Opinion ID: 4547389
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: facts

Text: This case involves three shootings which occurred in Omaha, Nebraska, on August 5, 6, and 8, 2015. Neelon lived in a house on Pinkney Street with other family members, including her mother, stepfather, and stepsister, Marcella Mitchell (Marcella). On August 5, 2015, Johnson’s vehicle was parked in the street outside Neelon’s home. While Johnson was sitting in the driver’s seat with the door open, an individual walked up and fired a gun at him. Johnson pushed the shooter and ran away as the shooter chased him. Marcella and her sister had been standing by the street and were able to see the shooter. Marcella reported that a man dressed in black had walked past her toward Johnson. After hearing the gunshot, Marcella heard a clip drop. She then saw the shooter bend down and pick up the clip before chasing after Johnson. Marcella described the individual as being a light-skinned African-American male, approximately 5 feet 5 inches tall, and wearing a black jacket with a hood, black - 915 - Nebraska Supreme Court Advance Sheets 305 Nebraska Reports STATE v. POPE Cite as 305 Neb. 912 pants, and frizzy braids in his hair. She estimated that she had been approximately three to four steps away from the shooter and was able to see his face for at least 3 seconds. The next day, someone splashed an accelerant onto the siding of Neelon’s house on Pinkney Street and lit the house on fire. Upon discovering that the house was on fire, Neelon had gone outside to investigate and was shot seven times. Neelon’s stepfather was home at the time and attempted to pull Neelon back into the house after she had been shot. As Neelon’s stepfather was attempting to pull her inside, someone fired three to five additional shots. When Neelon’s stepfather saw the shooter point the gun in his direction, he was forced to let go of Neelon and close the door. Neelon died as a result of her gunshot wounds. After Neelon was shot, several suspects had been observed leaving the area of her house on Pinkney Street in two separate vehicles: a blue/green minivan with a distinctive rust pattern and a white four-door sedan. Evidence recovered at the scene included a watch, a black knit glove, and three .45-caliber spent shell casings. A manufacturer’s tag from a pair of knit gloves was located in an alley approximately one block away where the minivan had been parked. A fingerprint on the tag was found to match the left thumb of Marcus Short. DNA testing on the watch indicated that Short and another man could not be excluded as partial DNA contributors to a DNA mixture found on the inside of the device. Johnson lived in a house on Fontenelle Boulevard. On August 8, 2015, law enforcement was dispatched to Johnson’s address for a report of a shooting and a vehicle that crashed into a garage. Upon their arrival, officers found Johnson in a white Chevy Impala that had crashed into a garage located at a nearby address on Fontenelle Boulevard. Johnson had been shot seven times and died as a result of his gunshot wounds. Because the area was muddy from a city sewer project, officers were able to follow the Impala’s tire tracks to Johnson’s - 916 - Nebraska Supreme Court Advance Sheets 305 Nebraska Reports STATE v. POPE Cite as 305 Neb. 912 home. The tracks indicated that Johnson backed from his garage, drove in circles in two yards located along Fontenelle Boulevard, and then crashed into the nearby garage. Johnson had been pulling his vehicle into his garage when two individuals standing by the driver’s side of the vehicle began firing into the driver’s-side window. Johnson backed the vehicle into the street. As he circled through the yards, one of the shooters followed the vehicle, firing into the window. Witnesses reported that the shooters were two AfricanAmerican males wearing black hooded sweatshirts, one of which had a red Nebraska logo on it. After the Impala crashed, the two shooters were seen running through yards and fleeing in a white Chevy Monte Carlo that had been parked toward the west. The Monte Carlo had white and blue in-transit plates. Officers located a white Monte Carlo matching the vehicle’s description at an address on Binney Street in Omaha, where Short resided with his grandmother. Law enforcement obtained and executed a search warrant at Short’s residence. During execution of the warrant, officers seized multiple items from Short’s bedroom, including two firearms—a .45-caliber handgun and a .357-caliber Magnum revolver, one black knit glove, a pair of “Mechanix” gloves, a black hooded sweatshirt, a black hooded sweatshirt with a red Nebraska logo, and black pants with dried mud on them. As a result of the search, Short was arrested and charged with two counts of possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person. The State later dismissed the charges and filed an information charging Short with first degree murder for the killing of Johnson and use of a firearm to commit a felony. When the firearms were dusted for fingerprints, Pope’s partial palmprint was found on the barrel of the .357 Magnum. Ballistic test results demonstrated that spent projectiles recovered from Johnson’s body had been fired from the .357 Magnum with Pope’s palmprint on it. Two of the casings found at the scene of Neelon’s murder were found to have been fired from - 917 - Nebraska Supreme Court Advance Sheets 305 Nebraska Reports STATE v. POPE Cite as 305 Neb. 912 the .45-caliber handgun found in Short’s bedroom. Officers located additional shell casings at each of the three shootings, but the shell casings were unable to be matched to either of the two firearms. However, ballistic tests demonstrated that these casings had all been fired from the same .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun. On August 14, 2015, officers located a dark-colored minivan that matched the description of the minivan used by the suspects leaving Neelon’s house on Pinkney Street after she was shot. The minivan was registered to Pope’s mother, and Pope had been seen driving it. Cell phone records placed Pope in the area of Neelon’s house near the time she was killed, and in the area of Johnson’s house near the time he was killed. These records also indicated Pope was in the area of Short’s home soon after Neelon was killed. Law enforcement obtained a search warrant to get a sample of Pope’s DNA under Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 29-3301 to 29-3307 (Reissue 2016), Nebraska’s identifying physical characteristics statutes. The warrant permitted the use of detention to obtain the sample. Pope was restrained after he refused to comply with the warrant. A buccal swab was used to collect DNA evidence at the Douglas County correctional facility where Pope was incarcerated on unrelated charges. DNA test results showed Pope as a major contributor to the DNA found on the black hooded sweatshirt and black pants that had been seized from Short’s bedroom. In April 2016, Marcella was at the Douglas County courthouse with a friend for reasons unrelated to this case. While there, Marcella saw Pope and recognized him as the August 5, 2015, shooter. Marcella later testified that after seeing Pope at the courthouse, she contacted the Omaha police officer who had initially interviewed her regarding the August 5 incident. Marcella reported that she had seen Pope at the courthouse and that she recognized him as the shooter. In May 2016, the State filed an information charging Pope with first degree murder for the killing of Johnson, use of a - 918 - Nebraska Supreme Court Advance Sheets 305 Nebraska Reports STATE v. POPE Cite as 305 Neb. 912 deadly weapon to commit a felony, and possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person. In October 2016, Marcella was shown a photographic lineup by law enforcement, at which time she identified Pope as the August 5, 2015, shooter. Prior to both the lineup and her recognizing Pope at the courthouse, Marcella had seen a television news story about the investigation into Johnson’s homicide. The news story aired a photograph of Pope wearing a bright yellow shirt. The photograph depicting Pope in the lineup was identical to the one used in the news story. Marcella later testified that upon seeing the news story, she thought she recognized Pope as the shooter, but did not contact law enforcement at the time because she was not sure. Marcella stated that when she later saw Pope at the courthouse, from the angle of his face when he walked and when he turned his face toward her, she was able to recognize him as the individual that ran past her on August 5, 2015. In June 2017, the State filed amended informations against Short and Pope, charging each with a second count of first degree murder for the killing of Neelon and a second count of use of a deadly weapon. The district court ordered Short’s and Pope’s cases to be tried separately. Prior to trial, Pope filed motions to suppress evidence of his DNA and of Marcella’s identification. After a hearing on the motion to suppress evidence related to Pope’s DNA, the district court determined the affidavit used to obtain the warrant lacked sufficient probable cause for issuance of the search warrant. The affidavit requested a sample of Pope’s DNA for “comparison purposes.” The affidavit stated that during the course of the investigation into Johnson’s death, a search warrant executed at Short’s home resulted in the seizure of two firearms, one of which had Pope’s partial palmprint on it. The district court noted that the affidavit failed to articulate a connection between the firearm and the homicide and failed to articulate a connection between the fact that Pope had - 919 - Nebraska Supreme Court Advance Sheets 305 Nebraska Reports STATE v. POPE Cite as 305 Neb. 912 possessed the firearm and the fact that Pope was prohibited from possessing a firearm. Still, the court overruled Pope’s motion to suppress after concluding the good faith exception applied. The court concluded that law enforcement’s reliance on the warrant was reasonable because Pope had twice been convicted of felonies and his palmprint was found on a firearm. Regarding Marcella’s identification of Pope, Pope sought to suppress both the photographic lineup and any in-court identification on the grounds that Marcella’s prior identification of Pope was unnecessarily and impermissibly suggestive. The motion was overruled. The district court found that the prior identification of Pope was not improperly suggestive and that Marcella’s identification of Pope from the August 5, 2015, incident contained sufficient indicators of reliability to outweigh any alleged suggestiveness in the photographic lineup. At trial, both Marcella and her sister identified Pope as the August 5, 2015, shooter. James Henderson testified that he had been driving in the area of Neelon’s house on Pinkney Street and heard gunshots at the time she was killed. As he looked toward her house, Henderson saw the fire. He observed two males wearing all dark clothing standing near the front and the side of the house, and one of the males was holding a gun. Henderson stated that the two males, along with a third, ran across the street in front of his vehicle. Henderson recognized one of them. Henderson testified that he was later incarcerated with Pope and Short and that he recognized them as the other two males. Pope was convicted on all five counts and sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment for the first degree murder counts, two terms of 49 to 50 years’ imprisonment for the counts of use of a deadly weapon, and 49 to 50 years’ imprisonment for possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person. The district court ordered Pope to serve his sentences consecutively to each other and to a federal sentence, which he was currently serving. - 920 - Nebraska Supreme Court Advance Sheets 305 Nebraska Reports STATE v. POPE Cite as 305 Neb. 912 ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR Pope’s assignments of error, restated, are that the district court erred in (1) providing incorrect jury instructions on the felony murder and corresponding use counts and refusing to give Pope’s tendered instruction, (2) providing incorrect jury instructions on the aiding and abetting a crime count and refusing to give Pope’s tendered instruction, (3) failing to grant Pope’s motion to suppress DNA evidence, and (4) permitting Marcella’s identification of Pope.