Watkins v. State

• Decision Date: 01 September 1983
• Docket Number: No. 1639,1639
• Citation: 59 Md.App. 705,478 A.2d 326
• Parties: Charles WATKINS v. STATE of Maryland. ,
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 705

59 Md.App. 705

478 A.2d 326

Charles WATKINS v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 1639, Sept. Term, 1983.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

July 17, 1984.

W. Anthony Fitch, Washington, D.C., with whom was Kenneth M. Robinson, Washington, D.C., on the brief, for appellant.

Richard E. Israel, Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom was Stephen H. Sachs, Atty. Gen. of Maryland, on the brief, for appellee.

Argued before WILNER, GARRITY and BELL, JJ.

WILNER, Judge.

Appellant was convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County of second degree murder, false imprisonment, and use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence. Upon these convictions, he was given consecutive prison sentences of 30 years, 10 years, and 15 years, respectively. In this appeal, he makes the following five complaints:

"I. The trial court's failure to conduct an adequate inquiry into appellant's pretrial claim of ineffective assistance deprived appellant of the right to effective assistance of counsel guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

II. The court below erroneously admitted defendant's statements into evidence when those statements had been obtained from him through trickery and artifice and in violation of an agreement between his attorney and the prosecutor that was not superceded by a waiver of his Miranda rights.

III. The court should have granted appellant's motion to strike the testimony of the two State's witnesses who twice violated the rule on witnesses and did so, in one of those instances, at the behest of the Assistant State's Attorney.

IV. The court below erred in denying appellant's motion for a judgment of acquittal on the false imprisonment count because the State adduced no evidence from which a reasonable juror could conclude that Harris had been imprisoned or detained against his will at any time.

V. The trial court committed plain error when it failed anywhere in its final instructions to provide the jury with any guidance whatsoever on the critical evidentiary issues in the case."

As we find no reversible error, we shall affirm.

The charges against appellant arose from the execution-like, drug-related slaying of one Eddie Harris on June 23, 1981. The dramatis personae are appellant, the victim Harris, Darren Brigman, and Ronnie Wilder, all of whom were involved in the trafficking of heroin, and Detective John San Felice, who interrogated appellant on three occasions. The evidence showed that on the day of the murder, appellant met Harris at a schoolyard in the District of Columbia, persuaded Harris to accompany him to test some drugs, drove with him, Brigman, and Wilder in Brigman's car into Maryland, led him into a wooded area, and shot him five times.

The motive, as asserted by the State, was a bit complex. Some six months before the killing, appellant had been given an ounce of pure heroin on consignment to cut and bag for street sale. The street value of the heroin was about $25,000. Appellant had Brigman and Wilder dilute and bag the heroin, which appellant then apparently sold. Due to his own financial difficulties, however, appellant was unable to pay his supplier; he spent the money earned from the resale without paying for the cost of the goods sold. As a defense to the imposition of the supplier's anticipated collection efforts, appellant desired to convince the supplier that Harris had stolen the money from Brigman. Somehow, the episode of June 23, was part of that endeavor.

Most of the damaging evidence against appellant came from Brigman, Wilder, and San Felice.

(1) Assistance of Counsel

Although the crimes charged to appellant occurred in June, 1981, he was not indicted until December, 1982. Counsel, in the person of William G. Parker, Jr., entered his appearance on March 2, 1983. He was privately retained and represented appellant throughout the six-month pre-trial period (trial commenced September 26, 1983).

On September 22--four days before trial--appellant wrote to the court clerk, complaining that Mr. Parker "does not have my best interest at heart", that their relationship "is suffering a constant conflict of interest", and that "he has destroyed my confidence in his desire to render me adequate assistance of counsel." He complained in particular that Parker had "refused to inform me of all the evidence against me and will not enlighten me regarding the extent of his pre-trial preparations." He stated that counsel had urged him to "plead guilty to charges I am not guilty of." He asked that Parker be removed from the case, asserting that "this is not a delay tactic, but an attempt to salvage my 6th and 14th amendment rights."

On the morning of trial, just after the jury was sworn, appellant repeated his request that Mr. Parker be discharged, and asked that a public defender be appointed in his place. In support of that motion, he told the court:

"Your Honor, the following list of circumstances surely demonstrates Mr. Parker's deliberate abdication of his ethical and legal duty to faithfully represent me in this matter. Mr. Parker has not confided in me regarding one iota of the pretrial preparations, leaving me to think there has been no investigation of my case by Mr. Parker whatsoever. There has been no witness conference. I have only been shown a very very small portion of the discovery evidence. Mr. Parker has not interviewed State's witnesses. If he has any information in this regard, he has refused to inform me of it. My parents are angry and disgusted with Mr. Parker's conduct and lack of progress. Mr. Parker's attitude toward both my parents and myself has been totally unprofessional. Mr. Parker has adopted an attitude of negativity with me because I do not have information, names, dates, et cetera, that he says I should know. Mr. Parker has constantly pressed me to testify for the government in the case regarding things I know nothing of and he has insisted I help the State's Attorney in another prosecution I know nothing about. His advice to me thus far is to take a plea to twenty-five years on a charge I am not guilty of and to cooperate with the government. My parents have paid Mr. Parker from their meager savings and he has taken advantage of all of us."

In response, counsel pointed out that he had been representing appellant for two years, that he had been to see appellant "on immeasurable instances", and had made his office available to appellant's parents at least once a week. The problem, he said, was that he got no cooperation from appellant. Specifically:

"I have asked Mr. Watkins to furnish me with a list of witnesses. He has only given me one. That individual has been summoned. I have asked Mr. Watkins to give me places and names of individuals who could say where he was on the day the instances took place. He has failed to do so. I have asked him to give me any information which would be beneficial to me in planning his defense. He has failed to do that. I wrote him a letter, which I believe is part of the Court jacket, copy to Your Honor, copy to his parents, which said that I would come over and see him on the 13th day of September and if he didn't have information then for me in order to prepare his defense, I would ask to withdraw from the case. When I went over to see him, he furnished me with certain information, which he said I could prove by way of the polygraph examination.

With the assistance of Mr. David Simpson, who I have been in contact with in this case, we took Mr. Watkins to the Prince George's County Police Department, where he took a polygraph examination, which showed he was deceptive on almost every question, especially the information he gave me relative to preparing his defense. I have gone over with Mr. Watkins in detail the State's case. I have not only shown him, but his parents, all the statements which have been given and his parents, as a matter of fact, have a copy of all the statements that have been given by the State's witnesses to Mr. Simpson and to the Police Department.

Your Honor, as best I could, with no cooperation from Mr. Watkins, I believe I have amply prepared his defense. I'd also add that Mr. Watkins has constantly given his parents one bit of information, while he has made certain statements to me which may make him or may not make him culpable of certain offenses, which I certainly couldn't talk to anyone about, including his parents, because of attorney-client privilege. He's aware of that and constantly has been using his parents as a wedge between he and I."

The prosecutor, Mr. Simpson, stated that he had provided "open file" discovery to Mr. Parker, and that Mr. Parker "has everything that I have." He said that Mr. Parker had been in contact with him "on a three times a week basis", and that he had been given "copies of statements and reports that I wouldn't even normally do as far as utilizing our own facilities." He confirmed that Mr. Parker was instrumental in persuading him to give appellant a polygraph examination, "which I don't normally do," because "Mr. Parker convinced me that perhaps because of things he found out, it might shed some further light in this case". Continuing "[t]he State went through quite a bit of trouble and expense to have the Defendant administered the lie detector test, which he flunked miserably."

Finally, the court was informed that counsel had spoken with all of the "civilian witnesses," but that there were two witnesses who were inmates in institutions outside of Maryland that neither the prosecutor nor Mr. Parker had interviewed. The reference, apparently, was to Brigman and Wilder, who had been mentioned extensively in the statements appellant had given to the police, which statements were, of course, given to Mr. Parker.

Upon this record, the court concluded:

"Well, Mr. Watkins, sometimes people ask for a change of attorney in order to get a delay of the trial. The only basis for...