Court Opinion

ID: 9649739
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 15:07:27.379335+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:22:20.636003
License: Public Domain

KRAMER, Associate Judge,
concurring:
As the majority notes, Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), provides that to prevail on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, a defendant must show both *413that the performance of counsel was deficient and that he was prejudiced by that deficiency. To meet the test, a defendant must establish “that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the ‘counsel’ guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment,” Id. at 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052 and that the defendant suffered prejudice because “there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.” Id. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Because of what I perceive to be the strength of the evidence in this case (and the deficiencies of the affidavits presented to Judge Dixon), I am persuaded that there is no realistic possibility that Mr. Jones was prejudiced by any of the asserted deficiencies of counsel.
D.C.Code § 23 — 110(c) provides a presumption that there will be a hearing on an ineffective assistance of counsel claim. It also provides, however, that such a hearing is not necessary if “the motion and files and records of the case conclusively show that the prisoner is entitled to no relief.” In my judgment, the motion, files and records of this case “conclusively show” that the defendant committed the acts of which he was convicted and thus should be entitled to no relief. But the government did not rely on the strength of its evidence in its presentation to Judge Dixon, and, as Judge Steadman points out, as a general rule, we do not consider on appeal arguments that were not presented below. Nonetheless, because I view the strength of the evidence so differently from the majority, I concur and explain.
As I detail herein, the evidence with respect to the offenses against Mrs. N. and Mrs. L. is overwhelming (and, contrary to the views of the majority, the evidence with respect to the offenses against Ms. A., on which the appellant was acquitted, entirely irrelevant to the issues now before us). This is because the evidence that pertains to the matters involving Mrs. N. and Mrs. L. individually is stronger than assessed by the majority, and, more importantly, the evidence of the offenses against each of these two victims is inherently intertwined and provides virtually irrefutable corroboration of the defendant’s guilt of both. Indeed, I note that in the order of February 12, 1988, affirming the original convictions, this court held that the trial judge had not erred in declining to sever the offenses involving Mrs. N. from those involving Mrs. L. because the “numerous similarities between the manner in which the two offenses were committed as well as the relatively few differences between them” made them mutually admissible.
In contrast, the affidavits submitted in connection with the § 23-110 motion are weak and unpersuasive, filled with inconsistencies, refuted by Mr. Jones’ own testimony at trial, and replete with unanswered questions, such as why Mr. Jones’ sister did not come forward at an earlier time. In that regard, I note that while § 23-110 is designed to ensure that innocent defendants have recourse when they have been the victims of ineffective counsel, the weight of finality should dictate that legal game playing not be encouraged at that stage of the proceedings. Rather, the cards should be put on the table.
To explain my differing assessment, I provide my own rendition of the facts. Although the crimes against Mrs. N. came after those against Mrs. L., I begin with the offenses involving Mrs. N. since the evidence of these crimes, in my assessment, is sufficient to prove them not “merely” beyond a reasonable doubt, but practically to “a mathematical certainty”— a standard that involves a degree of evi*414dence that goes beyond what is necessary to convict an accused.1
The Crimes Involving Mrs. N.
The trial record shows that on April 22, 1985, Mrs. N., a native of Haiti, lived with her husband and four children in a home located in a heavily wooded area on a part of Quebec Street, Northwest, that is adjacent to Rock Creek Park and a block or so off Connecticut Avenue. The testimony was that there are only a few homes on this part of Quebec. In order to reach them, you enter Quebec from Connecticut and continue onto what appears to be a dead-end street. The nearest house to Mrs. N.’s is approximately seventy-five feet away.
On Monday, April 22, 1985, at approximately ten o’clock in the morning, Mrs. N. was in an upstairs bedroom making a bed while three of her children, ages 1, 2 and 6, played nearby. Suddenly, she heard one of the children scream and looked up to see a man four to five feet from her holding a three-foot long pipe and a six-inch long steak knife. Although he immediately directed Mrs. N. and her children to close their eyes, she testified that it was “broad daylight,” and that she “took a good look at [his] face,” that is, “his entire face,” and would never forget it.
The intruder threatened to kill her if she spoke or screamed, then grabbed her by the back of her robe, put the knife he carried to her neck, and dragged her from room-to-room on the second floor, directing her six-year old son to carry the one-year old baby. Mrs. N. described his demeanor as “hyper” and “mean,” and commented that “he knew exactly what he was doing” and that “his voice showed that.” For example, “he knew exactly what drawer to look [in],” and went “through all of the drawers” where she had her jewelry. Further, “[h]e knew how to put the [knife] in my throat the whole time,” and “how to pull the back of my robe and drag me down and up.”
Eventually, the intruder put the children in the library on the first floor and ordered them to stay there. With the knife to her throat, he then continued to drag Mrs. N. up and down the stairs, pulling her by the back of her robe and demanding money and jewelry. After locating about $60 in currency, he ransacked the house and took several thousand dollars worth of jewelry that he had found from searching the drawers.
After that, he obtained a pair of black stockings, tied Mrs. N.’s hands tightly behind her back at the wrist, gagged her with one T-shirt and blindfolded her with another. Using his knife, he proceeded to cut open the T-shirt she was wearing, removed her panties and raped her, biting her nipple so hard that it left the impressions of his teeth. He then left the house, warning Mrs. N. before going not to call the police for at least forty minutes and stating that “the police want him badly.”2 After his departure, Mrs. N. discovered that all five of her telephone lines had been cut. Thus, she dressed and with her children sought refuge at the home of a neighbor, who called the police.
In her trial testimony, Mrs. N. described this man as wearing a white shirt, light blue jeans with big pockets, high top tennis shoes and a red baseball cap. She *415noted that the sleeves on his shirt and jacket were rolled up. She described the jacket as a jean jacket — “a short jacket, not a long jacket.” She also noted that his shirt was buttoned and worn open, that is, without a tie.
Mrs. N. testified that she is 5'4" tall, recalled the intruder as “appearing] a little bit taller than” she was, and, in response to a question from defense counsel, agreed that he “was not a lot taller.” According to her, he had a little hair “right on his chin.” She described his complexion as having imperfections, like little moles or pimples, and as being of a fighter brown shade (the same shade, she testified, as the defendant, whom she identified in court as her assailant). Her ability to recall these details of his physical characteristics and clothing in such detail underscores her opportunity to observe him and bolsters the credibility of her subsequent identifications of him. Furthermore, it was not until near the end of this series of events that she was actually blindfolded. With respect to his voice, she heard it repeatedly as he gave commands to her and the children. Indeed, she testified that as with his appearance, she would never forget his voice.
Moreover, Mrs. N.’s trial testimony describing her assailant was much more detailed than the description that she gave to Officer Frederick Scott, who was the first officer to speak with her after these traumatic events. Mrs. N. told him that her assailant was about 26 years old, about 5'8" tall, with a slim build, wearing blue jeans, a red baseball hat and high-top tennis shoes. She also described him as clean shaven and dark complected. When Mrs. N. was shown a photo array the day after the assault that did not contain a photo of the appellant, she made no identification.
On Sunday, April 28th, six days after the assault, Mrs. N. testified that she received a phone call from the same man whose voice she recognized as that of the man who had invaded her home. He said, “I told you that you shouldn’t have called the police. I will come back to kill you.” The next day, on Monday, April 29th, he called again, but all he said was, “Today is Monday.” There was no doubt in her mind that both phone calls came from her assailant, and in any event, the words spoken by the caller themselves confirm that it was the same person.3
The timing of these phone calls corresponds directly with the stop of Mr. Jones that took place around 1:00 a.m. on April 28, six days after the offenses involving Mrs. N. and a little over a month after the offenses involving Mrs. L. described below. The stop was the result of a police detail in the spring of 1985 that provided surveillance to the area of the 2600 block of Porter Street, the 2700 block of Quebec Street and the 2600 and 2700 blocks of Klingle Road for the purpose of spotting persons who matched the description given in connection with these crimes. Specifically, the police lookout was for a black male in his twenties, between five-ten and six feet tall, who weighed about 160 pounds and was wearing blue jeans, white tennis shoes and a red baseball cap. When Detective Lawrence Noyes spotted Mr. Jones on that date, he was wearing white tennis shoes and had a red hat with a Popeyes insignia sticking out of the pocket of his coat that matched the de*416scription that an officer in a scout car had reported he was wearing when first seen.
Mr. Jones was stopped “right in the rear and down from the [Mrs. L’s] house” next to a set of stairs that go from the 2600 block of Porter Street up to the 2600 block of Klingle Road, where Mrs. L.’s house is. The stairs are about a city block away from Mrs. N.’s home. Norris saw a ring around the whole back of Mr. Jones’ head that appeared to be made by a cap like the one in Mr. Jones’ pocket. The police took Mr. Jones to the station and obtained his name and photograph. At trial, Mr. Jones testified that he left for New York almost immediately after this encounter with the police.
The majority is troubled by the fact that Mrs. N. did not make an identification when confronted with the defendant in a line-up on November 5, 1985. But, as she explained, when she recognized the man who had attacked her, she was so “petrified” that she felt ill — like she was about to pass out-and instead of identifying him, she said that she did not recognize anyone. There was not the slightest suggestion in the record that Mrs. N. was being untruthful about this. Moreover, several weeks later, on December 9, 1985, when she was called to appear before the Grand Jury and shown a photograph of the lineup, she identified the defendant .as her assailant. During the trial, when , asked if she could make an in-court identification, she responded: “I don’t have to look very far. He’s across, sitting across from me, right here.”
At trial, Officer Charles Hale, a police crime scene search officer, testified that on April 22, 1985, the date of the offenses, he and a second officer were assigned to look for evidence outside of the Mrs. N.s house, particularly toward the rear and sides. Thus, they dusted the basement windows and the basement door for fingerprints. From the area of a window near the basement door two fingerprints and one palm print of Mr. Jones were recovered. Specifically, his left middle fingerprint and left ring fingerprint were identified as coming from the frame of the window screen of an area near the basement door. It came not just from the window pane itself, as might be expected if a person was merely looking in a window. Rather, it came from the area where the screen fits into the frame. As described by Officer Hale, the area is right next to the stone of the house where there is a wooden frame for a window. The defendant’s right palm print was also identified on a metal frame of the screen of the same window.
Asked if she was able to determine how the assailant entered her home, Mrs. N. testified that she believed that it must have been through a screen door that she had left open — but latched with a hook— after watering some plants outside that morning. As she pointed out, all of the other doors to the house were locked. She identified Government Exhibit No. 37 as a picture that depicted the door that she had left latched. Officer Hale identified Government Exhibit No. 38 as a picture that depicted the screen where the fingerprints were found. He testified that Exhibit No. 37, the photo identified by Mrs. N. as showing the screen door that she had left open and latched, showed a patio area located immediately above the window where the latent fingerprints were discovered.
During his testimony, Mr. Jones sought to explain how his fingerprints could have been on the screen at Mrs. N.’s house. He testified that he had quit his job at Po-peyes in March, and began hiking regularly in Rock Creek Park in April. One day in early April, he testified, he got lost and ended up on a narrow dirt road. Across from him were some woods and further *417away was a house. He kept walking straight and ended up in the back yard of the house. He looked into the window of the house for a few minutes because he wanted to see how it was built and saw furniture inside. The window that he said he looked through was a basement window.
In response to the prosecutor’s question about why he had touched or moved the screen on the basement window, Mr. Jones testified that he did not recall moving the screen or even seeing the screen, but only looking though the window. After doing so, Mr. Jones testified, he left and retraced his path, ending up at Pierce Mill, a location with which he was familiar. He testified that he only hiked in the area of Mrs. N’s house that one time, which was in early April, a time he recalls because it had begun to get warm. He acknowledged that he knew the area of Porter Hill (his name for the portion of Porter Street near the homes of Mrs. N. and Mrs. L.) and “the bike trail underneath the bridge and where the zoo is at.” Moreover, at that time, he lived only about a mile from there.
When asked by the prosecutor if on April 30th he knew that the police were looking for him, Mr. Jones replied that he did not. He testified that he left the District on April 30 or May 1, 1985, because he was stopped by the police that night, and as a result he decided that Washington “wasn’t the place for him any more.” Thus, he went to live with his grandfather in Brooklyn, New York. It was not until he returned to the District, he testified, that he learned that the police were looking for him. The testimony of Detective Patrick Shine, on the other hand, was that when he spoke with Mr. Jones after his arrest, Mr. Jones told him that he learned of the warrant, which had been issued on April 29, 1985, and sought counsel from his mother’s boyfriend, who told him to “get out of town.”
Thus, what we have with respect to the crimes against Mrs. N. is a fingerprint of Mr. Jones on a -window screen on the ground floor of her house. That, of course, would not in itself be sufficient to show him guilty of these crimes, particularly given his explanation, which has some degree of plausibility. But there is no suggestion that Mrs. N. had any occasion to see the person looking into the basement window. Thus, the chance that she would identify as her assailant the same person who got lost in Rock Creek Park and accidentally stumbled upon her house, leaving his fingerprints on a basement screen, is extremely remote. The probabilities are reduced further when the assailant calls and threatens Mrs. N. for contacting the police on the very day and the day after the police have stopped Mr. Jones, taken him to the station and photographed him. And one more factor supporting the accuracy of Mrs. N’s identification, albeit of much less moment, is that by his own admission, he fled to New York within a day or two of this encounter, thereby avoiding the arrest on the warrant that was so expeditiously obtained. Thus, I conclude that the evidence of Mr. Jones’ guilt in Mrs. N.’s case is overwhelming and indeed, sufficient to “conclusively show” that the defendant committed the acts of which he was convicted, and further that the alleged deficiencies of his trial counsel did not cause him prejudice. In addition, however, as I will show following review of the facts of the crimes against Mrs. L., the convictions with respect to the offenses involving Mrs. N. are also supported by the mutually admissible evidence of those offenses, which occurred approximately six weeks before.
The Crimes Involving Mrs. L.
In March 1985, Mrs. L. and her husband lived in the 2600 block of Klingle Road, *418Northwest. As one police officer described it, the distance between the Mrs. L.’s home and Mrs. N.’s home, “although up and down hill,” if calculated “straight through the woods in a straight line would be approximately three hundred yards.” Porter Street lies in between the two houses. Mrs. L.’s home is built on a hill and like Mrs. N.’s home is in a wooded area. Steps beginning on Porter Street lead up to the area of Mrs. L.’s home.
Around 10:00 p.m. on the evening of March 14, 1985, Mrs. L., then twenty-nine years old, was at home alone. While in her bedroom, Mrs. L. heard glass breaking and saw a man enter through the broken sliding glass doors of the room with a large rock in his hand. The bedroom was well-lighted with a lamp that had a 150 watt bulb by which Mrs. L. could easily read and with additional light from the television, which was on. From the distance of about a foot, she had an opportunity to get a good look not only at the man’s face, but at his entire person for a period of eight to ten seconds before he grabbed her
The intruder placed a knife at Mrs. L.’s throat and put his hand over her mouth. He told her to stop screaming, turned her around so that he was behind her and ordered her not to raise her head and not to look at him. She estimated that during the time he was in her home, he reiterated his command for her not to look at him at least “a dozen” times. As he dragged her from room-to-room and back, looking through drawers and closets, and ransacking them in his search for items to steal, he continued to hold the knife to her neck, later exchanging it for a meat cleaver that he found in the kitchen. Upon discovering her bank card, he demanded the number from Mrs. L. and threatened to come back and kill her if the number she gave him turned out to be incorrect.
By the time he discovered the bank card, Mrs. L. testified, her assailant was “considerably rougher,” and had gotten so “progressively ... through the evening,” Even at the beginning, however, when he first entered her bedroom, he was rough, according to Mrs. L., “grabb[ing][her] very hard and putting] his hand over [her] mouth and [holding her] very securely.” As Mrs. L. put it, “he was rough at the beginning and then he got worse.” With two exceptions, as they went through the house so the intruder could determine what he wanted to steal, he kept her back to him and the knife or cleaver at her throat, repeatedly telling her not to look up.4
Eventually, they returned to the living room for the final time. Once in the living room, the intruder demanded that Mrs. L. disrobe, which she did after failing to dissuade him from what she correctly anticipated was his intended course of action. He tied her hands behind her back with her pantyhose, making them extremely tight on her wrists, and blindfolded her by tying her blouse tightly over her eyes. Then he raped her.
Thereafter, Mrs. L. could hear him unplugging stereo equipment. He returned to her, wrapped a stereo cord around her neck, and told her that he could kill her if he wished. He also threatened to come back and chop off her head if she reported him to the police. The last she could remember was his pulling the cord tighter and tighter around her neck until she lapsed into unconsciousness. Within about ten minutes, Mrs. L. estimated, she regained consciousness and heard the sound of a car going down the road leading to her *419house. While she had seen the intruder cut two phone cords, she recalled a third line in a home office and struggled to that phone in order to contact the police. She later discovered that her car was missing. In addition, the intruder took $60, her bank card, her watch, a cameo pin, a VCR, and the stereo equipment.
Mrs. L. estimated that she was with the intruder for a little over an hour. Her best opportunity to see him, she testified, was when he first entered her well-lit bedroom. She was able to look at not only his face, but “his entire person” for eight to ten seconds from the distance of about a foot before he grabbed her and told her not to look at him. Despite his warnings, however, she did have additional opportunities to view him. On two occasions, she looked up and got a good side view of his face. One of those occasions was on a revisit to the her bedroom and another was in the kitchen, where there were eight recessed overhead lights shining. On these two occasions, she “saw his face from the side” “for several seconds, maybe five at the most.” Thus, while she got “the best look at him when he entered the home,” which she estimated as for a period of eight to ten seconds, she also got “a good side view of him” on two other occasions and was able to see him intermittently when they returned to the living room for the final time as he looked out of the window and walked to her side.
The first police officer to respond to Mrs. L.’s call was Officer Tilman Nunges-ser, who was assigned to investigate the call at about 11:13 p.m. He testified that Mrs. L., who was suffering from the results of being strangled, reported to him that she had been assaulted by a black male, approximately six feet tall, under the age of thirty, wearing a blue jacket and blue jeans. Officer Nungesser had an opportunity to see Mrs. L’s bedroom, and observed the broken patio door and the jewelry cases strewn about the floor.
At trial, Mrs. L. was able to describe the intruder and his clothing in minute detail. She testified that he was a black male about 24-25 years old, who was about 5'8" to 5'10" tall. He was “very even featured” and there was “nothing at all that struck [her] as being unusual or noticeable in any way.” He was wearing a red baseball cap that she described as a bright red color, not maroon. She could not recall if it had an insignia on the front of the cap. He was also wearing “fairly new” white sneakers and although “[t]hey did not look like they were new ... they looked like they had just been cleaned, and there was an emblem on the side of them very much like a Nike emblem.” She further testified that “[i]t also looked like the emblem at one time had been a darker shade of blue and had faded out.” The sneakers “were a mix of material, maybe nylon and leather or nylon ... canvas — [n]ot all one material.” In addition, she recalled that the man was wearing blue jeans, which did not look like designer jeans, but they did look relatively new and the stitching at the bottom looked like what would be on a pair of Levi’s. She also noted that he was wearing a lightweight dark blue cloth jacket with no identifiable brand name.
Mrs. L. attended two line-ups. The appellant was not included in the first one, and Mrs. L. made no identification. At a second line-up, where the appellant was included, she identified him as her assailant. At trial, she identified Mr. Jones in court and indicated that he looked the same as he had on March 14, 1985. She testified further that there was no doubt in her mind that he was the man who broke into her house and raped her. Thus, as with the offenses against Mrs. N., the evidence of Mr. Jones’ commission of the offenses against Mrs. L. is also strong. *420But, as I now discuss, when the similarities in these two incidents are compared, the evidence that Mr. Jones committed both becomes simply overwhelming.
Similarities in Offenses
As this court pointed out in affirming the convictions, the similarities between the crimes against Ms. L. and the crimes against Mrs. N. makes them mutually admissible, and thus neither set of offenses stands alone. Rather each is supported by the corroborating evidence resulting from the similarities between them. First, the descriptions given by Mrs. N. and Mrs. L. correspond in numerous ways. Both agree that the intruder was a black male and describe him as in the same age range-Mrs. N. as around 26 years old; Mrs. L. as from 24-25 years old. Both say that he was wearing a red baseball cap, blue jeans, and a blue jacket. At trial, Mrs. N. estimated his height as 5'8", while Mrs. L. estimated it as 5'8" to 5'10". Officer Nungasser reported that the night on the scene, Mrs. L. told him that her assailant was six feet tall and under 30 years old, a description which accurately describes Mr. Jones. Each victim adds additional details that the other does not, and while there is some discrepancy in the height, that is only to be expected.
But the similarities in the actions of the intruder are what takes this to a level of overwhelming evidence where there can be every confidence that the convictions were reliable. Those similarities are as follows:
1. The houses were within 300 yards of each other in somewhat secluded settings in out-of-the-way areas.
2. The burglar entered both homes carrying a knife.
3. The burglar made identical use of the knife, that is, the knife was held to the victim’s neck, thus requiring the victim to face forward and minimizing the victim’s opportunity to view her assailant.
4. The victims were dragged around and up and down stairs by the necks of the garments they were wearing while the intruder searched the house for valuables worth stealing.
5. Both victims described the burglar as “mean” or “rough.” He threatened to kill Mrs. N. if she spoke or screamed, and ordered her six-year old son to carry the baby. Mrs. L. described him as “rough at the beginning and then he got worse.”
6. The burglar checked every room in each house and ransacked them for valuables.
7. The burglar appeared experienced and confident in his actions, not unsure of himself.
8. The burglar warned both victims that they would be killed if they took certain action-Mrs. N. if she spoke or screamed or if she called the police after his departure; Mrs. L. if the number for her bank card was not accurate (and noted, as he strangled her, that he could kill her if he wanted).
9. The burglar cut the telephone lines in each house before leaving.
10. Before the rape, the burglar tied the wrists of both victims tightly behind their backs using each victim’s panty hose.
11. Before the rape, the burglar used the tops worn by each victim — a T-shirt in the case of Mrs. N. and a blouse in the case of Mrs. L. — to blindfold them.
12. The burglar added gratuitous violence to each rape, strangling Mrs. L. until she lost consciousness and biting the nipple of Mrs. N. so hard that it left the indentations of his teeth.
There is no suggestion that Mrs. N. and Mrs. L. knew each other or coordinated *421their identifications of Mr. Jones as their assailant. Rather, what exists are solid identifications by both victims backed up by the fingerprint evidence, the calls to Mrs. N. on the same day as the police stop, and a dozen ways in which the intruder’s actions during each set of offenses were parallel to the other.
The Affidavits
Arrayed against this evidence are three affidavits and three documents submitted in connection with the motion for a new trial. One of the affidavits, from Mr. Jones’ sister, Malisa Jones, avers that he was seriously ill and under her constant care and watch on March 13, 14 and 15, 1985, that he did not leave her home, and that she “attended to [his] needs frequently” as a result. She states unequivocally that he did not leave her home at any time those days. But her affidavit is undermined in this respect by Mr. Jones’ own affidavit in which he avers he left her home and went to Popeyes on March 13, got into an argument with his supervisor and quit his job. Moreover, there is no explanation for why she would not have testified to this at his trial. Though Mr. Jones, in his affidavit, asserts that his trial counsel never contacted his family, as Mr. Jones requested (an assertion quite undercut by the testimony at trial of his uncle, Markell Jones), that would not alone appear to explain why she would not have come forward with this critical alibi testimony pertaining to the charges involving Mrs. L. In addition, as Judge Dixon noted, “no assertion is made that the defendant’s family was unaware of his arrest or that any family member was denied the opportunity to come forward and testify at the defendant’s trial.”
In April of 1985, according to Mr. Jones’ affidavit, he became re-employed at Po-peyes. He asserts that he filled out an information sheet in connection with his re-employment, which is an attachment to the motion. He avers that on April 22, 1985, he was scheduled to work the same shift as John Havins, Roland Jones and Andre Williams. He further avers that those time sheet records obtained from Popeyes indicate that he worked a shift beginning at 6:30 a.m. and ending at 5:30 p.m., thus establishing an alibi for the offenses involving Mrs. N.
As Judge Dixon pointed out, however, Mr. Jones’ “time card and work schedule conflict as to the days and times defendant worked, and the defendant’s own testimony conflicts with the work schedule that defendant submitted in support of the underlying motion.” Putting aside for the moment that the Work Schedule has neither a month nor a year on it (in addition to the lack of a Popeyes name) and further assuming that it is for the week of Sunday, April 20, to Saturday, April 27, it would have had Mr. Jones working from “10:00” to “5:00” on Monday through Thursday. But the time card itself, also of questionable authenticity, has him working from 6:30 a.m. to 5:20 p.m. on Monday, from 7:00 a.m. to 12:18 p.m. on Tuesday, from 6:32 a.m. to 5:23 p.m. on Wednesday, and from 7:00 a.m. to 5:22 p.m. on Thursday.
Mr. Jones asserts that he requested that his counsel interview Andre Williams to confirm that they were both working at that time. Should Mr. Williams testify to that, however, this would be inconsistent with Mr. Jones’ own trial testimony that he had quit his job in March and was not working in April. Indeed, Mr. Jones testified to this for the vital purpose of explaining why his fingerprints were found on the screen of Mrs. N.’s home. Specifically, he said that after he quit his job in March, he was able to start hiking “deeply” in April in the area by Rock Creek Park behind the zoo. Thus, this was hardly an offhand remark, but a critical part of his defense *422and seriously undercuts the representations in his affidavit that he had become re-employed at Popeyes in April. And it is worth noting that the trial itself was in February 1986, so that he could certainly be expected to recall correctly whether he was working in April — only ten months before.
In addition, the documents submitted with respect to his work schedule — specifically an “Information Sheet,” the “Popeyes Work Schedule” and a time card dated April 28, 1985 — raise serious issues of authenticity. In the affidavit of Andre Williams, he avers that he obtained these in 1992, which would be seven years after the events at issue. Neither the Information Sheet nor the time card even indicate that they are Popeyes documents. And the Popeyes Work Schedule appears to be a computer generated document that could easily have been created on a home computer.
Mr. Jones also avers that before trial, he was unsure of his whereabouts on April 22, 1985, and asked his attorney to obtain the Popeyes employment records to see if he might have been working on the days that he was alleged to have committed the offenses and that his attorney failed to follow through on that suggestion. But during the trial, Mr. Jones identified a time card, which was Defense Exhibit 2, that he testified showed him to have been at work on January 23, 1985, the date of the offenses against Ms. A. for which he was acquitted. The introduction of this time card shows that, contrary to failing to search out these records, his counsel not only sought them out, but made use of what was helpful.
Conclusion
In sum, contrary to the view implicit in the majority opinion, I conclude that the government’s evidence of Jones’s guilt was overwhelming.5 For the reasons detailed above, this evidence easily met, if not exceeded, the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt. The record, on the other hand, convincingly refutes the belated allegations in the affidavits that Jones now proffers in his motion for post-conviction relief. Thus, I might well have been satisfied that “under no circumstances could [Jones] establish facts warranting relief.” See Joseph v. United States, 878 A.2d 1204, 1209 (D.C.2005) (quoting Ramsey v. United States, 569 A.2d 142, 147 (D.C.1990)) (internal quotation marks omitted), and that the trial court was therefore justified in denying the § 23-110 motion without a hearing. However, the government’s decision not to argue the strength of its evidence before the trial court prevented the trial judge from conducting its own assessment of whether the Ramsey test had been met. For this reason, despite my own view that the evidence conclusively establishes Jones’ guilt, I cannot disagree with the majority’s decision to remand for a hearing. Thus, I concur rather than dissent.

. See Criminal Jury Instructions for the District of Columbia, No. 2.09 (4th ed. Rev. 2005) ("The government is not required to prove guilt beyond all doubt, or to a mathematical or scientific certainly.")

. The record is silent with respect to why the police "wanted him badly.” Surely, the attack on Mrs. L. would provide a justification for the police "wanting him badly.”

. At trial, Mr. Jones testified at length about what he was doing on Porter Street at 1:00 a.m., including a story about a robbery involving two "Puerto Ricans” in which he was cut and ended up at the hospital, leaving behind his backpack that he was on his way to retrieve. In the end, however, this testimony appears to be no more than a diversion that does not go to the heart of the issue of his guilt or innocence.

. The two exceptions occurred in two separate bedrooms when he ordered her to lie on the bed and not look at him as he ransacked the rooms.

. Guilt, of course, is rarely established with absolute certainty. It is worth noting, however, that there is no indication that Mr. Jones has sought to take advantage of the Innocence Protection Act, D.C.Code § 22-4133, which would hold out the possibility of scientific exoneration should his DNA not match the DNA on the swabs taken from the victims.