Opinion ID: 320436
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the government proved its case against appellant without the testimony of miss brown

Text: 98 In certain cases where the question of guilt or innocence is close, an appellate court might well be justified in overturning a conviction to prevent a possible miscarriage of justice. This, however is not such a case. My view of the evidence is that the jury would have found appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt even without the testimony of Miss Brown. The Government's case was complete and strong-- without Miss Brown's testimony. Crowder-- who was with Miss Brown at all times that she observed the events (Tr. 318, 321, 323, 324, 329, 336, 337, 497, 503)-- and was her 'boy friend' (Tr. 317)-- testified that he saw two men who 'had another man against the wall' (Tr. 324). 'They approached the man against the wall and I heard two shots' (Tr. 326). ' (Sunny-- who was with appellant-- was not) the man who fired the shots' (Tr. 327). This is equivalent to saying that appellant-- the other man-- did fire the shots. 99 The majority opinion thus understates the probative force of this testimony of Ronald Crowder, who 'saw the shooting,' when it states 'he could not identify the person who fired the shots.' The testimony is that appellant Lynch was with Sunny (Wade) when they accosted the victim (Mitchell). The testimony of Davis (Tr. 248, 249), Wade (Tr. 419-20) and Brown (Tr. 490, 501-02, 506-08) all put Lynch, Wade and Mitchell together just before the shooting. Wade said he moved away before the shooting. No testimony puts any person with Mitchell except Lynch and Wade. Crowder testified that the man with Sunny was 'the man who fired the shots.' On all the available evidence that could only have been Lynch-- the appellant-- and this identification of Lynch as the man who fired the shots stood up on cross-examination: Direct examination: Crowder: 100 Q Are you able to say whether or not he (the man with Sunny) is the man who fired the shots? 101 A Yes. 102 Q Is he, in fact, the man that fired the shots? 103 A Yes. 104 Q How many shots do you recall being fired, Mr. Crowder? 105 A Two. Tr. 327-28. On cross-examination: 106 Q Isn't it a fact that you really don't know who shot him? 107 A I know who shot him. 108 Q So your testimony is the same? 109 A Yes. 110 Tr. 351. 111 To say in light of this testimony that Crowder 'could not identify the person who fired the shots' is to ignore the plain import of the testimony. He did identify Lynch for all practical purposes and appellant's counsel indicated as much by his above quoted cross-examination. Crowder merely did not identify Lynch by name or point him out. To say that the man with Sunny was 'the man that fired the shots,' was the equivalent of identifying Lynch as the murderer because all the other testimony placed Sunny and Lynch together at the time as the sole persons with the victim, though Sunny (Wade) testified he (Sunny) was down the street when the shots were fired. So, to this extent the testimony contradicts the statement of the majority opinion that Miss Brown 'was the only eyewitness to the murder who identified appellant as the slayer.' Majority Op. at 1021, supra. 112 There is additional incriminating testimony against Lynch. Wade testified that he saw appellant that night 'about a half-hour' after the shooting (Tr. 421), and that appellant then admitted to being the man who was with Mitchell, the victim, when he was shot. Following is the significant part of Wade's testimony: 113 Q Now, did he (Lynch) say anything else to you when he came to the house that you remember now? Did he (Lynch) say anything to you sir, about the shooting that had taken place on the corner that you can recall? 114 A Yes. 115 Q What did he say, sir? 116 A He asked me not to kick it around. 117 THE COURT: Kick him out? 118 THE WITNESS: No. Kick it around. Around. 119 THE COURT: Would you repeat the whole thing. 120 THE WITNESS: He asked me not kick it around. 121 THE COURT: Not to kick it around? 122 THE WITNESS: Yes. So I asked him what happened. He (Lynch) said the man grabbed the gun and the gun went off. 123 Tr. 423-24. So, from this evidence, any jury would be justified in finding that it was appellant Lynch who had his gun in his hand when it went off and killed Mitchell. This testimony was introduced, without objection, was never controverted, and with the other testimony (without Miss Brown's testimony) is sufficient to support the conviction. On appeal, it is elementary that the court is required to take that view of the evidence most favorable to the jury's verdict. 124 There was also additional incriminating testimony to the effect that later that evening when Lynch was in the kitchen of Mrs. Cathern C. Knott he reached into his pocket, took out a little black pouch, opened it up, there were some pills in it, and then Lynch and Wade used the pills to inject some dope into themselves (Tr. 163). Mrs. Knott then identified Government Exhibit No. 1 as a pouch of the 'same approximate size, shape and color as the pouch (she) . . . described' (Tr. 164). Mrs. Knott considered the pouch to be distinctive 'because it had the color to it. The pills were in one side and in the other side was something else' (Tr. 164). She remembered that the 'color . . . inside the pouch' was 'either reddish or orange color' (Tr. 165). When appellant was arrested over a month later the police recovered a black pouch from his rear pocket with some narcotic paraphernalia in it. This black pouch was Government Exhibit No. 1 (Tr. 30-35) and was identical to the pouch described by Miss Brown and Mrs. Knott. Mitchell's brother also testified that the purse recovered from Lynch 'looked like' his brother's purse (Tr. 30-35) which he described. The leather partition which divided the interior of the purse into two compartments was red, and the rest of the purse was black (Tr. 34-35, 165). 15 125 There is thus substantial additional evidence which demonstrates beyond a reasonable doubt that the ingredients of the offense were proved without the testimony of Laverne Brown. Incidentally, this latter testimony corroborates that of Laverne Brown who testified that when Lynch shot Mitchell, Mitchell fell (Tr. 490), that Lynch then bent over Mitchell, went through his pockets and took what 'looked like a black purse' (Tr. 516-17).