Wilson v. State
| Decision Date | 06 May 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 62,62 |
| Citation | 345 Md. 437,693 A.2d 344 |
| Parties | Eric T. WILSON, v. STATE of Maryland. Sept.Term., 1996. |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Devy Patterson Russell, Assistant Attorney General (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Attorney General, on brief), Baltimore, for Respondent.
Argued before BELL, C.J., and ELDRIDGE, RODOWSKY, CHASANOW, KARWACKI, RAKER and WILNER, JJ.
Petitioner, Eric Wilson, was convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City of possession of heroin, for which he was sentenced to two years in prison. In this appeal, he complains that the court erred in refusing to issue a body attachment for one of his witnesses, whom he had duly subpoenaed and who failed to appear in court. In an unreported opinion, the Court of Special Appeals found no merit to that complaint and affirmed the judgment. We shall reverse.
Wilson was arrested when the police discovered and terminated a drug operation being conducted in the 1800 block of N. Chapel Street on the afternoon of September 16, 1994. There is really no dispute that such an operation was being conducted. Wilson's defense was that he was not part of it.
Officer Michael Burkette testified that he covertly surveilled that block of Chapel Street from 3:00 to 3:20 p.m. and observed 30 to 40 people, some with money in their hand, walk into the area, loiter a bit, enter an alley that ran between Chapel and Washington Streets, return in a minute or two, and then briskly leave the area. Although he was unable to observe anything that happened in the alley, which was beyond his vision, Officer Burkette believed that he was witnessing a drug operation, and he therefore called for an arrest team.
Two members of the arrest team also testified. Officer Thomas Jeffries, upon receiving the call from Officer Burkette, drove into the alley behind the 1800 block of N. Chapel Street and observed Wilson stuffing what appeared to be a plastic bag into a fence post. Jeffries shouted "there he is," or words to that effect, and jumped out of the car, whereupon Wilson ran into the rear of 1827 N. Chapel Street. Officer Officer Cooper also saw Wilson run into the rear of 1827 N. Chapel Street, without knocking. Cooper chased him into the house, up the stairs, and into a second floor bathroom. Cooper said that, although he was only 10 feet behind Wilson, he was unable to get upstairs before he heard a toilet flush. He testified that Wilson had no time actually to use the bathroom, that the bathroom door was open, and that Wilson was facing away from the toilet. Officer Cooper saw some women in the house but no other men.
Jeffries did not chase Wilson, although he saw fellow Officer Christopher Cooper run into the house; instead, Jeffries went to the fence post, where he found a plastic bag containing 11 gelatin capsules of white powder that later was determined to be heroin. As soon as he retrieved that bag, he yelled a signal to Officer Cooper to arrest Wilson. Officer Jeffries said he remembered seeing other people in the alley and that there may have been people sitting on the steps of the house.
The defense case was presented through the testimony of Wilson and Shantae Jennings, both of whom told a somewhat different story from that related by the police officers. Ms. Jennings stated that she was sitting on the steps at the rear of 1827 N. Chapel watching the drug sales in the alley. The house in question was then being occupied by her friend, Andrea Coleman, who was in the kitchen with Jacqueline Harris. She saw Wilson come down the alley wearing a backpack. Wilson asked Ms. Jennings to accompany him to his house but, when she agreed, said that he first had to go to the bathroom and entered Ms. Coleman's house for that purpose. Just then, she said, one or more of the drug ring's lookouts yelled "Roy," a code word for the approach of the police, and all of the men ran. Some ran down the alley, but four ran into Ms. Coleman's house. One of the men who ran into the house was "Be Boy"--he was the person Ms. Jennings said was actually selling the drugs.
According to Ms. Jennings, the police spent about 10 minutes searching in the alley and then found the drugs. The Wilson testified that he was a student at Morgan State University and that he went by the rear of N. Chapel Street to visit friends on his way home from classes. He confirmed the version of events given by Ms. Jennings--that he asked her to accompany him to his house, that she agreed, and that he went upstairs to use the bathroom before leaving. While in the bathroom, with the door closed, he heard a commotion. As the bathroom door opened--he did not indicate who opened it--he saw police officers at the doorway, one of whom said, "There he is." The officers took him into custody, searched him, and then handcuffed him. Only then, according to Wilson, did the officers outside indicate that they had found the drugs. Wilson denied that the drugs belonged to him, although he acknowledged knowing "Be Boy" and the other men who were in the alley.
next time she saw Wilson was some 15 minutes later, when an officer brought him, handcuffed, out of the house.
Wilson was initially charged with breaking and entering Ms. Coleman's house, along with the possession offense. The court granted his motion for judgment of acquittal as to the breaking and entering charge at the end of the State's case.
Wilson's trial commenced at 10:00 a.m. on June 15, 1995. Immediately after selection of the jury, defense counsel informed the court that she had submitted requests for subpoenas for Andrea Coleman and Jacqueline Harris but that it did not appear that those subpoenas had been served. She said that she had prepared new subpoenas for those witnesses, whose testimony she contended was "imperative for the defense," and intended to have them served by private process server at noontime. The court made no substantive comment, and the trial then began.
The State concluded its case in the early afternoon, at which point counsel noted that one of her witnesses--Ms. Jennings--was in court but that she had received no word with respect to Ms. Coleman or Ms. Harris, neither of whom was in court.
The court had indicated that it would recess by 3:30. Counsel thereupon proceeded with the testimony of Ms. Jennings and Mr. Wilson. Court recessed at 3:11 p.m. Before excusing the jury, the court announced that the case would resume at 2:00 p.m. the next day.
When trial resumed at 2:14 p.m. on June 16, neither Mr. Wilson nor the two other witnesses were in court. Counsel informed the court that Ms. Coleman had been served with a subpoena, and she asked for a body attachment. Apparently miffed at Wilson's absence, the court asked why it should "subpoena a witness for the defendant who refuses to come to court." Counsel responded that she had filed a proper request for subpoena on June 7, that the subpoena issued the day before had, in fact, been served at Ms. Coleman's new address, which she gave to the court, and that the witness had been ordered to report by 1:30. She urged that, with or without Wilson, she "can't go forward without this particular witness...." The court responded, without any foundation for its remark, that 1
After some further brief discussion, Mr. Wilson appeared and said that he did want Ms. Coleman to testify. He indicated that he had attempted to reach her by telephone but that the phone had been disconnected. There was some further indication that he had intended to pick up the witness and bring her to court. Although counsel said that she did not know where Ms. Coleman was at the moment, she did have the woman's new address and asked that the sheriff be dispatched.
The court initially agreed, if a sheriff was immediately available, and it asked the deputy sheriff in the courtroom to check to see if another deputy could be sent to the new address. It noted: After a pause, the courtroom deputy returned to inform the court that, because of an amnesty program operating that day, "they just can't turn nobody loose." When the prosecutor suggested that the witness was only going to testify with respect to the breaking and entering charge, which had already been disposed of, counsel responded that that was not the case--that Ms. Coleman "would be offering the viewpoint of being inside the house."
The court then concluded that "we can't execute a body attachment today and we have no alternative but to proceed to conclusion." Counsel objected and asked for a postponement, which the court denied. The court noted that it had recessed early the day before and started late that day because of its own schedule, and that it did not intend to bring the jury back again on a third day. It said:
Counsel...
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