Opinion ID: 2208578
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Testimony of Lamont Heard

Text: Heard stated [2] that on the day of the shooting he was driving Baucum's mother's car. When he stopped for a red light at the intersection of Alabama Avenue and Naylor Road, Darryl Arrington was the only passenger in the car with him. When a blue car pulled up alongside their car, Arrington uttered an oath, reached under the seat, pulled out a Mac-11, and began firing it. In addition, Arrington had a nine-millimeter pistol in his waistband. Heard hid under the dashboard, and from that position he thought he heard Arrington firing both guns. Heard then drove Arrington to 13th Place, N.E. While driving there, he noticed a black car following him. He parked the car near Baucum's home, and Arrington left. Heard then went to a nearby carry-out to meet Baucum because Heard had Baucum's only set of keys, and Baucum could not get into his home or drive his car. The police stopped and arrested Heard and Baucum at around 4:30 p.m. as they were walking back to Mrs. Baucum's car. After Heard gave this testimony, the prosecutor confronted him with his earlier statement to the police. Heard denied having read it, and said that he had signed the statement and returned it to Detective Sharkey without knowing what it said. Heard also claimed that Sharkey threatened to use her gun on him while he was making the statement if he failed to cooperate with the police. He said he told the police that Arrington was the shooter and that Baucum took the bus to Lorton that day. Heard confirmed that the police showed him pictures of Baucum and Johnson, but he denied that he identified them as the gunmen. He testified that he only identified Baucum to the police as the owner of the car that he drove on December 19. After the prosecutor had impeached Heard with his prior statement, the court instructed the jury that the statement was to be used solely to assess the credibility of Heard as a witness and not for its truth. The court told the jury: You have heard evidence ... that the witness here, Mr. Lamont Heard, made statements on an earlier occasion, and the statements that he made on an earlier occasion may be inconsistent with the testimony he is giving here at trial. The earlier statements are brought to your attention to help you in evaluating his believability, credibility in court. In other words, if on an earlier occasion he made statements that are inconsistent with his testimony here in court, you may consider the inconsistency in judging his credibility as a witness at this trial. I want to emphasize as strongly as I can on this point, you may not consider his earlier statements as proof that what he said, the earlier statements, were true. It is for you to decide whether a witness made a statement on an earlier occasion and whether it was in fact inconsistent with the testimony the witness has given here in court.