Opinion ID: 2275536
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Testimony of Calvin Gaither

Text: Calvin Gaither, a convicted felon and local drug dealer who had been a good friend of Dennis Hines, testified that the previous summer appellant had confessed to him in the D.C. Jail to shooting Dennis Hines, by apologizing for what he had done and by saying that he had acted too fast. Gaither further testified that appellant asked if they could squash the beef, apparently referring to a feud between the Sursum Corda neighborhood and the 1st and O Street neighborhood. [5] According to Gaither, by squash[ing] the beef, appellant meant that he didn't want no more violence going on. When the prosecutor then asked if there had been other violence between the two groups, defense counsel objected. At the bench, a colloquy took place in which the prosecutor said he wanted to refer to the retaliatory killing of appellant's friend, Tia Mitchell, which had followed shortly after the shooting of Dennis Hines. When defense counsel argued that the Tia Mitchell killing and the beef were not relevant to any issues at trial, the prosecutor agreed that he would withdraw the question concerning Tia Mitchell. As the prosecutor asked Gaither a follow-up question about how he responded to appellant's request that he squash the beef, Gaither referred to the gang violence by stating that he told appellant, we lost one; they lost one. Yeah, let's squash it. The prosecutor then approached the bench and asked the judge if he could ask the witness what he meant by we lost one; you lost one. Over defense objection, the trial judge permitted the additional question reasoning that since they don't know what it's in reference to, it could be misunderstood as a reference to a killing by Dennis Hines for which Mr. Plummer is retaliating and that would not be reasonable. The following questioning by the prosecutor and testimony by Gaither ensued: Q Mr. Gaither, when you told Mr. Plummer Yeah, we lost one; you lost one, let's just squash the beef, what did you mean by that? A That they lost a close friend and we lost a close friend so we didn't need nobody else to get kill. Q Who was the close friend that you all lost? A Little Dennis. Q And who was the close friend that they lost? A A girl named Tia. Q Now I should ask just to clarify, did Little Dennis have anything to do with killing Tia? A No, he got killed first. . . . . . Q How would youdid you continue to talk to Mr. Plummer or was that just a one-time talk? A No, we became all right, you know, friends you could say. Q Okay. You became friendly even though you guys were sort of on the opposite side of things? A Yeah.