U.S. v. Davis

• Decision Date: 25 July 2008
• Docket Number: No. 07-2156.,No. 07-2158.,07-2156.,07-2158.
• Citation: 534 F.3d 903
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Marcus Q. DAVIS, Appellant. United States of America, Appellee, v. Stephen L. Edwards, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

534 F.3d 903

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Marcus Q. DAVIS, Appellant.

United States of America, Appellee, v. Stephen L. Edwards, Appellant.

No. 07-2156.

No. 07-2158.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: January 16, 2008.

Filed: July 25, 2008.

Clemens A. Erdahl, argued, Cedar Rapids, IA, for appellant Davis.

Donovan S. Robertson, argued, Rock Island, IL, for appellant Edwards.

Stephen Patrick Omeara, A.U.S.A., argued, Des Moines, IA (Richard E. Rothrock, A.U.S.A., Shannon L. Olson, A.U.S.A., on the brief), for appellee.

Before WOLLMAN, BRIGHT, and SMITH, Circuit Judges.

WOLLMAN, Circuit Judge.

Marcus Davis and Stephen Edwards were convicted of one count of malicious use of fire causing personal injury and death in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 844(i). On appeal, Davis and Edwards argue that there was insufficient evidence to support the verdict and that the district court¹ made several errors concerning the use of out-of-court statements admitted into evidence during the trial. We affirm.

I. Background

On March 6, 2000, a fire began at 845 Cross Park Avenue, a twelve-unit apartment complex in Iowa City, Iowa. Kurtis and Laura Miller were residents of the building. As a result of the fire, Laura suffered serious burns; Kurtis died as a result of soot and smoke inhalation and thermal injuries. After determining that the fire had been set intentionally by pouring gasoline in front of apartment 3C, law enforcement officials investigated the circumstances surrounding the fire for more than five years. Davis and Edwards were indicted in September 2005. Their motions to sever the trial were denied, and a joint trial began on June 26, 2006.

Because we are reviewing the record for the sufficiency of the evidence, we state the evidence presented at trial in the light most favorable to the jury verdict. Davis lived in the apartment building directly behind the building where the fire was set. Edwards was a frequent guest in Davis's apartment. The resident of apartment 3C, Jan Ballew, had engaged in an on-going dispute with Davis regarding the volume level of Davis's music. Initially, Ballew complained about the noise from Davis's apartment to her property manager, who advised her that she needed to call the police, which Ballew did numerous times in 1999. Thereafter, Ballew spoke with Davis's wife, and the two agreed that Ballew should let the Davises know when the music was too loud rather than call the police. Ballew attempted to comply with this agreement, making no calls to the police during the winter of 1999-2000, and personally visiting Davis's apartment when the music was too loud. During these visits, Davis responded to Ballew's complaints with profanity. Ballew decided that she would no longer inform Davis or his wife that the noise was too loud and would instead call the police. Ballew informed Davis's wife of this decision.

On March 4, 2000, at 11:12 p.m., Ballew called the police to report that the music coming from Davis's apartment was too loud. The police responded by visiting Davis's apartment. On that same evening, or on a similar occasion when the police were leaving after responding to a noise complaint, Davis's mother-in-law, Caroline Bennett, arrived at the apartment and asked Davis what had happened. Davis appeared angry and said, "Mama, she always calling the police on me. I'm going to get her."

On March 6, 2000, Ballew made another complaint to the police regarding the noise from Davis's apartment. Ballew asked the police to visit her apartment to assess the noise level before they visited Davis's apartment. Two officers arrived at Ballew's apartment at approximately 9:10 p.m., and after agreeing that the music was too loud, they visited Davis's apartment. The officers informed Theophilus Davis, Marcus Davis's cousin, that they had received a noise complaint. Theophilus pointed to Ballew's apartment and said, "was it her?" The officers did not disclose the identity of the complainant, but told Theophilus to keep the music down and issued a warning for violating the noise ordinance. The officers left at approximately 9:22 p.m. Marcus Davis later stated that he "shut the music off in [the officer's] face." Davis asked his mother-in-law to take his wife to her house for the night. Davis's mother-in-law did not know why Davis made this request, as he had never made such a request in the past, and she did not comply.

After Ballew had gone to bed, she heard a loud bang at her front door. She went to investigate and realized there was a fire. She went out to her deck and tried to shut the door to the deck, but was unable to because of the heat. She saw Davis on the ground below her apartment, and he asked, "What's happenin'?" Ballew said, "What's it look like?" Davis responded, "You have to learn to get along with people." Thereafter, Ballew was rescued by firefighters. Ballew later identified Davis as the person below her apartment, and she described his statement as a threat.

At approximately 9:45 p.m., the two officers who had responded to Ballew's noise complaint received a dispatch call regarding the fire. They returned to the apartment building at approximately 9:50 p.m. One of the officers entered the building and began pounding on the apartment doors on the first floor. Upon exiting the opposite side of the building, the officer nearly kicked the door into Davis, who appeared to be entering the building and was wearing an Iowa Hawkeyes shirt. Davis entered the building, but was told to leave by the other officer who was inside. Davis ignored the officer and attempted to grab his flashlight. As the officer pulled the flashlight away, Davis said, "I'm still going up there," and ran up the stairs. The officer followed, but the two were not able to stay long because of their difficulty in breathing.

Thereafter, Davis returned to his rear patio and continued barbecuing. Later, while still wearing the Iowa Hawkeyes shirt, Davis initiated contact with one of the officers who had responded to the noise complaint and was at the scene of the fire. Davis stated that, "that lady needs to learn to get along with people." Davis also said that his father was a firefighter and that he (Davis) could have saved people in the building if he had had a wet rag over his mouth. Edwards was also on the patio during this conversation.

On another occasion that evening, Davis was back at the scene of the fire and made contact with another officer. When asked by the officer for identification, Davis responded that he did not have any but that his name was Jared Q. Davis and that he lived in Chicago. Davis gave his correct birth date and the location where he could later be found. Davis admitted that he told Ballew that she needed to learn to get along with people better. He also commented that every time he had a barbecue, Ballew called the police. Thereafter, Davis went back toward his apartment. Davis later admitted that he had provided the officer with a false first name, but claimed that he had done so because of an outstanding traffic warrant in Illinois.

Additional law enforcement arrived to investigate the fire. One of the officers was assigned to interview witnesses and to speak with Jared Davis. He went to Davis's apartment and talked with Davis's wife, who told him that she did not know anyone by the name of Jared Davis and that no one in the apartment had been near the fire. The officer saw a man in the living room, sitting on the couch and wearing a white shirt and blue pants. The officer returned to the apartment a short time later, after having spoken with other officers familiar with the residents of Davis's apartment. When Davis's wife answered the door, the officer observed that there was a different man sitting on the couch in the living room, so he asked where the first man had gone. Davis's wife initially denied that there had been another man, but then claimed that he had left. The officer indicated that law enforcement had been watching the apartment and had not observed anyone leaving. At that point, Davis came downstairs and was recognized by the officer as the person he had first seen sitting on the couch even though Davis was now wearing different clothes. Davis said that he was not Jared Davis and that he did not know anyone by that name. Davis and his wife gave their consent to allow the officers to look around the apartment. The officers found Edwards upstairs but could not locate Jared Davis.

Later that evening, two officers independently identified Davis as Jared Davis. Nevertheless, Davis denied that he was Jared and denied that he had spoken with the officers earlier that evening. Even after the officers obtained Davis's identification and noted that his middle initial, last name, and date of birth were the same as the information given by the so-called Jared Davis, Davis continued to deny that he had previously identified himself as Jared. Thereafter, Davis agreed to come to the police station, where he believed that he would be fingerprinted, and admitted that he had falsely identified himself as Jared Davis. In an interview a few hours later, Davis also admitted that he was at his apartment when the police first arrived looking for Jared Davis and that he had changed his clothes. The officers told Davis that they believed he changed his clothes so that the officers at the scene of the fire would not recognize him, to which Davis responded, "That's exactly why I did that."

During police questioning, Davis continued to complain about Ballew and how she had repeatedly called the police on him. Davis referred to her as "Aunt Hagatha" and said that she was miserable and wanted everyone else to be miserable. Davis was informed of the seriousness of the fire given the death of Kurtis Miller. Davis commented that Miller's death was a homicide, but he denied involvement in the fire.

During an interview with law enforcement, Edwards told a...