Wilson v. State
| Decision Date | 26 April 2002 |
| Citation | 874 So.2d 1131 |
| Parties | Antywan Develle WILSON v. STATE of Alabama. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
Henry L. Penick, Birmingham, for appellant.
William H. Pryor, Jr., atty. gen., and Sandra J. Stewart and Michael B. Billingsley, asst. attys. gen., for appellee.
On August 7, 1998, Antywan Develle Wilson was indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury for first-degree robbery, a violation of § 13A-8-41, Ala.Code 1975, and for attempted murder, a violation of §§ 13A-4-2 and 13A-6-2, Ala.Code 1975. Wilson's case was consolidated with that of Trumaine Arrington, who was charged with the same crimes against the same victim. On November 11, 1998, Wilson served the Jefferson County district attorney with a motion to produce or disclose any information and documents exculpatory to this case. On March 4, 2000, the district attorney responded to Wilson's discovery request, but did not produce statements from the victim, the defendants, or witnesses. On March 15, 2000, Wilson communicated to the district attorney's office that the production "conspicuously lacked statements from the victim, the defendants, or any witnesses." (C. 111.) The district attorney did not produce the additional exculpatory material requested by Wilson. The case was tried on April 18, 2000, but ended in a mistrial when the jury was unable to reach a verdict.
Wilson's second trial, also consolidated with Arrington's, began on November 6, 2000. During this trial, Wilson made a motion for a mistrial when he discovered that the district attorney had failed to produce certain exculpatory material that indicated that three witnesses had identified someone other than Wilson and Arrington as the perpetrators. Although his motion for a mistrial was denied, the trial judge agreed that the evidence was exculpatory and that it should have been produced, and allowed Wilson to question Detective Cory Hardiman about the witnesses' identifications of two other men as the perpetrators.
On November 8, 2000, Wilson was convicted of first-degree robbery and attempted murder.1 On January 26, 2001, Wilson was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the robbery conviction, and to 30 years in prison for the attempted-murder conviction. Those sentences were to run concurrently. Wilson filed a notice of appeal as to both convictions that same day. On February 26, 2001, Wilson filed a "motion for judgment of acquittal or in the alternative for new trial or arrest of judgment" for both convictions. (C. 80-81.) The trial court denied the motion on April 12, 2001. This appeal followed. On January 20, 1998, between 9:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., Willie Hamilton was walking in the Gate City housing project in Birmingham. Hamilton was a resident of the housing project. Hamilton had with him a box of children's clothes he was trying to sell. Hamilton approached two men and asked if they were interested in purchasing the clothes. One of the men asked to see the clothes, and then put the box in the trunk of his car. Hamilton demanded that the men either return the clothes or pay for them. One of the men, using a profane phrase, told Hamilton to go away. When Hamilton refused to leave without the clothes, the two men huddled together for a brief period, and then one of the men shot Hamilton five times.
Wilson and Arrington were apprehended within an hour of the shooting, approximately one block from the scene, driving a car matching a description of the suspects' car. Arrington was taken into custody at that time for unrelated offenses, but Wilson was released at the scene. Wilson later went to the police station and answered additional questions. Approximately two weeks after this questioning, Wilson was taken into custody. In a pretrial photographic lineup, and in open court, Hamilton identified Wilson as the shooter and Arrington as the man who was with Wilson on the date of the incident.
On appeal, Wilson argues that the trial court erroneously denied his motion for a mistrial when the prosecutor failed to produce exculpatory evidence. Specifically, Wilson contends that he was entitled to a mistrial because, he says, the prosecutor failed to produce Detective Hardiman's case notes that contained statements given by three witnesses, in which the three witnesses identified someone other than the defendants as the assailants.2 We agree.
"A mistrial is a drastic remedy that should be used sparingly and only to prevent manifest injustice." Hammonds v. State, 777 So.2d 750, 767 (Ala.Crim.App. 1999). A mistrial is the appropriate remedy when a fundamental error in a trial vitiates its result. Levett v. State, 593 So.2d 130, 135 (Ala.Crim.App.1991). The granting of a mistrial is addressed to the broad discretion of the trial judge, and his ruling in that regard will not be reversed on appeal unless it clearly appears that the court abused its discretion. Grimsley v. State, 678 So.2d 1197, 1206 (Ala.Crim.App. 1996), citing Chillous v. State, 405 So.2d 58 (Ala.Crim.App.1981).
The principles announced in Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), are violated when the prosecutor suppresses material evidence favorable to the defendant. Hardy v. State, 804 So.2d 247, 285 (Ala.Crim.App. 1999), aff'd, 804 So.2d 298 (Ala.2000). Evidence is material if there is a reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different if the evidence had been disclosed prior to trial. Id.
At Wilson's first trial, Detective Hardiman testified that three witnesses he interviewed at the scene of the shooting did not identify anyone. Because we do not have the transcript from the first trial, it is unclear exactly what Detective Hardiman was testifying to in the first trial. The State contends that the detective was testifying that the three witnesses did not identify anyone from a photographic lineup, while Wilson contends that the statement meant they did not identify anyone at any time.
Regardless of what Detective Hardiman was testifying to in the first trial, nothing in the record before us gives any indication that his testimony should have lead a reasonable person to believe that the three witnesses had identified "B" and "Bouty Bouty" as the assailants. The first trial resulted in a hung jury, and the trial court declared a mistrial and ordered a second trial.
On November 11, 1998, Wilson, in his discovery motion, requested that the State produce any Brady material and any exculpatory evidence. On March 4, 2000, the prosecutor provided Wilson with some discovery material, but did not include any witness statements or any incident reports or notes made by investigating officers. On March 15, 2000, Wilson again requested any police reports or statements from the defendants, victim, or witnesses. Wilson did receive a police report that contained the names of the three witnesses. The prosecutor also provided a copy of the incident report to Arrington, but not to Wilson. However, nothing in the incident report offered any indication that any of the three witnesses had identified someone other than Wilson and Arrington as the perpetrators.
At Wilson's second trial, Officer Michael Johnson testified that Hamilton indicated that the two black males who had shot and robbed him had come from a building later identified as 6822 Kimberley Avenue. Officer Johnson identified Wilson's exhibit 1 as a standard police incident report that he had written following this incident. That report contained the following summary of statements given by witnesses and the victim:
(CR. 106-08; CR. 153-55.)3 Officer Johnson testified that he spoke with Dalanda Bryant, Akia Julius, and Telisha Hickman, and other individuals whose names he was unable to ascertain. Bryant, Julius, and Hickman were inside the residence at 6822 Kimberly Avenue when the shooting occurred. Officer Anthony Wallace testified that he also questioned three females at 6822 Kimberly Avenue and that he joined in Officer Johnson's incident report. Officer Wallace stated that he went back to 6822 Kimberly Avenue approximately one hour later to obtain additional information from the three females, but there was no answer when he knocked on the door.
Detective Cory Hardiman testified that Hamilton identified Wilson as the man who shot him. Detective Hardiman also testified that Richard Shields, another witness, identified Arrington.4
During cross-examination of Detective Hardiman, the following exchange occurred:
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Wilson v. State
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