But she had advertised escort services online in the past, and some of her posts remained on the Internet. Fowler communicated with Wright over social media for a few months before they met. Wright would text Fowler asking to meet but she ignored him because she had a boyfriend. In early June 2018, Fowler texted Wright that she was "ready and available" for sexual services because she was single. She agreed to meet him on June 17.

Fowler met Wright at a Subway restaurant in SeaTac. She parked her car and got into Wright's gray/silver Chrysler 200, where they talked for a while. Wright told Fowler he had friends that would pay her for sex. Wright offered to take Fowler for a drink, but Fowler did not want to leave her car at the Subway. So they decided to drop off Fowler's car at her home and then "go by the water and just drink."

Rather than drive to the water, Wright drove Fowler to an apartment in Skyway. Once there, they listened to music and drank. Wright got "frisky" and offered Fowler $100 for oral sex. Fowler agreed. Wright gave her a $100 bill and they went to the bedroom, where Fowler performed oral sex. At some point, Wright took off his shirt. Fowler made "a look of disgust" after seeing that Wright had a lot of "extra skin . . . hanging down." Wright became "upset" and asked for his money back. When Fowler refused, Wright "went crazy." He "threw [her] on the ground," choked her with both hands around her neck, and vaginally raped her.

Afterward, Fowler went to the bathroom to check if Wright had been wearing a condom. She did not find one. When she returned to the bedroom to get dressed, she saw that Wright had a silver gun with a black handle and was going through her purse. Fowler and Wright fought over her purse. During the struggle, Fowler ripped the window blinds in the bedroom. Wright pulled off Fowler's wig and false eyelashes and struck her in the head multiple times with his gun. Fowler tried to "sneakily" call 911 from her cell phone but Wright "caught" her, took her phone, and "pistol whipped" her more. Wright then told Fowler that he saw her identification in her purse and if she did not "follow[ ] his directions," "I know where you live, I'll kill you and your whole family."

Wright ultimately gave Fowler her wig and clothing back and told her to get dressed. "He kept the gun in his hand the whole time." He told her to get in his car and then left her in Tukwila. Wright returned her two cell phones but kept her purse. Fowler called 911 and later directed officers to the Skyway apartment, identifying the unit by its broken blinds. Police took Fowler to a hospital, where she underwent a sexual assault examination, received stitches for the wounds on her head, and gave a statement to a detective.

The detective testified that at an interview the next day, Fowler said that Wright had taken $1,300 in cash from her purse and that she had marked the $20 and $100 bills with a "P" on the bottom right-hand corner of each bill. At a later search of the Skyway apartment, officers recovered $1,240 in $20 and $100 bills marked with a "P" and a locked toolbox containing a black and silver handgun. The detective also testified that officers found "black and pinkJordan's" in the Skyway apartment. The shoes appeared to be the same as those worn by Beasley in a photograph and matched her description of the shoes Wright stole from her apartment.

A WSPCL forensic scientist testified that vaginal swabs from Fowler's sexual assault kit showed female DNA that matched Fowler and male DNA that matched Wright.

Trial

The State charged Wright with rape in the second degree of Fowler; robbery in the first degree of Fowler with a firearm enhancement; assault in the second degree of Fowler with a deadly weapon and a firearm enhancement; unlawful possession of a firearm in the first degree, committed on or about June 17, 2018; rape in the first degree of Beasley with a firearm enhancement; and unlawful possession of a firearm in the first degree, committed on or about May 29, 2018.

Wright moved to sever the two counts related to Beasley from the four counts related to Fowler. He also moved to sever the two unlawful firearm possession counts from the other charges involving each alleged victim. The trial court denied Wright's motion to sever the counts as to each victim but bifurcated trial on the two unlawful possession of a firearm charges from trial on the other counts. After the court considered the strength of the State's cases, Wright's defense of "general denial" for both victims, the court's ability to instruct the jury, the cross admissibility of evidence, and judicial economy, the court concluded:

The important consideration of judicial economy is served by trying these cases together. There already will be a bifurcated trial onfirearms charges. Given the cross-admissibility of the evidence, there is no need for two trials involving such similar cases.

During discovery, Wright saw documentation that Beasley received $15,000 in lost wages benefits through the Department of Labor and Industries Crime Victims Compensation Program (CVCP). He told the court that there were "some questions" about "the veracity" of her application to CVCP. Wright later subpoenaed a CVCP claims consultant to testify at trial, intending to offer "relevant evidence that goes to [Beasley's] bias of financial interest in the outcome of this case." Wright also intended to show that Beasley falsely represented that she worked as a receptionist for City Live Barbershop on her CVCP benefits application. The trial court quashed the subpoena. The court told defense, "[Y]ou can certainly ask [Beasley] about the representation she made to [CVCP] . . . as part of assessing her credibility," but "we're not litigating whether the claim was properly paid or not, because that is collateral."

Before trial, the State moved to preclude defense counsel from asking whether Beasley had reported any income from City Live Barbershop to the IRS.⁴ The State argued the question "has no bearing on the issues of this case" and "its probative value is super low." Defense counsel asserted that the evidence "would establish that Ms. Beasley has no corroboration of her claim that she did in fact receive...