United States v. Brantley, Case No. 8:10-CR-298-T-30MAP
| Decision Date | 06 February 2013 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 8:10-CR-298-T-30MAP |
| Parties | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. COURTNEE NICOLE BRANTLEY |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Florida |
BEFORE THE COURT are Defendant's verbal motions for acquittal at the close of the Government's case and at the close of all evidence upon which the Court had reserved ruling, Defendant's Motion for Judgment of Acquittal (Dkt. #246), Defendant's Amended Motion for Judgment of Acquittal (Dkt. #247), Defendant's Motion for New Trial (Dkt. #248), Defendant's Supplemental Filing to Brantley's Motion and Amended Motion for Judgment of Acquittal (Dkt. #249), the Government's Responses (Dkts. #250, #251), and the jury verdict (Dkt. #241). The Court enters this Order to resolve these motions and explain the difficulty with the facts of this case, which evoke such strong emotions, fitting the legal requirements of the crime (misprison of a felony) with which Defendant Brantley is charged.
The facts are basically undisputed. On the night of June 29, 2010, Brantley was driving her vehicle in the city of Tampa with no license tag. Her tag had been stolen. She claimed that an individual with the tag office had told her she could drive as long as she came in as soon as reasonably practical to obtain a new tag. Her passenger was Dontae Morris.David Curtis, a city of Tampa police officer on patrol, executed a traffic stop because of Brantley's lack of a vehicle tag. The entire incident of the traffic stop, including the shooting of two Tampa police officers, was captured on the dashboard camera of the police cruiser.
The officer approached the driver's side of the vehicle and asked Brantley to produce her driver's license, registration, and proof of insurance. After a short search in the glove compartment, Brantley handed that information to the officer and answered his questions about her lack of tag. The officer then questioned the passenger, and the passenger gave his name, Dontae Morris, and birth date. The officer wrote the information on his note pad, returned to his cruiser, and ran the name of Dontae Morris on his computer. The computer showed there was a warrant outstanding for Dontae Morris and that he had previously resisted arrest. The officer called for back up.
When the back up officer arrived, both officers approached the passenger side of the vehicle. Officer Curtis asked Morris if he knew anything about a warrant to which Morris replied in the negative. The officer asked Morris to step from the vehicle and he complied. The officers showed no sign of seeing a gun, nor can one be seen on the video. The officer then asked Morris to turn around and place his hands behind his back. At that point, Morris dipped down slightly and then, in a rapid movement, raised up with a gun in his hand. With his hand higher than the roof of the car, Morris fired point blank into the heads of the two police officers, killing them instantly. Morris started to run, stumbled, and fell. He got up and continued to run carrying his gun with him.
Brantley's reaction to this episode, after screaming at Morris, was to race from the scene, tires spinning. Within ninety seconds, Brantley was in contact with Morris by cell phone. She drove approximately three miles to an apartment complex where a friend lived and parked her car at the opposite end of the complex, backing it into a parking space. She then went to her friend's apartment. While she was there, she received a text message from Morris stating "[y]our ride dont need 2 be park by the spot neither." Brantley responded, A few minutes later, Morris texted: "Yea just lean bak stay loyal." Brantley replied: In spite of this communication, there is no evidence that Brantley ever moved the vehicle after it was first parked.
As soon as the police arrived at the scene of the shooting, they found the video recording of the incident, the driver information provided by Brantley, and the name of Dontae Morris written on the note pad and still appearing on the computer screen. When the officers viewed the video at the scene, they both heard Morris identify himself to the officer and recognized him when he later stepped from the passenger side of the vehicle. Dontae Morris was well known to the officers in the Tampa Police department. He had been arrested many times and was known to be a felon.
After finding the dead officers, the police brought a bloodhound to the scene in an effort to track Morris. The dog was unable to find a scent to follow. The police also started canvassing the area and found Brantley and her car within a few hours of beginning the search, and about ten hours after the shooting. Although the police agree that Brantley hadnot tried to clean the car or wipe it down, no attempt was made to capture a scent for the bloodhound.
It is not clear how the Tampa Police found Brantley in the apartment -- whether by canvassing each apartment or because she or someone came out to the parking lot and told them where she was. In any event, an officer on the scene questioned her for about three minutes. Brantley answered his questions except for the one asking for the name of her passenger. At that, she balked. She would not say the name "Dontae Morris," but she told the officer they knew who her passenger was and pointed to the name of Dontae Morris written on the officer's pad. In testifying at trial, the officer would not admit that he arrested Brantley at that point, but did acknowledge that he handcuffed her and took her to the Tampa Police station for questioning.
At the station Brantley was interrogated by the lead detective for almost six hours. She answered all of his questions except would not state the name "Dontae Morris." Brantley admitted driving the vehicle, being pulled over for no tag, having a passenger prior to the stop, an incident happening she thought caused injuries, and leaving the scene without a passenger. All of her answers were truthful.
The detective, knowing the identity of the perpetrator, showed her a photograph that he had obtained from one of Morris' relatives and asked Brantley to point to the person in the photograph that had been her passenger. She refused. She told them they already knew the identity of the perpetrator and she would not answer that particular question. The detective brought in Brantley's mother and grandmother, both of whom vigorously tried toconvince her to answer the one remaining question. Her mother even slapped Brantley in her efforts to get her to answer. Brantley refused.
The police found and arrested Morris within three days of the shooting. The State of Florida charged Morris with murder and has him in custody. The State did not choose to charge Brantley, but the federal government charged her with misprison of a felony.
A conviction for misprison of a felony requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt of the following four factors1:
Brantley is charged with concealing, not the murder of the two police officers, but that a felon possessed a firearm.
Brantley's case went to trial on January 14, 2013. The difficult legal issue is whether Brantley committed an affirmative act to conceal the crime of "felon in possession of a firearm." The jury was presented with a verdict form containing two questions:
The jury returned a verdict of guilty and, as to the second question asking them to "describe the act or acts you find Courtnee Nicole Brantley committed to conceal the crime of felon in possession of firearm or ammunition," stated:
The defendant knowingly and willfully concealed her knowledge of the possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon from the authorities by coordinating via phone calls and text messages with Dantae Morris.2
The Court, realizing there was a problem with this finding as an act of concealment, called the lawyers to the bench to discuss the next step. It was agreed that the Court should ask the jury whether it wanted to be more specific or add any additional findings of concealment. The Court then instructed the jury to return to the jury room and deliberate whether they wished to be more specific about whether the act of concealment was just coordination, or if that coordination led to something else. The jury returned to the jury room and came back a few minutes later with no change in their finding of fact.
Misprison of a felony is a rarely charged crime. When it is charged, the act of concealment is usually obvious, such as giving a ride to one known to have just robbed a bank,3 or helping hide the loot.4
Here the act of concealment is far from obvious. A natural first reaction to the facts of this case is that a failure to report the murder of two police officers is wrong. It is outrageous. And the one who fails to report must be guilty of something. While that reaction is natural, it is not the law. The failure to report such a heinous crime may be morally wrong, even reprehensible, but it is not illegal when to make such a report might implicate one's self in a crime.5 A defendant's duty to report a known felony has to be reconciled with the Fifth Amendment privilege not to incriminate one's self.
Leaving the scene of a traffic stop without permission is a felony of the third degree.6 Brantley could have been charged with that crime, and therefore had a right to remain silent. For that reason, Brantley's failure to cooperate does not constitute misprison of a felony.7 Mere silence, without some...
To continue reading
Request your trial