Stouffer v. State, 548

• Decision Date: 01 September 1997
• Docket Number: No. 548,548
• Parties: Edward Charles STOUFFER v. STATE of Maryland. ,
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 590

118 Md.App. 590

703 A.2d 861

Edward Charles STOUFFER v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 548, Sept. Term, 1997.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

Dec. 3, 1997.

Reconsideration Denied Jan. 27, 1998.

Denise Oakes Shaffer, Asst. Public Defender (Stephen E. Harris, Public Defender, on the brief), Baltimore, for Appellant

Diane E. Keller, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen., Baltimore, and M. Kenneth Long, Jr., State's Atty. for Washington County, Hagertown, on the brief), for Appellee.

Argued before MOYLAN, DAVIS and SALMON, JJ.

DAVIS, Judge.

On October 10, 1995, a grand jury of Washington County filed an eleven-count indictment, charging appellant Edward Charles Stouffer, inter alia, with first degree premeditated murder, murder committed in the perpetration of a kidnapping, and kidnapping.

Appellant, on March 28, 1996, filed a Suggestion for Removal and a Response to State's Request for Discovery. The court, after disposing of several pre-trial motions, denied appellant's suggestion for removal.

On November 4, 1996, the jury returned verdicts of guilty as to first degree felony murder and kidnapping. Appellant, on November 12, 1996, moved for a new trial, and, after a hearing was held, the motion was denied.

Appellant, on February 3, 1997, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the first degree felony murder conviction and to a concurrent thirty years for the kidnapping conviction. On February 26, 1997, appellant noted this appeal. Appellant presents seven questions for our review:

I. Was the evidence sufficient to support appellant's convictions?

II. Did the trial court err by repeatedly restricting defense cross-examination?

III. Did the trial court err in allowing the State to use prior statements of witnesses under the guise of refreshing their recollection or impeachment?

IV. Did the trial court err in allowing hearsay evidence concerning appellant allegedly threatening a key State's witness?

V. Did the trial court err in its instructions to the jury?

VI. Did the trial court err by failing to grant appellant's suggestion for removal?

VII. Did the trial court err in withholding, for some time, information from appellant that one of the jurors had been indirectly contacted by the deceased's father during the trial?

Because we hold the evidence indicates the homicide was not committed in the perpetration of the underlying felony, we shall reverse the judgment of conviction for felony murder.

FACTS

In mid-January, Jeffrey Fiddler moved out of his father's West Virginia home and into the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Hagerstown, Maryland. Fiddler had also lived, off and on, at 12 Elizabeth Street in Hagerstown with Robert Schell (also known as Robert Starr).

On the morning of February 27, 1989, Fiddler was found dead by the side of a road near the Maryland-Pennsylvania State line. According to Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Edward Vymazal, who responded to the crime scene, Fiddler's An autopsy revealed that Fiddler had two stab wounds to the chest, some defensive wounds to the hand, a contusion or bruise to the back of the neck, and abrasions to the buttocks, left thigh, and left leg. There was evidence that Fiddler bled to death and that death could have taken up to one-half hour.

death was the result of a homicide, but no weapon was recovered.

Dr. Neil Hofman, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy, and Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Donald Paul, testified that with such wounds large amounts of blood would be expected at the scene. Trooper Paul, who discovered Fiddler lying in a grassy area, however, rolled him over and saw very little blood. Due to the small amount of blood at the scene and the position of Fiddler's body, Trooper Paul testified that he believed Fiddler had been transported and dumped at the scene, after being killed somewhere else. Through a joint investigation, it had been determined that Fiddler's murder took place in or near Maryland and that he had been dumped in Pennsylvania.

Fiddler's body had been found without underwear, socks, or a jacket. Hofman testified that, during the stabbing, Fiddler's pants and shoes were off. Before his death, Fiddler was dragged, without his pants, across a rough granular black surface having a different composition from that found at the scene. He was later redressed.

The clothes, taken from Fiddler's body during the autopsy, were maintained at the Pennsylvania State Police Department until September 1989, when all of the evidence was turned over to the Hagerstown Police Department. From that time, the evidence was then maintained in the Hagerstown Police Department's evidence locker.

Shortly after the homicide, Sergeant Richard Johnson of the Hagerstown Police went into Fiddler's room at the YMCA, where he retrieved Fiddler's clothes and shaving kit. He unzipped the shaving kit and saw that it contained, among other grooming items, a hair brush. After retrieving Fiddler's belongings, Sergeant Johnson personally gave them to Fiddler's At appellant's trial, several witnesses testified that they saw Fiddler just days before he died.

father, who put them in his basement where they remained untouched. Sometime in March 1990, Fiddler's father opened the shaving kit, removed the hair [703 A.2d 865] brush, and hand delivered the brush and sweaters to the Hagerstown Police Department, where the brush was immediately packaged.

One night in February 1989, downtown at the Hagerstown Square (Square), Barbara Kelly saw Fiddler being chased by appellant, William Burral, and "two other guys." Fiddler had run behind her, across the street, down Washington Street, through the city parking lot and down by the alley, beside Rocky's Pizza Restaurant. She heard appellant tell Fiddler to "stay away from Becky."

On the Friday before Fiddler's body was found, Gregory Scott Smith, Jr., saw Fiddler at the YMCA and Fiddler told him that he had received a death note, but did not say from whom. Sometime that same night, according to the testimony of Fiddler's brother, Jimmy Fiddler (Jimmy), he saw Fiddler and they argued over $40 that Fiddler owed him for a car battery.

On a Friday night in February 1989, at the Double T Lounge, Kathy May Argo saw Fiddler talking with appellant and James Russell. Burral and Schell were also there that night. Argo said that she saw appellant making fun of Fiddler and Fiddler told her that "appellant and them" were harassing him. Fiddler told her that they were going to the river to party and, afterwards, Fiddler left with appellant, Schell, Burral, and Russell. Appellant, Burral, and Schell returned without Fiddler; they told Argo that Fiddler stayed at the party.

Carol Ann Bussard, another resident of Elizabeth Street, heard "a lot of hollering and screaming" outside in the early morning hours of the night in question. She looked out of her window and saw "two guys" fighting in the middle of the street--one was lying in the street and the other was straddling Concerning appellant's whereabouts on the evening before Fiddler was found, one of appellant's former girlfriends, Rebekah Knodle Kogar, testified that she, appellant, and others, were at a friend's house on Broadway Street in Hagerstown when, later that afternoon, appellant, Russell, and Burral left together. Burral returned about 3:00 a.m., covered with "red stuff," and changed his clothes; appellant arrived sometime later that morning. The witness claimed to have overheard appellant talking with Burral about something that "got out of hand" on Elizabeth Street--they mentioned Fiddler and Schell. Schell also came by sometime that same morning.

him and beating his head against the street. Bussard heard a woman screaming for help and telling one of the men to stop because he was going to hurt or kill the other man. A third man then came up the street, grabbed the assailant and began to fight him. Meanwhile, the victim rolled under a parked truck and, afterwards, the others were attempting to locate him because he was "in bad shape."

Schell testified that, after he and Jimmy partied with friends at Schell's apartment on Elizabeth Street, around 10:00 p.m., he and Jimmy went to different bars where they were involved in two verbal altercations with "other guys." Hagerstown Police officers interceded after the second altercation and an officer drove the pair home.

After the officer drove him to Elizabeth Street, Schell went back downtown looking for Fiddler. When he arrived downtown, appellant and "two other guys" approached him. Appellant told him that he was "messing up" and that he was "narking on people." Appellant told Schell that, if he did not "get out of his face," he was going to take care of him. When Schell started to walk up Washington Street, appellant and the "other guys" proceeded in the same direction; Schell ran inside of a hotel, where he stayed for fifteen or twenty minutes until he no longer saw appellant. Later that night, Schell saw appellant and they began to argue, at which time a police officer arrived and told them to go their separate ways.

Officer Brian Barnhart testified that the altercation between Schell and appellant occurred at almost 3:00 a.m.

The testimony of Schell and Jimmy was consistent. On the night in question, they did not see Fiddler. Jimmy added that the ambulance was called because Melissa Bishop (Melissa) had hurt her back. When Jimmy heard the ambulance, he rolled underneath a truck and stayed there for fifteen minutes to one-half hour, until the ambulance left. He came from underneath the truck, went into the apartment, talked with Schell, and then went to sleep. A couple of hours after Melissa's father, Richard Bishop, left, he got up and went to Melissa's house on Main Avenue, leaving Schell at his apartment.

On March 18, 1989, Officer Wayne L. Shank of the Hagerstown Police Department was called to a reported suicide at 12 Elizabeth Street. When he...