Court Opinion

ID: 9647890
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:54:16.64908+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:23:55.829426
License: Public Domain

ELDRIDGE, Judge,
dissenting:
In my view, the evidence at the sentencing hearing was insufficient for the jury to find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Kevin Wiggins was a principal in the first degree in the murder of Florence Lacs. Consequently, I dissent from the judgment affirming the imposition of the death penalty.
When reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, the relevant question is “whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 318-319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2788-2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560, 573 (1979); Tichnell v. State, 287 Md. 695, 717, 415 A.2d 830, 842 (1980). The finding that Wiggins was a principal in the first degree, however, rests entirely on circumstantial evidence. “[A] conviction upon circumstantial evidence alone is not to be sustained unless the circumstances are inconsistent with any reasonable hypothesis of innocence.” West v. State, 312 Md. 197, 211-212, 539 A.2d 231, 238 (1988). *584See also Wilson v. State, 319 Md. 530, 535-537, 573 A.2d 831, 833-834 (1990). The evidence presented at the sentencing hearing would permit a reasonable trier of fact to hypothesize that Wiggins was not a principal in the first degree.
Under the Maryland statutory scheme, the proof concerning guilt required at a capital sentencing hearing is different from the proof required at the guilt or innocence stage of the trial. At the guilt or innocence stage, the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of first degree murder. The defendant may be guilty of first degree murder, of course, even though he is a principal in the second degree, an accessory, or guilty under the felony murder doctrine. At the sentencing stage more is required, as the State must show beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was the actual perpetrator of the murder. He must be a principal in the first degree. Maryland Code (1957, 1987 Repl.Vol., 1991 Cum.Supp), Art. 27, § 413(e)(1); Maryland Rule 4-343(e); Johnson v. State, 303 Md. 487, 510, 495 A.2d 1, 12 (1985), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1093, 106 S.Ct. 868, 88 L.Ed.2d 907 (1986); Stebbing v. State, 299 Md. 331, 371, 473 A.2d 903, 923, cert. denied, 469 U.S. 900, 105 S.Ct. 276, 83 L.Ed.2d 212 (1984).1
In this, case, the evidence produced at the sentencing hearing differed in some respects from the evidence presented at the guilt or innocence stage of trial. For example, the sentencing jury did not hear any testimony from Wiggins’s cellmates. Thus, the jury could not take into account the testimony given at the earlier stage of the trial concerning conversations Wiggins allegedly had about the circumstances of the murder with these cellmates. Moreover, the testimony of Wiggins’s employer at the sentencing hearing differed somewhat from his testimony at the guilt or innocence stage. In addition, the significance of some of the evidence at the sentencing hearing was *585different from its significance at the earlier stage. This is true of the evidence pointing to the involvement of someone other than Wiggins in the robbery and murder.
The State’s theory was that Wiggins committed the robbery and murder between the time he was initially dismissed from work on Thursday and the time he returned to inform his employer that he had moved some sheetrock. The State’s case at sentencing was based on Wiggins’s presence near the victim’s apartment on Thursday afternoon at approximately 5:00 p.m. and on the fact that Wiggins and his girlfriend used the victim’s credit cards and car on Thursday night. While this evidence may have been sufficient to establish that Wiggins was involved in the robbery of Ms. Lacs, it was not sufficient to show, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Wiggins was the actual perpetrator of the murder.
The State produced no direct evidence supporting its theory that the victim died at approximately 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. The expert testimony with regard to time of death advanced by the State was more consistent with the defendant’s theory that the victim had died on Friday evening. The Death Certificate, as originally filled out by the State’s expert, fixed the approximate time of death as Friday evening. At the sentencing hearing, each of the three expert witnesses estimated that the maximum range for a time of death extended back to approximately 9:00 p.m. on Thursday, which was after Wiggins went shopping with the victim’s credit cards.
The weakness of the State’s theory with regard to time of death was further undermined by the testimony of Edith Vassar who reiterated that she had spoken to the victim over the telephone on Friday morning.2 Ms. Vassar testi*586fied that they discussed the luncheon which she and Ms. Lacs had attended on Thursday afternoon.
Furthermore, two of the girls whose testimony placed Wiggins at the scene testified that Wiggins had spoken to Ms. Lacs about some sheetrock at 5:00 p.m. or 5:30 p.m. The girls testified that Wiggins left the building ahead of them. Wiggins checked in with his employer at approximately 5:05 p.m. According to the employer, he had been gone for twenty minutes.3 The subcontractor’s office was about five minutes away from the victim’s apartment. This time sequence does not give Wiggins much time to ransack the victim’s apartment, to fill her bath tub with water, to drown her, and to go over the entire apartment wiping off his fingerprints.
Other evidence which tends to weaken an already fragile case of circumstantial evidence is the lack of consistency in the testimony concerning Ms. Laos’s clothing by those who came in contact with her on Thursday, which, according to the State, was the last day of her life. Mary Elgert, one of Ms. Laos’s friends, stated that Ms. Lacs was wearing a light blue skirt and a white blouse Thursday afternoon. Elizabeth Lane, another friend, told the police on Saturday that Ms. Lacs was last seen wearing a red dress as late as 4:00 p.m. on Thursday. One of the girls in the hallway, Chentell Greenwood, testified that at approximately 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, Ms. Lacs had on a red skirt and a white blouse. The pictures of the victim submitted to the jury show that the skirt was dark blue. The color of the skirt was characterized by the defendant’s attorney as teal and by Detective Crabbs as green. This conflicting testimony cannot support *587the inference that Ms. Lacs died on Thursday because she was found in Thursday’s clothes.
Finally, evidence was discovered which tended to point to the participation of another person in the robbery/murder. Several fingerprints that did not belong to Wiggins were found in the apartment. The places where these prints were found are relevant. They were discovered on the front door arch, the archway wall of the kitchen, and on the doorjamb leading to the bathroom. Others were found on a soap box on the kitchen table which, along with other cleaning items, had been moved from their usual places in the kitchen. In addition to the fingerprints, the investigation also discovered a man’s hat bearing a Ryder Rental Truck emblem at the scene. Police were unable to tie this hat to Wiggins, and none of the witnesses who testified that they had seen Wiggins that day testified that Wiggins had been wearing this hat.
When viewed in isolation, the fingerprints and the hat perhaps may not, as the majority states, “support a reasonable hypothesis that another individual was present in the victim’s apartment____” When this evidence is added to an already weak circumstantial case, however, the combination leads to the conclusion that the evidence at the sentencing hearing was not sufficient to establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Wiggins was the principal in the first degree.
In addition to the insufficiency of the evidence per se, there is another ground warranting a reversal of the death sentence. This Court is required by Art. 27, § 414(e)(4), to conduct a proportionality review. Under the present death penalty statute, this Court has never upheld a death sentence on evidence as weak as that introduced in this case. In the numerous cases where we have upheld the death sentence, there was little question that the defendant committed the murder as a principal in the first degree. Evidence which supported these findings included a confession by the defendant, Stebbing v. State, supra; eyewitness testimony to the incident, Gilliam v. State, 320 Md. 637, 579 A.2d 744 (1990), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 111 S.Ct. *5881024, 112 L.Ed.2d 1106 (1991); Huffington v. State, 304 Md. 559, 500 A.2d 272 (1985), cert. denied, 478 U.S. 1023, 106 S.Ct. 3315, 92 L.Ed.2d 745 (1986); White v. State, 300 Md. 719, 481 A.2d 201 (1984), cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1062, 105 S.Ct. 1779, 84 L.Ed.2d 837 (1985); and fingerprints of the defendant at the scene coupled with the defendant’s possession of the victim’s property, Colvin v. State, 299 Md. 88, 472 A.2d 953, cert. denied, 469 U.S. 873, 105 S.Ct. 226, 83 L.Ed.2d 155 (1984). Where the defendant’s participation in the murder as a principal in the first degree is based upon a very weak case of circumstantial evidence, a sentence of death is disproportionate.
I would vacate the death sentence and remand for the imposition of a life sentence.
Judge Cole has authorized me to state that he concurs with the views expressed herein.

. There is one exception to the requirement that the defendant be a principal in the first degree, but it is not relevant here.

. Ms. Vassar also testified that she had received an anonymous telephone call and that the caller told her that she must be mistaken about the day of the call. At the sentencing hearing, however, Ms. Vassar asserted that she was not mistaken.

. Wiggins's employer testified at sentencing that Wiggins was dismissed from work at 4:45 p.m. on Thursday. The employer also testified that Wiggins returned twenty minutes later to inform his boss that he had moved some sheetrock to the front of the building. At the guilt or innocence stage of the trial, as pointed out in the majority opinion, the employer testified that Wiggins had been gone for twenty-five to thirty-five minutes.