Court Opinion

ID: 9473073
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:18:42.880045+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:18.387770
License: Public Domain

K.K. HALL, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I concur in that portion of the majority opinion which affirms the conviction of David Hawkes. I cannot agree, however, with the majority’s conclusion to reverse Sylvia Hawkes’ conviction. Unlike the majority, I believe there is ample evidence in the record regarding Sylvia’s behavior at the time of the raid which, when viewed, as required, in the light most favorable to the government, supports the trial court’s jury instruction that intentional flight might be considered as reflecting consciousness of guilt.
The trial court instructed the jury in pertinent part that:
[T]he intentional flight of a defendant immediately after the commission of a crime, or at the time criminal conduct is discovered, is not sufficient in itself to establish that defendant’s guilt, but is a fact which, if proved, may be considered by the jury in the light of all other evidence in the ease, in determining guilt or innocence. Whether or not evidence of flight or concealment — I should say flight because that’s all that is involved here — whether or not evidence of flight shows a consciousness of guilt, and the significance to be attached to any such evidence, are matters exclusively within the province of the jury.
In your consideration of the evidence of flight, you should consider that there may be reasons for that which are fully consistent with innocence. Those may include fear of being apprehended, unwillingness to confront the police, or reluctance to appear as a witness. Let me suggest also that a feeling of guilt does not necessarily reflect actual guilt.
In my view, this instruction was fair and proper in light of all of the evidence.
As the majority points out, one of the government’s witnesses, Theodore Cole-brook, who was a close friend of both defendants for eight years, testified that Sylvia was present in the farmhouse on the day of the raid; however, the majority neglects to mention other significant aspects of Colebrook’s testimony. Colebrook stated that, other than himself, the only persons he knew to be present on defendants’ property on August 30, 1983, before the arrival of law enforcement agents, were David, Sylvia,- and another individual, Drew Lawrence. Colebrook further testified that on three separate occasions that day he had *360observed a helicopter flying over defendants’ property and that the second time he saw the helicopter he had a conversation with David in the presence of Sylvia and Lawrence. According to Colebrook, “[h]e [David] asked me if I thought that they had seen anything.” Colebrook also explained that he understood “they” to mean the helicopter and “anything” to mean the marijuana. According to Colebrook, “within a moment of that conversation,” Sylvia asked him if he “thought that they were crazy for doing that.” Colebrook stated that he understood Sylvia to be referring to growing marijuana.
The record also reveals that as the helicopter flew over defendants’ property, State Troopers Charles Hatten and William Coburn observed a red pickup truck being driven at a rapid rate and exiting defendants’ property from the rear area of the cornfield where the marijuana was being grown. According to their testimony, the troopers lost sight of the truck under a canopy of trees, but saw two people leaving the truck and running up a path toward defendants’ house. The officers stated that they then observed the truck leaving the property along a public highway. Cole-brook testified that he had seen Lawrence driving a red pickup truck during August, 1983. Finally, Trooper Hatten testified that, following David’s surrender, David several times called “Sylvia” very loudly into the steep wooded hillside behind their house.*
In light of this evidence it was entirely reasonable for the jury to infer that, as the helicopter flew over defendants’ property just before landing, Lawrence left the property in his red pickup truck; David and Sylvia had been in the red pickup truck as it traveled at a rapid rate from the rear end of defendants’ cornfield towards the house; David and Sylvia were the two individuals seen running from the truck towards their house; and David ran to the house and then back to meet the law enforcement agents while Sylvia fled. Under these circumstances, I can only conclude that the trial court’s carefully worded flight instruction was both warranted and proper. I would, accordingly, affirm the convictions of both defendants.

 As the majority correctly notes, the trial court ruled that David’s statements could not be used to prove that Sylvia was in fact in the woods. I disagree, however, with the majority’s conclusion in note 3 of its opinion that these statements "might not be considered probative of any fact of consequence to the determination of these prosecutions.” In my view, it was entirely proper for the jury to consider the statements as evidence of flight.