Opinion ID: 2819354
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Kleederman Carjacking

Text: On the afternoon of December 16, 2007, Ms. Eva Kleederman drove her five-year-old daughter from their home in Virginia to a violin recital at a venue on Mississippi Avenue, Southeast, Washington, D.C. Ms. Kleederman testified at trial that she was unfamiliar with the area and became lost while following printed directions. Upon seeing a man — presumably appellant — walking nearby, Ms. Kleederman rolled down her window and asked him for directions to Mississippi Avenue. Ms. Kleederman described appellant as an African-American and a “slight person,” about five feet and six or seven inches tall, “fifty-ish,” with “salt and pepper-ish, grayish” hair and “rough . . . sandpapery . . . gravelly” skin on his face, possibly due to “a bad shave or pocked skin,” wearing jeans and a mid-thigh length dark green or black “parka-looking winter jacket.” When Ms. Kleederman asked him for directions, appellant opened the passenger side door of her car “in the blink of an eye” and sat in the passenger seat, stating that he lived near (. . . continued) compelled to infer from the evidence, as appellant argues, that he intended to steal the ignition key alone and not the other keys. Accordingly, we hold that the evidence in the record is sufficient to support appellant’s conviction for a completed robbery. 5 Mississippi Avenue and would direct her. Ms. Kleederman was shocked and told appellant that she does not take passengers, but he responded “that’s okay. I understand. I’m an honest person.” Although she felt alarmed, Ms. Kleederman “didn’t want to appear biased or racist just because [she] found [her]self in . . . a part of town [she] knew to be largely black” and decided to drive on, “against [her] better judgment.” Appellant directed Ms. Kleederman for about ten minutes and avoided her attempts at conversation. During the drive, Ms. Kleederman noticed a cut on appellant’s middle or index finger that was “oozing . . . gelatinous blood,” and later found some of this blood on the door and dashboard of her car. Upon entering a wooded street in Fort Dupont Park, identified at trial as Fort Dupont Drive, Southeast, appellant instructed Ms. Kleederman to slow down, saying “I live near here.” When Ms. Kleederman slowed down, appellant began to push her toward the driver-side door, saying “get out of the car” while trying to pull the key out of the ignition. At the same time, Ms. Kleederman began to push on the car horn and scream for help. Appellant was unable to pull the key out of the ignition, but managed to wrench away all of the other keys attached to it. He then exited the car, walked around to the driver side door, and tried to pull Ms. Kleederman out. At that moment, Mr. Amin Muslim and Mr. Stanley Daniels were driving by and stopped their car to aid Ms. Kleederman, prompting appellant 6 to run off into a wooded area separating Fort Dupont Drive from Minnesota Avenue, Southeast. Mr. Muslim gave chase into the woods while calling 911 on his phone but eventually lost sight of appellant as appellant exited the woods toward Minnesota Avenue. Meanwhile, off-duty police officer Stephanie Poyner of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department was visiting her mother at her childhood home on G Street, Southeast, which intersects Minnesota Avenue just opposite the wooded area into which appellant had fled. Drawn by the sound of a woman screaming for help coming from the direction of Fort Dupont Park, Officer Poyner walked to the intersection of G Street and Minnesota Avenue. Looking towards the wooded area, she saw a man exit the wood line at a place where there were no trails and where she had never before seen a person enter or exit. Officer Poyner came within thirty-five feet of the man and described him as an AfricanAmerican of “average weight,” approximately five feet and seven inches tall, with “mixed gray hair,” wearing blue pants and a black thigh-length jacket. The man crossed Minnesota Avenue and entered another wooded area behind G Street. Officer Poyner drove into Fort Dupont Park, found Ms. Kleederman, and reported what she had seen to police officers on the scene. After the incident, the United 7 States Park Police swabbed several smears of blood in Ms. Kleederman’s car and submitted the swabs to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”).