Opinion ID: 2257871
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: evidence of defendant's flight to new york

Text: The first argument we will take up concerns Brown's allegation that the trial justice abused his discretion in permitting the state to introduce evidence of Brown's alleged flight to New York because it was irrelevant and because it was offered in violation of Rule 16 of the Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure.
In State v. Cooke, 479 A.2d 727 (R.I. 1984) we adopted the fourprong test for determining the relevancy of flight evidence from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. See United States v. Myers, 550 F.2d 1036 (5th Cir.1977). We indicated in Cooke that the relevancy of flight from the crime scene as circumstantial evidence of a defendant's guilt depended upon the degree of confidence with which a chain of inferences can be followed: (first inference) something the defendant did led him to flee, (second inference) he fled out of consciousness of guilt, (third inference) his consciousness of guilt derived from consciousness of guilt concerning the crime charged, and (fourth inference) his consciousness of guilt concerning a crime charged reflects actual guilt of the crime charged. Cooke, 479 A.2d at 732-33. We went on to say that the linchpin of flight as probative of guilt is a defendant's knowledge of the reason why he is fleeing and that the reason he is fleeing is related to the crime on trial. Id. at 733. Because of the difficulty in establishing the third and fourth inferences, courts generally place great reliance on the proximity in time between the flight and the crime charged in order to establish these inferences. United States v. Howze, 668 F.2d 322, 324-25 (7th Cir.1982). Hence, when the time lapse between the flight and the crime charged is great, the court must be certain there is evidence that a defendant knows he is being sought for the specific crime charged and not some other crime or event. Id. at 325. Conversely, if flight occurs shortly after the crime, the need to establish that the defendant knows he is fleeing from the specific crime charged becomes less crucial, and the probative value of the flight evidence becomes much more important. Cooke, 479 A.2d at 733. Here, Detective Arnold Shone testified that from late December 1982 through January 1983, he went to Brown's home half a dozen times with an arrest warrant but that he could not locate Brown. Detective Shone informed Brown's mother, who lived with Brown, that the Providence police had a warrant for her son's arrest for the murder of Boyd. She in turn told him that she did not know her son's whereabouts. Based on further investigation, the police traced Brown to New York City and Detective Shone arrested him there on February 15, 1983. Brown, testifying in his own behalf, stated that he left Providence the night of December 26 for New York to visit his uncle, that the trip was planned prior to Christmas, and that two days after the stabbing he learned about the arrest warrant issued against him. Brown stayed in New York for a week, returned home for two weeks, but then left for New York again because [when] the police came by after they found out where my mother lived    they told her they'd shoot me on sight, and    I wasn't going to stay around for something I didn't do. Brown subsequently traveled from New York to Philadelphia to visit his grandfather, came back to Providence again, and then went back to New York before being arrested there. Brown contends that so long as the state did not conclusively prove that he actually knew, prior to leaving for New York on December 26, that the police had a warrant for him in connection with the Boyd murder then the evidence of flight was inadmissible. Brown's argument misses the mark. The critical factor to the admissibility of evidence of flight is not whether the defendant has actual knowledge that he is fleeing from the specific crime charged; rather, it is whether the totality of the evidence creates an inference that he had knowledge. And the more immediate in time the flight is to the crime charged, the stronger the inference. Here the evidence of Brown's flight to New York was relevant and, therefore, properly admitted. His flight from Providence was immediate, and although he may not have known when he left that the police had a warrant for his arrest, by his own admission, he certainly knew two days later that they were searching for him, and he also knew why they were looking for him. This actual knowledge certainly was more than sufficient to establish an inference that Brown knew why he was fleeing and that that reason was related to the crime of murder.
Brown also contends that the evidence of flight was admitted in violation of Rule 16 since the state never notified the defense that Detective Shone would give testimony about Brown's flight to New York. Although Detective Shone was listed in the state's response to discovery as a witness for trial, the state failed to give any indication of what the detective would testify to. In response to a subsequent defense motion to compel disclosure of Detective Shone's anticipated testimony, the state responded on November 29, 1983: Det. A. Shone will testify consistent with the attached police narrative. Det. Shone will also testify to witnessing the statements given by Felicia Delgardo, Wayne Costa, Richard DeRobbio and Walter Catlin. Since the state never said that Shone would testify about Brown's flight, and since none of the other police statements or summaries contained in the state's discovery response concerned the police attempts to locate Brown or to arrest him, Brown claims the evidence of flight should have been precluded by the trial justice. The trial justice's failure to do so, according to Brown, warrants this court's reversal of the conviction and entitles Brown to a new trial. Rule 16(i) provides sanctions for the failure of either party to comply with discovery. [1] We have stated that the imposition of any Rule 16 sanction is a matter within the sound discretion of the trial justice. State v. Concannon, 457 A.2d 1350, 1353 (R.I. 1982); State v. Coelho, 454 A.2d 241, 245 (R.I. 1982). In this case the trial justice found that Rule 16 has been complied with, if not total [ sic ], at least in [the] spirit of which it was intended. The trial justice was incorrect in his conclusion. Consequently, on appeal, it is our task in selecting an appropriate sanction for a discovery violation to consider, (1) the reason for nondisclosure, (2) the extent of prejudice to the opposing party, (3) the feasibility of rectifying that prejudice by a continuance, and (4) any other relevant factors. Coelho, 454 A.2d at 245; see also State v. Wyche, 518 A.2d 907, 911 (R.I. 1986). If the violation is inadvertent in nature we look to determine whether the opposing party has been prejudiced by nondisclosure. It is the defense's burden, in a situation like this, to establish that, had the information been disclosed, there is a likelihood that defense counsel could have used that information to create a reasonable doubt in the minds of one or more jurors. Concannon, 457 A.2d at 1354. The record before us indicates that the state did give a partial indication of what Detective Shone could be expected to testify about at trial. Without evidence to the contrary, we can only assume that the nondisclosure of the evidence of flight was inadvertent rather than deliberate. Moreover, we cannot say that Brown was actually prejudiced by the nondisclosure since the evidence presented through three witnesses identified Brown as the perpetrator of the murder. Therefore, we are of the opinion that any error committed in admitting evidence of flight was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt.