U.S. v. Wiggins, 73--1367

• Decision Date: 02 January 1975
• Docket Number: No. 73--1367,73--1367
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. Charles E. WIGGINS, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Page 454

509 F.2d 454

166 U.S.App.D.C. 121

UNITED STATES of America v. Charles E. WIGGINS, Appellant.

No. 73--1367.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued March 11, 1974.

Decided Jan. 2, 1975.

Jerry D. Anker, Washington, D.C. (appointed by this Court), with whom Robert M. Lichtman, Washington, D.C., was on the brief, for appellant.

Steven R. Schaars, Asst. U.S. Atty., with whom Harold H. Titus, Jr., U.S. Atty. at the time the brief was filed, and John A. Terry, Asst. U.S. Atty., were on the brief for appellee. Earl J. Silbert, U.S. Atty., also entered an appearance for appellee.

Before HASTIE, ^* Senior Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit, and ROBB and WILKEY, Circuit Judges.

ROBB, Circuit Judge:

A jury in the District Court convicted the appellant Wiggins of murder in the first degree, 22 D.C.Code § 2401, and of carrying a dangerous weapon, 22 D.C.Code § 3204. He was sentenced to concurrent prison terms of twenty years to life for first degree murder and not more than one year for carrying a dangerous weapon, these sentences to be served concurrently with any other sentences then being served. ¹ On this appeal Wiggins contends that (1) various statements and a confession he made to a police officer were wrongly received in evidence; (2) the District Court erred by receiving in evidence a part of the confession in which Wiggins, after saying he had committed the murder pursuant to a 'contract', added that he 'only kill(ed) on contract', and 'had killed three other people' in addition to the victim named in the indictment; (3) the District Court abused its discretion by curtailing defense counsel's examination of alibi witnesses; and (4) even if the conviction is affirmed the case should be remanded for resentencing because the District Court sentenced him as an adult without finding that he would not benefit from treatment under the Federal Youth Corrections Act.

The victim of the homicide alleged in the indictment was Henry G. Davis, proprietor of the Davis Tourist Home at 50 U Street, N.W., in Washington. At about 11:00 o'clock on the night of June 10, 1972, at the home, he was murdered by a gunman who shot him once with a .45 caliber automatic pistol. There was evidence that the gunman was seen by a neighbor who had gone to the tourist home to purchase sodas from a vending machine. As the neighbor was about to leave the home, minutes before the murder, the doorbell rang and Mr. Davis opened the door. Two men entered, one of whom addressed Davis by name. The neighbor passed the men in the doorway and left. Although she got only a glimpse of his face, and was later unable to identify him, the neighbor noticed that one of the men was wearing dark trousers and a blue jacket with gold buttons.

Police investigating the shooting found Mr. Davis' body lying at the bottom of a flight of stairs leading from the first floor to the basement. He had been shot in the chest, and the police concluded that he had been shot on the first floor and had stumbled down the stairs. There were no signs of a struggle; between $120.00 and $130.00 was found in the tourist home and change was found in Davis' pockets. Police interviewed the guests registered in the tourist home but made no progress in the investigation.

Sergeant Francisco Tadle of the Metropolitan Police Department was assigned to the case on or about June 24. Early the following morning he happened to be present at a lineup at police headquarters at which Wiggins, in custody on a charge of unauthorized use of a vehicle, ² was to be viewed. Noting that Wiggins' home address in the unit block of T Street, Northwest, was two blocks from the tourist home at 50 U Street, Tadle asked Wiggins whether he knew anything 'that went on down on the unit block of U Street.' Wiggins responded that 'all he knew was Davis was killed.' Sgt. Tadle asked Wiggins how he knew Davis, and Wiggins responded that he had been to the tourist home with some girl friends 'a couple of times'. The conversation ended, and Sgt. Tadle left the lineup room and went to roll call.

At nine o'clock on the same morning, June 25, Sgt. Tadle received a telephone call from an officer in the cell block who told Sgt. Tadle that Wiggins had asked to speak with him. The sergeant went to the cell block, where Wiggins told him that he had been at the tourist home early in the evening of the murder and he had seen two suspicious men in the vicinity. At Sgt. Tadle's request Wiggins went upstairs to the homicide office where the two men talked from 10:55 A.M. to 12:35 P.M. and Wiggins made a statement which was reduced to writing and signed by him. According to this statement Wiggins had known Davis for about six months, and Wiggins and a female companion had rented a room at the tourist home at about 6:30 P.M. on June 10. Wiggins and his companion remained in the room for two or three hours. On one occasion while in the room, and on another as they were leaving the tourist home, Wiggins saw two men, whom he knew as Dap and Harold Tyler, enter the home. Wiggins returned briefly to the home to retrieve his companion's purse and inquired from the desk clerk about the presence of Dap and Tyler. He was told 'Ain't nobody there.' Wiggins knew Tyler and Dap as 'hustlers. Tyler is a cool dude and Dap will do anything. Tyler can get people to do things for him.'

Sgt. Tadle had an array of photographs prepared which included pictures of two men who were listed in the Identification Bureau under the nickname 'Dap'. Wiggins viewed them but made no identification, but he indicated he might be able to help the sergeant later. Subsequently on that same day Wiggins identified a photograph of William Haywood Brandon, one of the two men known as Dap, as the man who had entered the tourist home. He added that he knew Tyler and Dap as 'stickup men.' ³

On June 27 Wiggins, who had been released from custody, called police headquarters and asked for Sgt. Tadle. The sergeant was out but he returned the call shortly after arriving at headquarters at 4:30 P.M. Wiggins said he wanted to speak to Tadle and invited him to his home. Sgt. Tadle and his partner, Detective Hayes, arrived at the Wiggins house at about 5:45 P.M. and remained for about twenty minutes. Wiggins told the officers that Dap still had the murder weapon, a .38. The conversation about the case was brief because Wiggins was afraid his mother and brother, who were in the house at the time, might overhear what he was saying. He wanted to speak to the officers in some other place. Since he did not want to leave in a police cruiser, Sgt. Tadle arranged to have him picked up by two officers from the Old Clothes Unit, in a private vehicle.

The 'Old Clothes' officers drove Wiggins to a police parking lot where Sgt. Tadle and Detective Hayes were waiting in Tadle's cruiser. The three men got into the cruiser and Wiggins said he wanted to go to his aunt's house in southwest Washington. The officers complied with his request, and on the way, also at the request of Wiggins, stopped and bought him a 'six-pack' of beer. At the aunt's house the officers waited in their car while Wiggins went in and stayed about ten minutes. When he came out he said his aunt felt uncomfortable about having police officers in her house and he had called his uncle, who worked at the HUD building, and arranged to get a room there where they might talk.

The officers and Wiggins arrived at the HUD building at 7:40 P.M. At Wiggins' insistence 'because he wanted to make a phone call and he wanted one of us to listen in on it' they went to an office that had two telephone extensions. Before making the call Wiggins told the officers that there was a girl involved in the homicide, who let the murderers in. The officers asked him what the motive for the killing was and he responded 'Well, it was because of numbers.' He said that 'Dave wrote numbers and somebody had hit big and Dave didn't pay off, and because of this a contract was written up and they had Dave killed because he didn't pay off.' The officers expressed the view that whoever shot Davis was a coward since Davis was shot in the back, but Wiggins corrected them by pointing out that Davis was shot in the chest. Wiggins then consulted a book which appeared to contain telephone numbers, and dialed a number, after requesting the officers not to look at the number he was dialing. In his testimony Sgt. Tadle recounted the events that followed:

And apparently whoever he asked for wasn't there because the person hung up on him and before the person was able to hang up Mr. Wiggins was asking the person not to hang up, almost to the point of begging him please don't hang up, I know he is there, but nevertheless the person hung up on him.

So he paused for a moment and then he said, 'Well I will call him again.' He dialed the number and this time I picked up the other receiver, and when the party at the other end picked up the phone, I recognized the voice to be a young lady's voice, and she again told him that the person he was asking for wasn't there.

And he said, well, how about downstairs, and she said, 'I don't know. Why don't you call downstairs?'

And she told him the number to the telephone that was downstairs at that time.

And he looked up at me because, apparently, he didn't want me to know what this number was, and the girl hung up.

He called the second number and I wasn't on the receiver then, but through the contents of his conversation I understood that the person wasn't there either.

So he hung up and then we decided there was really nothing he was telling us and we wanted to leave.

As the two officers and Wiggins were leaving the HUD building at about nine o'clock Wiggins asked Sgt. Tadle if he could speak to him alone since he did not feel comfortable with Detective Hayes. The three went to a restaurant for sandwiches and Sgt. Tadle then dropped his partner off at police headquarters. Wiggins asked Sgt....