Opinion ID: 2074834
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: State v. Walls

Text: Walls was indicted for kidnapping, rape, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, threatening a life, theft, and possession of a dangerous weapon, a knife. The episode in question occurred on July 21, 1979, and the defendant was arrested on that day. His notice of motion to compel the State to conduct a lineup was made on April 28, 1980. The trial court heard the motion on June 18, 1980. The trial court had before it the victim's statement, the grand jury testimony, defendant's affidavit and an undated sworn statement of one Billy McMillian. As might be expected, divergent tales are told. The victim, a 17 year old female high school senior, had been drinking some wine during the evening with a girlfriend in Garden City, Long Island. While the victim was walking home alone, defendant, who was driving by, stopped and offered her a ride. She accepted. In her grand jury testimony, the victim stated that defendant refused to let her out of the car and that she was frightened. She testified that she snorted some cocaine and was driven to the Mayflower Hotel in Jersey City where defendant threatened her with a knife and raped her. She passed out and when she awoke, he had gone. Her pocketbook and clothes were missing. She then wrapped herself in a sheet and went down to the hotel lobby where the police were called. In a written statement given to the police she also asserted that they had stopped in the vicinity of 42nd Street in New York City where they snorted some cocaine. She next remembers going into a room at the Mayflower Hotel. Defendant was drinking vodka. Defendant insisted she take off her pants and forced her onto the bed. She started to cry. He permitted her to go to the bathroom where she slammed the door, but defendant broke the door down, pulled her out and pushed a pillow over her face. She tried to grab the knife. The defendant started to choke her and he raped her two or three times. She fell asleep and upon awakening he was gone as well as her clothes. She wrapped a sheet around herself and had the hotel manager call the police. The police took her to the hospital. That night, at about 7:30 p.m., she identified the defendant in the x-ray emergency room of the hospital. The defendant's affidavit, dated April 28, 1980, asserts he did not commit any criminal acts on the date alleged, and that the hospital identification occurred in a poorly lit room where the police officer asked her, That's him, isn't it? He also stated that the victim had not appeared on three different occasions when probable cause hearings were scheduled before the Jersey City Municipal Court. The undated affidavit of a Billy McMillian, which had been prepared in the office of defendant's counsel, recited that McMillian, who lived in Hempstead, Long Island, had been driving his automobile in Garden City when he saw the victim thumbing for a ride. He stopped the car. Without a word she entered and said she was going to Manhattan. She was high and became affectionate. He stopped on 42nd Street near Eighth Avenue in Manhattan and got some reefers. She started to smoke one. When she agreed to have sexual intercourse, they went to the Mayflower Hotel in Jersey City where they consumed some vodka and engaged in sexual relations. She fell asleep. McMillian left and rejoined the defendant Walls in Long Island. They drove back to Jersey City to the hotel. When Walls and he went into the hotel and up to the room, the police were there and ran after the defendant while McMillian walked away in another direction. Officer Smigelski of the Jersey City police department testified before the grand jury that at about 3:30 p.m. he responded to a telephone call from the Mayflower Hotel where he found the victim in the lobby wrapped in a sheet. She was somewhat confused and disoriented. The officer left, but other police officers arrived and stationed themselves in the hotel room. The defendant started to enter the room. When the police attempted to arrest him, he turned and ran. At the oral argument the prosecutor asserted that the defendant had broken his ankle when he jumped down a fire escape in the Mayflower Hotel and was taken to the emergency room at the hospital. The prosecutor also claimed that the defendant's fingerprints were not only found on the bottle of vodka but also on a wall inside the room. In deciding to grant defendant's motion for a lineup, the trial court reasoned that there was a showing of a reasonable likelihood of a mistaken identification because the victim had not been in control of her faculties due to alcohol and drugs and because McMillian's statement asserted he was the person who had had sexual relations with the victim. The trial court's oral opinion gives no indication as to whether it applied the criteria which we have outlined above. Accordingly we are remanding the matter for reconsideration on the record already made and as may appropriately be supplemented by the parties. In this respect we note that statements by counsel, unless constituting admissions, are not substitutes for factual support. Conspicuously missing are the hospital records, police report, and fingerprint information. One factor which the trial court should consider is the time lapse between defendant's arrest on July 21, 1979 and his notice of motion in April 1980. Has the defendant shown good cause for that delay? When was the McMillian statement obtained? What were the circumstances under which it was given? If the statement was not given until April or thereabouts, did that justify the delay in the motion? In any event will the time lag eliminate or substantially diminish the significance of a failure of identification? Another element to be considered is the prosecutor's ability to produce the victim and McMillian, both New York residents, for the pretrial lineup. As the trial court observed, the presence of both McMillian and defendant in a lineup, if one is held, would seem to be appropriate. However, it may not be possible to secure the attendance of both McMillian and the victim. [2] The statements are not clear regarding whether defendant and McMillian both returned to the room in the hotel and whether defendant entered the room. Nor is there any explanation by the police of what occurred when defendant came to the hotel. Was McMillian or any other person seen by the police? What explanation does defendant have for running away or for the existence, if true, of his fingerprints inside the room? The trial court should also consider the circumstances under which the victim identified the defendant in the hospital. Defendant asserted that it was a poorly lighted room, but no other detail is given, such as what light existed and what was the position of the defendant in relation to that light. If the trial court finds that defendant has shown that eyewitness identification is a substantial material issue, that there is a reasonable likelihood that a lineup would be of some probative value to defendant, and that there was just cause for defendant's delay in making the motion, then, after considering all other pertinent factors, it should exercise its sound discretion in determining whether the pretrial lineup is warranted. The trial court should articulate its factual findings and legal conclusions. Reversed and remanded.