Williams v. State

831 A.2d 501 (2003) 152 Md. App. 190 Tony WILLIAMS v. STATE of Maryland. No. 2161, Sept. Term, 2002. Court of Special Appeals of Maryland. September 4, 2003. ⁵⁰² Fred Warren Bennett, Robert W. Biddle (Bennett & Biddle, L.L.P., on brief), Baltimore, for appellant.

Annabelle L. Lisic, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty.

Gen., on brief), Baltimore, for appellee. Argued before SONNER, THEODORE G. BLOOM (Retired, specially assigned) and PAMELA L. NORTH (Specially assigned), JJ. BLOOM, J. In this case, we are called upon to decide the extent of, or limits on, a prosecutor's duty to inform a defendant of impeachment evidence, in accordance with Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 , 83 S.Ct. 1194 , 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). On 24 May 2001, Tony Williams, appellant, filed a petition for post conviction relief, in which he contended that at his trial for murder the State of Maryland, appellee, failed to disclose material impeachment evidence regarding the State's principal witness, a jailhouse snitch.

Appellant maintained that the State's violation of Brady, supra, entitled him to a new trial. In the spring of 1998, appellant was charged with the first and second degree murder of Dana Rochelle Drake (the "victim"), with using a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence, and with wearing, carrying, or transporting a handgun. Following a trial in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, held 2 February 1999 through 10 February 1999 (Cannon, J. presiding), appellant was convicted on all counts. On 21 April 1999, after the lesser included offenses were merged, appellant was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder and an additional twenty year term for the handgun violation.

During the trial, the State proved that on 21 February 1998, Drake was fatally shot outside of her apartment complex in northeast Baltimore. There was no forensic evidence connecting appellant to the murder. The State relied heavily on the testimony of Sean Williams, [1] a jailhouse snitch, who testified that appellant confessed to the murder while the two were incarcerated together. Following his conviction and review of sentence by a three-judge panel in the circuit court, appellant appealed his conviction to this Court on the limited ground of sufficiency of the evidence.

In an unpublished opinion filed 23 March 2000, we affirmed, concluding that the State's evidence was sufficient to support appellant's conviction. Williams v. State, No. 765, Sept. Term 1999 (filed March 23, 2000), cert. denied, 359 Md. 330 (2000). Thereafter, on 24 May 2001, appellant filed the post conviction petition. On 1 and 2 May, 17 July, and 26 August 2002, the court (Waxter, Jr., J. presiding), held hearings on appellant's petition.

By its Memorandum Opinion dated 24 September 2002, the court denied appellant's request for post conviction relief, ruling that there had been no Brady violation. By its Order and Supplemental Opinion, dated 9 October 2002, the court subsequently denied ⁵⁰³ appellant's motion to alter or amend the court's judgment. In this appeal from the denial of his post conviction petition, appellant presents two interrelated questions for our review: I. Did the circuit court err in absolving the State of any duty to disclose exculpatory impeachment information where police officers and an Assistant State's Attorney knew of the exculpatory impeachment information but did not convey that information to the police officers and prosecutor assigned to prosecute Appellant?

II

Is there a substantial possibility that the exculpatory impeachment information withheld by the State would, if properly disclosed, have affected the jury's verdict, thus requiring a new trial? In its brief, the State frames the question as follows: I. Did the State not withhold material evidence favorable to Williams in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 , 83 S.Ct. 1194 , 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963)? For the reasons that follow, we shall reverse and remand for a new trial. FACTUAL SUMMARY [2] A. Facts Pertinent to Trial The victim died as a result of a gunshot wound to her head and another gunshot wound to her back, incurred following her return home from a social event.

The police discovered her body at approximately 4:30 a.m. on the morning of 21 February 1998, after responding to a call from appellant about the shooting. Officer Richard Gibson of the Baltimore City Police Department, Northern District, testified that, at approximately 4:30 a.m., he met appellant at a pay phone outside a bar in the 5900 block of York Road. Gibson then followed appellant's red Corvette to an apartment building on Marjorie Lane. After appellant informed Gibson that the victim's body was located inside the building, Gibson discovered the victim, lying in a "pool of blood" in the stairwell.

She had no pulse. After other officers arrived to secure the crime scene, Gibson returned to appellant. Appellant told Gibson that he and the victim had previously been romantically involved, but were not currently involved. He also said that the victim's new boyfriend had threatened to kill her.

Gibson recalled that appellant's demeanor was "very calm, very polite," and "very cooperative." Moreover, he stated that appellant did not seem sad or unhappy, did not inquire as to whether the victim was still alive, and did not inquire as to how she had been hurt. Gibson also testified that appellant did not ask about either the victim or appellant's daughter. The victim's friends and relatives testified at trial as to her relationship with appellant. According to Wanda Drake, the victim's sister, the victim and appellant were engaged in June or July of 1997, and the victim wore an engagement ring for approximately two months.

Thereafter, she returned the ring to appellant to be sized. The victim's sister further explained that she last spoke with the victim on 20 February 1998 at "about 7:00, 7:30." The victim had told her sister that she was going to a disco that night and planned to shop for a dinette set the next morning. ⁵⁰⁴ The victim's sister recalled receiving a telephone call "around four-thirty" the next morning from appellant, who told her to "come get my sister" and to call 911. Thereafter, the victim's sister and appellant had a three-way conversation with 911. At that time, the victim's sister learned that appellant had already contacted the police, saying that his fiancée was hurt.

During Drake's testimony, a tape of the 911 call was admitted into evidence. A transcript of the tape was distributed to the jury for demonstrative purposes. During the 911 call, appellant stated that his "girlfriend just got shot" "in our apartment complex." When asked for the address, appellant claimed: "I just moved in with her" and "I don't know the address." The victim's sister testified, however, that after completing the three-way call to 911, she and appellant continued speaking on the phone, and appellant gave her directions to the victim's apartment within "a couple of minutes." Michelle Hall, the victim's co-worker, testified that she talked with the victim on the telephone at approximately "eight, eight-thirty" on the night of 20 February 1998, to discuss their attire for the party that evening. The victim told Hall that appellant wanted to attend the party, at which time appellant and Hall discussed the arrangements on the phone.

According to Hall, however, appellant did not appear at the event. [3] Hall recalled that appellant took her home after the party. Teresa Clark, a friend of appellant's who had attended the party, confirmed that the victim was engaged to appellant sometime in 1997, but that she had returned the ring to appellant shortly thereafter to be properly sized. Clark recalled that she did not see the victim wear the ring to work again. David Morgan testified that he had also dated the victim and described their relationship as one that was "off and on ... very close." He denied that he and the victim were ever "girlfriend boyfriend." Morgan said he was unaware that the victim had ever been engaged, but recalled that appellant followed him on numerous occasions and questioned him about his relationship with the victim.

Morgan said that his relationship with the victim ended sometime in the summer of 1997. Morgan's new girlfriend, Jannella Stafford, testified that she was with Morgan at his home on 21 February 1998, from approximately 1:30 a.m. until approximately 6:45 a.m. Morgan explained that after the victim's death he was informed by a friend that he was a suspect in the case. As a result, Morgan went to the police station to give a formal statement.

As Morgan put it, he gave the statement in order to "clear my name." Two neighbors living in the victim's apartment building also testified at appellant's trial. Shannond Fair explained that he was awakened by a woman's scream, then the sound of two or three gunshots, at approximately 2:00 a.m. or 3:00 a.m. Fair recalled that he looked out of the window and saw a man run from the building and up the street. He was unable, however, to identify the man "facially," but stated that he "knew the person had on dark clothing." On cross-examination, Fair stated that, in a statement to a private investigator hired by defense counsel taken within three months of the shooting, he had said: "All I saw was a male, dark ⁵⁰⁵ complexion, wearing all black that could have been anyone...." Another neighbor, Brenda O'Carroll, who lived one floor below the victim, recollected hearing two separate sets of gunshots.

According to O'Carroll, the first set of shots was fired outside the apartment building. O'Carroll testified, "Then the front door [to the apartment building] opened and someone came in and then the door opened upstairs and then the door opened again and somebody was coming downstairs...." She then heard a man "having words" with a woman. Thereafter, she heard a second set of shots from the hallway, followed by a faint knocking at her door. She further testified that she saw appellant, whom she recognized from speaking with him that same afternoon, jump into a car and "then he rode out like Speedy Gonzales." Upon opening the door to her apartment "[about] fifteen minutes" after hearing the shots from the hallway, O'Carroll found the victim.

On cross-examination, O'Carroll testified that she heard "two [shots] outside, ten minutes goes by, and ... one [shot] inside." Moreover, although she admitted that she could not see appellant shooting at the victim outside, O'Carroll stated that she saw the victim park her car and appellant pull his car over to the side of the road, across the street. Thereafter, she saw the victim "running trying to get away" and appellant "running after her" shooting two shots. She also testified, however, that she only got "up out of the bed" after hearing the argument ensuing in the foyer of the building, which, according to O'Carroll's testimony, occurred only after the shooting outside. Charles Frank, a part time gun dealer at Valley Gun on Harford Road, [4] testified that he delivered a .22 caliber handgun to appellant on 15 February 1998.

Scientific evidence established that the cartridge casings found at the crime scene did not have appellant's fingerprints on them. Moreover, although appellant informed police that he had fired his gun earlier that day, no gunshot residue was found on his hands. Appellant's fiancée at the time of trial, Terri Whittaker, also testified for the State. She explained that she and appellant had dated since 1996 and got engaged in December of 1997; they planned a wedding for May of 1999.

She stated that they had "broken up" in January 1998, although she testified that, as of the time of trial, she still considered herself "his fiancée." II. According to Whittaker, as of "somewhere between October and November" of 1997, appellant was $94,530 in debt. During her testimony, she identified an engagement ring as the one that appellant had purchased for her, in her presence. When the police searched appellant's car, a receipt for that engagement ring, valued at $11,500 and dated 13 October 1997, was found in the car.

The State proceeded on the theory that appellant killed Drake because he was heavily in debt and was the beneficiary on her insurance policy. In support of its theory, the State offered the testimony of James Dick, an insurance agent who recalled that he first met appellant with the victim during the second week in April of 1996. At that time, appellant purchased a life insurance policy with a $100,000 ⁵⁰⁶ spouse rider for the victim, who was listed as his common-law wife. Appellant was the victim's beneficiary, and appellant's mother was the contingent beneficiary.

On 5 February 1998, appellant met with Dick alone, to set up an IRA, with his daughter as beneficiary. Dick further testified that, following the victim's death, he processed appellant's claim for benefits, which appellant requested as a lump sum. On 21 June 1998, the policy was terminated for lapse of payment. Police found the policy on a table in appellant's apartment.

After his arrest, appellant was held in the Baltimore City Jail, in a cell adjacent to the one occupied by Sean Williams, who was incarcerated for possession of a controlled dangerous substance. On direct examination, Williams admitted that he had a criminal record for various crimes including "unauthorized use, ... possession of a handgun, ... theft," and burglary. Williams testified that appellant told him various details of the crime, over "two, three days." According to Williams, appellant admitted that he had taken out a life insurance policy on his fiancée and stood to receive the proceeds; that he and his cousin had gone to the victim's apartment around 3:50 a.m.; that he and the victim had argued; and that he killed the victim for the insurance money because "he [was] in debt, like a $100,000 in debt...." Williams recalled appellant telling him that he had recently purchased a $17,000 engagement ring, and that he had a $3,000 ring in the car when he shot the victim. Williams further testified that appellant said that he had purchased a .22 caliber handgun, the same caliber as the gun linked to the victim's death by forensic evidence.

According to Williams, appellant said that he had the receipt when he was arrested, but had given the gun to his cousin for disposal. Williams testified that, after hearing appellant's confession, he reported it to homicide detectives. After dialing the general information line for the Homicide Division, Williams was connected with Detective Darryl Massey, one of the detectives in charge of the investigation. Williams was then transported to the Homicide Unit, where he gave a recorded statement to Detective Massey.

According to Williams, he was promised nothing in exchange for the information. He testified: [STATE]: Did [Detective Massey] promise you anything? [WILLIAMS]: No, he didn't. * * * [STATE]: Did he say he would help you with your pending charges [for CDS possession]? [WILLIAMS]: No, he didn't. [STATE]: Has he ever helped you with anything before? [WILLIAMS]: No, he hasn't. [STATE]: So you just did this out of the kindness of your heart? [WILLIAMS]: Yes I did. (Emphasis added.) Williams also denied that " anyone from the State's Attorney[`s] Office" promised him "anything," as well as that "anyone in the State's Attorney's Office or from the police department initiated any contact" with him "in reference to this case...." According to Williams, he was getting "nothing" "out of all of this...." On cross-examination, Williams admitted that, in addition to the present case, he had testified in another case in which a defendant had confessed to murder while incarcerated with him. Furthermore, counsel for appellant questioned Williams as to his previous convictions for robbery, ⁵⁰⁷ drug possession, theft, handgun possession, and unauthorized use.

Williams also admitted that he had violated both his parole and his probation. He insisted, however, that he had not sought or received any promises of leniency for his testimony against appellant. He explained that he testified because he was a "good citizen," "against handguns" and "murders." In closing argument, the State argued that Williams's testimony was credible and confirmed appellant's guilt. It contended: Why did [appellant] talk to Shawn [sic] Williams?

I don't know. Why did Shawn [sic] Williams contact Homicide? Was it out of the goodness of his heart? Could have been.

Was it because he said he never really hurt anybody? Could have been. Was it because he thought he was going to get something for it? Could have been.

What he did and the information he gave was all corroborated. It fell right in line with everything that was already there. During deliberation, the jury asked for the recorded interview that Williams had given homicide detectives. The court denied the request because, although the tape was marked for identification, it had not been admitted into evidence.

B. Facts Pertinent to Post Conviction Hearings As previously noted, on 10 February 1999, the jury found appellant guilty on all counts. Thereafter, on 21 April 1999, appellant was sentenced to imprisonment for life, plus twenty years. On May 24, 2001, appellant filed a post conviction petition on the basis of newly discovered evidence, contending that the State failed to disclose impeachment information regarding Williams, its key witness, in accordance with Brady, supra . [5] The court held hearings on appellant's petition on 1 and 2 May, 17 July, and 26 August 2002. What follows is a summary of the facts adduced at the hearings.

Detective Gerald Hensley, a detective for the Baltimore City Police Department, Eastern District, testified that Williams had been a paid police informant for the Eastern District drug unit for at least ten years. According to Hensley, from 1991 to 1998, Hensley registered Williams as a confidential informant, gave him a "C.I." number, and paid him a specified, pre-determined amount for information leading to arrests for guns, drugs, or both. He further explained that, in July 1998, Williams had been charged with stealing both a battery and a police cruiser from the police department, Eastern District. Nevertheless, because of his cooperation and value in drug arrests, Williams received "time served" on the battery theft charge and a "stet" on the theft of the police cruiser.

Hensley admitted, however, that confidential informants are not centrally registered; that the Baltimore City Police Department, with more than nine districts, is not computerized; and that, while Hensley was in regular contact with Williams, other detectives and headquarters were not informed of Williams's cooperation and involvement with the police. By way of example, Hensley testified that he was unaware of Williams's assistance in homicide cases, never having conversed with Williams regarding any homicide investigation. According to Hensley, his discussions ⁵⁰⁸ with Williams were limited to narcotics cases. Larry Rogers, the Assistant Public Defender who represented Williams in connection with the 1998 burglary and theft charges arising from the police cruiser incident, also testified at the hearings.

He explained that Williams had confessed to the theft and faced a seven-year sentence. Rogers also stated that he had obtained information from Detective Hensley about Williams's status as an informant. Rogers corroborated Hensley's testimony that the charges against Williams were stetted in exchange for narcotics information provided by Williams. Rogers testified, however, that no discussion occurred regarding any homicide cases, nor were any offers made to Williams because of his cooperation in any homicide cases.

Gary Shenker, an Assistant State's Attorney in the narcotics division of the Baltimore City State's Attorney's office, had been assigned to the 1998 police cruiser theft case. Testifying for the State in the post conviction proceedings, he said that he knew of Williams's cooperation in narcotics cases and that he had entered the stet because of it. Additionally, he testified that he was aware of the fact that Williams had been given a confidential informant identification number. Darryl Massey, a detective in the homicide division of the Baltimore City Police Department, testified that Williams provided information regarding two individuals: appellant and Darnel Ratchford.

Williams provided the information regarding appellant on 19 March 1998. Massey met with Williams two or three times in connection with appellant's case. According to Massey, Williams never asked for anything in exchange for his statements or testimony, and no offers were made to him by Massey. Massey stated that he did not know that Williams was a paid informant for the police department.

Warren Brown, appellant's trial counsel, recalled that, during discovery, he had requested from the State "any material or information which tends to negate the guilt of the Defendant as to the offense(s) charged, or would tend to reduce the punishment therefor, or would be of assistance in impeaching the credibility of a State's witness." Brown stated that, in response, he received a list of the State's witnesses, which included Williams. Thereafter, Brown learned that Williams had also informed on another defendant in another murder case. Additionally, he learned of Williams's extensive criminal history, his numerous convictions and incarcerations, and his violations of parole and probation. According to Brown, however, the "sum and substance" of his conversations with the State regarding Williams "was not much of anything." Brown recalled that Lynn Stewart, the Assistant State's Attorney who prosecuted appellant and who is now a judge of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, had assured him that the State was "not giving him [Williams] anything," and that the State had "no deal with him." Brown testified that he was unaware that Williams "was being paid to provide information in other cases" or that on 21 May 1998, six months before appellant's trial, "the State had dismissed, had stetted charges relating to theft of a police cruiser as a result of assistance [Williams] provided in narcotics cases." A copy of the 21 May 1998 notice of postponement in the police cruiser case was admitted into evidence at the post conviction hearing.

The postponement indicates that the "defense wishes to cooperate [with the Baltimore City Police Department] and others on pending cases." Brown testified that he had no knowledge of the document at the time of the trial. A ⁵⁰⁹ copy of the stet in the police cruiser case was also admitted into evidence; it contained a notation from 20 July 1998 indicating: "Stet offered by the State because: State declines to prosecute." Brown also stated that he had no knowledge of numerous letters written by Williams in 1998 to Judge Allen Schwait, the judge who had sentenced Williams to twenty-one months and five days for possession of cocaine. In those letters, Williams requested leniency for his cooperation with Baltimore City police. The record contains nine letters written between 2 May 1998 and 10 November 1998, in which Williams told Judge Schwait that he was an informant for the Baltimore City Police Department, and made numerous references to his cooperation with both the "prosecutor and Officer Hensley." Of particular significance, in a letter postmarked 12 August 1998, Williams wrote: "Your Honor, I have been very helpful to officers in Homicide since my arrest, I have told them very important things in cases that are to be tryed [sic] soon.

They are Detective Raymond Jones, Darryl Massey, William Ritz and others." (Emphasis added.) Moreover, in a letter dated 20 August 1998, he wrote: "Also I have done some work for Detective Darryl Massey, Raymond Jones, Carol Opher and other people in the Homicide Unit...." In that letter, Williams also indicated that the case against him for the theft of a police cruiser had been stetted by State's Attorney Gary Shenker because of his cooperation with the police. In his letter of 25 October 1998, Williams stated: "I am scheduled to go to trial with Detectives Darryl Massey and Raymond Jones of the homicide division.... They have a murder case due up for trial in November [of 1998] and I am there [sic] key witness." On 5 November 1998, Williams informed Judge Schwait that he had testified that very day "in a murder case on behalf of the State," which "involved a man who killed his fiancée, to obtain a very lump some [sic] of a life insurance." By letters written on his behalf by his law clerk on 25 September 1998 and 16 October 1998, Judge Schwait responded to Williams. In the letter of 16 October 1998, Judge Schwait directed Williams to have his "attorney contact Detective Hensley and have [his] attorney or the Detective contact this office to inform the Judge of any help you are giving him." Significantly, copies of those letters were also forwarded to the State's Attorney's Office, but not to any particular prosecutor.

Brown noted that this information would have helped him "at trial cross-examining Sean Williams, the jailhouse snitch." He characterized his cross-examination of Williams as "materially weakened" without the information. Brown conceded that ASA Lynn Stewart may not have known of Williams's prior dealings with the police department. Judge Stewart testified at the post-conviction hearing that she did not make any "offers of leniencies or provide any benefit to Sean Williams in exchange for his testimony in the Tony Williams case." Judge Stewart further stated that she never talked to the prosecutors that were in charge of prosecuting Sean Williams. She also denied having any knowledge that Williams had been charged with stealing a police cruiser, let alone that he received a stet on that charge because of his cooperation in narcotics cases.

At the close of the post conviction hearing of 17 July 2002, the court framed the pertinent issue in the case as follows: The court is not satisfied that there is any existing Maryland case on this particular factual situation where there are ⁵¹⁰ two prosecutors lets take in the homicide division. [sic] If the court found that one prosecutor knows something[,] does that knowledge bind the other prosecutor... [t]hat is not on the same case. Likewise, as to the police in the Eastern District, ... is Det. Hensley's knowledge about Sean Williams and his cooperation such that the state in this case has an obligation whether it knows in fact or not, does it have an obligation to disclose that information? ... Does the fact that one prosecutor in the General Felony Division of the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office, Mr. Shenker, does Mr. Shenker's knowledge extend to a homicide prosecutor in the same office, but in a different location and a different division?

(Emphasis added.) By Order dated 24 September 2002, and docketed 25 September 2002, the court denied appellant's petition for post conviction relief. In its accompanying Memorandum Opinion, the court reasoned that the State's duty, under Brady and Maryland Rule