Ware v. State

• Decision Date: 14 September 2000
• Docket Number: No. 96,96
• Citation: 360 Md. 650,759 A.2d 764
• Parties: Darris Alaric WARE v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

759 A.2d 764

360 Md. 650

Darris Alaric WARE v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 96, Sept. Term, 1999.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

September 14, 2000.

Motion for Reconsideration Denied October 6, 2000.

Michael R. Braudes, Asst. Public Defender (Stephen E. Harris, Public Defender and Daniel H. Weiss, Asst. Public Defender, on brief), Baltimore, for appellant.

Annabelle L. Lisic, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen. of Maryland, on brief), Baltimore, for appellee.

Argued before BELL, C.J., and ELDRIDGE, RODOWSKY, RAKER, WILNER, CATHELL and HARRELL, JJ. RAKER, Judge.

Appellant Darris Alaric Ware was tried by a jury from July 9 to July 22, 1999, in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County, and convicted of two counts of first degree murder and related handgun violations. This case is a direct appeal from a sentence of death.¹ See Maryland Code (1957, 1996 Repl.Vol., 1999 Supp.) Art. 27, § 414.² We find no errors that tainted the proceedings. Accordingly, we affirm the convictions and the sentence of death.

I.

Ware and Kristi Gentry³ met and began dating in 1991. Their relationship became serious, and Ware moved into the house in Severn where Kristi lived with her mother, Nina Gentry, in August of 1993. In September of 1993, however, according to Nina Gentry's testimony, the relationship became strained, and Ware moved out.

On December 30, 1993, Nina Gentry returned home from work at midday and found Kristi, then 19, and her friend Cynthia Allen, 22, lying on the floor in the house. Each had been shot in the chest and at point-blank range in the head. Kristi was dead, and Cynthia died later in the hospital. Projectiles fired from a .380 caliber gun were found in the victims' bodies, and .380 caliber shell casings were found on the floor near the victims.

Most of the critical testimony in the case concerned events occurring the morning of the day of the murders, a few hours before Nina Gentry discovered the victims. At approximately 9:00 a.m., Kristi's friend Adrian Washington telephoned Kristi at the house. Adrian testified that Kristi sounded scared and that she abruptly hung up the phone twice. He then received a call from an angry male caller who quickly hung up; Ware's statement to the police indicated that Ware used caller ID to return Adrian's call, and told Adrian not to call the house again. Then, Adrian received a call from Kristi, during which he heard Kristi say, "Darris, I can't breathe. Get off me. You're hurting me."

After this call, Adrian immediately called his brother Thomas Washington, who in turn called the Gentrys' house. Thomas spoke to Ware, and the two argued. Thomas told Ware to stop what he was doing to Kristi, and Ware became angry. Ware asked Thomas whether he "was bulletproof" and threatened to "get [him] and [his] punk-ass brother."

After this conversation, at about 10:00 a.m., Thomas telephoned Kristi's brother Kevin Gentry at his place of employment in Laurel. Along with a co-worker, Kevin then drove to his mother's house, where he confronted Ware, beating him. Afterward, Kevin testified, Ware left the house, went to his car, retrieved a gun and pointed it at Kevin, threatening to kill him. Ware subsequently drove away. When Kevin also drove away to return to work, he came upon Ware returning to the house in his car; according to Kevin, Ware stopped and got out of the car and brandished a gun, as Kevin attempted to run Ware over with his car. Ware escaped harm. Kevin then returned to work in Laurel, arriving there before 12:00 noon.

Deborah Amrhein, a sales clerk at the On Target shooting range and sporting goods store in Severn, told police she saw Ware in the store at about lunch time on December 30. A store manager testified that one box of .380 caliber ammunition of the type and make used by the killer was sold on December 30 at about 12:10 p.m. Neighbors of the Gentrys testified that they saw Appellant arrive back at the house between 12:00 and 12:30 p.m. In his statement to the police, Ware admitted that he owned a .380 caliber handgun. The murder weapon was never found.

At about 12:00 noon, Edward Anderson, an inmate at the Maryland House of Corrections Annex in Jessup and a friend of Kristi, telephoned the house. He spoke to Cynthia, who told him that Ware was in the house and that Kristi and Ware were arguing. Anderson heard Kristi screaming. Then, Anderson heard three gunshots, followed by silence and the sound of someone hanging up the phone. Prison records indicated that this call terminated at 12:31 p.m. Anderson then called neighbors of the Gentrys and asked them to check on the house; neighbor Clyburn Cunningham, Jr. went to the house and rang the doorbell. There was no answer.

Nina Gentry had spoken to Kevin Gentry earlier in the morning when he came, upset, to see her at her workplace, after his encounter with Ware. Some time after noon, she decided to leave work and go to the house. After finding the victims, she called 911. Paramedics and police came to the house. While the police were in the house, Ware called, identified himself, and spoke to police officers. Ware asked if Kristi was there. A police officer asked Ware to come to the house; the officer then departed to look for Ware at an address where he was believed to live. The officer encountered Ware a short distance away, driving toward the house, and arrested him. We will supply additional facts as necessary in discussing the several issues.

Following this Court's reversal of Ware's convictions, he was retried before a jury in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County on July 9 to July 22, 1999 and found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of use of a handgun in the commission of a felony. A sentencing proceeding before the same jury was conducted pursuant to § 413, and Ware was sentenced to death pursuant to the jury's determination. On August 13, 1999, the court sentenced Ware to a term of ten years for the two handgun convictions, to be served consecutively.

II. Jury Selection Issues

Appellant argues that the trial court committed reversible error during jury selection. He makes three arguments: (a) that the trial judge committed reversible error in denying his motions to strike six prospective jurors for cause; (b) that the trial judge committed reversible error in striking two jurors for cause; and (c) that the trial judge committed reversible error in failing to strike, sua sponte, the entire venire panel on the ground that it had been tainted by exposure to media coverage of the case. The State argues that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in ruling on the motions to excuse for cause. As to the court's failure to strike the entire panel, the State maintains that, because this issue was never addressed to the trial court, the issue has not been preserved for appellate review.

A. Denial of Defense Motions to Strike for Cause

The jury selection proceeded in three stages. We glean from the record that, sometime before the trial began, prospective jurors completed a juror questionnaire.⁴ The day before the trial began, the prospective jurors were brought before the judge individually for voir dire questioning. Several venirepersons were excused for cause at this time on the basis of the answers to the questionnaires alone. Each party moved to strike certain jurors for cause; some of these motions were granted, while others were denied or reserved. Finally, on the day of trial, the judge allowed renewal of motions to strike for cause that he had previously denied or reserved. The court then proceeded to select the jury, and the parties exercised their peremptory challenges. The defense exercised nineteen of the twenty peremptory challenges permitted by Maryland Rule 4-313(a)(2), and the State exercised the ten challenges permitted by the rule. Each side exhausted its allotted strikes for the alternates.

Appellant argues that the trial court erred in failing to excuse six prospective jurors for cause, specifically, William Cooper, Sean Haynie, Thomas Leising, Joseph Satterthwait, James McLaughlin, and Sirkka Mitchell. As to Mitchell, Leising, and McLaughlin, the answer is simple. The record reflects that the trial court granted the defense motions to strike for cause. The trial judge denied the motions initially, but, when Appellant renewed his motions to strike for cause during the final stage of jury selection, the court excused these individuals. The remaining three prospective jurors, Cooper, Haynie, and Satterthwait, did not serve on the jury; Appellant exercised a peremptory challenge to excuse each juror.

We need not decide whether the trial judge erred in declining to excuse prospective jurors Cooper, Haynie, or Satterthwait because, even if there was error, it was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See Dorsey v. State, 276 Md. 638, 659, 350 A.2d 665, 678 (1976)

. As noted, Appellant did not exhaust his peremptory challenges. "If disqualification for cause is improperly denied, but the accused has not exercised all allowable peremptory challenges, there is no reversible error." White v. State, 300 Md. 719, 729, 481 A.2d 201, 205 (1984). Additionally, none of the challenged prospective jurors served on the jury; consequently, it is clear beyond a reasonable doubt that any alleged bias and/or knowledge of the case could not have influenced the verdict either as to the conviction or as to the sentence. Id. at 728, 481 A.2d at 205 (stating that "the claimed bias of [a prospective juror unsuccessfully challenged for cause] did not influence the verdict because [the prospective juror] did not serve on the jury").

B. Granting of Prosecution Motions to Strike for Cause

Appellant argues that the trial court should not have excused prospective jurors Marsha Santo and Donald Rabb for cause. In the case of Rabb, Appellant asserts that he should not have been excused because he indicated that he could put aside his personal reservations...