Court Opinion

ID: 9763091
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:36:37.502144+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:39.365685
License: Public Domain

WAGNER, Associate Judge,
dissenting:
In my opinion, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying appellant’s motion for a mistrial, which he requested to afford him an opportunity to call as a witness his co-defendant, Stephen Brandon. The co-defendant had entered a plea of guilty after completion of the government’s case. The record belies any claim that appellant was entitled to a mistrial or that the interests of justice would be served by a retrial. I agree with my colleagues that Jackson v. United States, 329 A.2d 782 (D.C.1974), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 851, 96 S.Ct. 95, 46 L.Ed.2d 74 (1975), governs the disposition of the issues before the court. However, it is the application of the Jackson criteria to the facts in this case which invites this dissent. Two of the four Jackson factors,1 “the exculpatory nature of the desired testimony” and “the demands of effective judicial administration,” weighed against the trial court’s exercise of discretion in appellant’s favor, in my view.
It is well settled that the trial court has broad discretion to grant or deny a severance request or a mistrial motion based on a defendant’s desire to present at his trial the testimony of a co-defendant. Tucker v. United States, 571 A.2d 797, 800 (D.C.1990); King v. United States, 550 A.2d 348, 352 (D.C.1988). This court’s review of the trial court’s discretionary ruling “is limited to a determination whether [its] discretion was abused.” King, 550 A.2d at 352; see Jackson, supra, 329 A.2d at 732 (abuse of discretion finding requires determination that joint trial resulted in denial of a fair trial and due process). Measured against that standard, I cannot agree that the trial court did not act within its broad discretion in denying the motion.
I share the majority’s view that the factors which govern the disposition of a *134mistrial motion based on the desire to obtain purportedly exculpatory testimony of a co-defendant apply equally to the determination of a severance motion on the same grounds. Those factors are:
the exculpatory nature of the desired testimony, the desire of the movant to present this testimony, the willingness of the co-defendant to testify, and the demands of effective judicial administration.
Jackson, supra, 329 A.2d at 788. A bald assertion that exculpatory testimony will be forthcoming is insufficient to trigger the favorable exercise of the court’s discretion. Rather, a defendant has the burden of demonstrating that the testimony of the co-defendant would be exculpatory in effect. Lumpkins v. United States, 586 A.2d 701, 707 (D.C.1991) (quoting King, supra, 550 A.2d at 352). Appellant failed to carry that burden, in my opinion.
The substance of the testimony which appellant sought to present surfaced during the co-defendant’s plea proceeding. As the majority correctly observes, that testimony “was not conclusively exculpatory as to Martin. Indeed it placed Martin in the car at the murder scene.”2 Beyond that, Brandon’s plea testimony corroborated the testimony of other government witnesses concerning appellant’s role as driver of the vehicle during the commission of the crimes. According to Brandon, and other government witnesses, appellant drove Brandon to the scene of the shooting, stopped the car near the victims after they were spotted, and allowed Brandon to get out of the car whereupon he shot and killed Clayton Gray.3 According to appellant’s own testimony, he had to execute a “U-turn” of the vehicle to facilitate Brandon’s encounter with the victims after someone said, “Stop” and “There they go.” During the plea proceeding, Brandon provided no testimony, nor did appellant proffer that Brandon could do so, that appellant’s participation in furthering the success of the crime was other than knowingly and with the intent to bring the crime about. See Hackney v. United States, 389 A.2d 1336, 1342 (D.C.1978).4 Thus, rather than providing exculpatory evidence, Brandon presented inculpatory evidence against appellant.
The majority’s conclusion as to the exculpatory potential of Brandon’s testimony is based upon Brandon’s disclosure of his personal motive for the crimes given during his plea. Brandon testified that he killed Gray and shot at Pegues because they robbed him on an earlier occasion. Although this motive provides a more plausible basis for Brandon’s participation in the crimes, it does not negate the evidence that appellant also had a separate, independent motive for assisting in the commission of the offenses.5 Indeed, appellant de*135scribed an encounter with the decedent that evening at the liquor store which left him irritated even though he denies that an argument occurred. That Brandon may have had a motive to shoot the victims does nothing to dispel the evidence that appellant also had an argument with them prior to the shooting and that he threatened them for that reason. The motives of joint participants in a criminal venture are frequently entirely different. Moreover, absent from Brandon’s potential testimony is any evidence that appellant lacked a motive to assist Brandon as the evidence shows he did.
The nature of the exculpatory testimony proffered is important in balancing the Jackson factors. See United States v. Ford, 276 U.S.App.D.C. 315, 317, 870 F.2d 729, 732 (1989) (after threshold showing, trial court must examine “the significance of the testimony in relation to the defendant’s theory of the case”). Denial of a continuance where a defendant proffered that its purpose was to secure testimony which would exonerate him has been found to be an abuse of discretion. Tucker, supra, 571 A.2d at 800. However, in this case, Brandon’s testimony would not have exonerated appellant. Where the proffered testimony would have refuted testimony bearing on the issue of premeditation, this court found no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s denial of a continuance to secure that testimony where the co-defendant could not offer testimony exculpatory to the shooting itself. Jackson, supra, 329 A.2d at 788. Here, the testimony of Brandon was not as directly pertinent to appellant’s innocence as the testimony in Jackson. The proffered testimony must do more than contradict the details of the government’s case. United States v. Flick, 719 F.2d 246, 249 (7th Cir.1983). Not only did Brandon’s plea testimony not contradict the government's case, it tended to support it. The decision of the trial court to deny severance to obtain exculpatory testimony from a co-defendant should not be overturned where references to appellant’s lack of involvement “are not necessarily exculpatory.” Ford, 276 U.S.App.D.C. at 318, 870 F.2d at 732. Appellant has failed “to meet the burden of establishing with requisite specificity the exculpatory ‘nature and effect’ of his co-defendant’s testimony.” Id. (quoting United States v. Parodi, 703 F.2d 768, 780 (4th Cir.1983)). Therefore, I would find no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s decision not to abort the trial on its eighth day after completion of the government’s case.
Another factor considered by the trial court in exercising its discretion, which the majority rejects, deserves comment. The extent to which a co-defendant’s testimony would be subject to impeachment is pertinent to consideration of a severance request premised on the movant’s need for a co-defendant’s testimony. See id. 276 U.S.App.D.C. at 318-19, 870 F.2d at 732-33.6 Thus, Brandon’s many inconsistent versions of the events was an appropriate consideration in determining whether to grant a mistrial.7 See Byrd v. Wainwright, 428 F.2d 1017, 1021 (5th Cir.1970). A finding of abuse of discretion requires a determination that denial of the mistrial to secure the co-defendant’s testimony deprived appellant of a fair trial and due process. See Jackson, supra, 329 A.2d at 787. The extent to which the missing testimony is subject to substantial impeachment undercuts the claim that the trial was unfair without it. Therefore, it is a factor which should be weighed in any determina*136tion regarding whether the trial court abused its discretion in denying a mistrial on these grounds.
In summary, appellant’s failure to meet the threshold burden of showing that his co-defendant could offer on appellant’s behalf exculpatory testimony is sufficient to defeat the claim that the trial court abused its discretion in denying a mistrial. Even if the statements made by Brandon at the plea proceeding were somewhat useful to appellant, their value to appellant would have been undercut by the significant impeachment to which Brandon’s testimony would be subject. These factors had to be balanced by the trial court against the “demands of effective judicial administration.” Id. at 788. The latter factor should be given significantly more weight after trial had progressed toward completion than when in a pretrial posture. In my opinion, the trial court properly weighed that factor in the context of this case. Considering all of the foregoing circumstances, I cannot agree that the trial court abused its considerable discretion in denying the mistrial request nor that appellant was denied a fair trial by virtue of the decision. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
Before ROGERS, Chief Judge, FERREN, TERRY, STEADMAN, SCHWELB,* FARRELL,** WAGNER,* KING, and SULLIVAN, Associate Judges, and PRYOR,* Senior Judge.
ORDER
PER CURIAM.
On consideration of appellee’s petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc, and the answer thereto, it is
ORDERED by the merits division * that the petition for rehearing is denied; and it appearing that the majority of the judges of this court has voted to deny the petition for rehearing en banc, it is
FURTHER ORDERED that the petition for rehearing en banc is denied.

. Jackson, supra, 329 A.2d at 788.

. Majority opinion at 128.

. The pertinent portion of Mr. Brandon’s statement given under oath at the plea proceeding was as follows:
Q. So what happened?
A. So half a block, like approximately a block-and-a-half, got in the car, drove the car up there.
Q. Who got in the car?
A. Paul Simms and Martin, Tyrone Martin and Valencia, and that was it. Then Valencia told him to stop.
Q. Valencia what?
A. Valencia told Paul Simms, I mean Peter, [referring to appellant] to stop the car. She pointed the guys out and that is when he stopped the car, and that is when I jumped out and I shot him.

. In addition to this evidence, the government presented evidence tending to show that appellant had a heated encounter with the victims just prior to the shooting, threatened them, and drove Brandon to an apartment to obtain a gun before returning to find the victims. When they located them, appellant stopped the car, and Brandon got out and killed Mr. Gray and shot at Marvin Pegues.

.The majority observes that a jury might find it improbable that Brandon acted independently of appellant, "an older relative," if he acted because of appellant’s anger toward the victims. While recognizing on the one hand that Brandon could act in concert with Martin to facilitate Martin’s revenge, they find it implausible that Martin could be motivated by the same desire to aid a relative in avenging a wrong. Thus, the majority, suggests that it would not have been appellant’s affair if Brandon did the shootings because of the earlier robbery. However, it is no less plausible that appellant might have assisted his younger relative because he was the victim of a robbery, than that the younger relative would have assisted appellant because of the insult to the latter’s manhood.

. In the federal circuits, once a defendant makes a threshold showing for severance based on the need for a co-defendant’s testimony, the trial court must then
(1) examine the significance of the testimony in relation to the defendant’s theory of the case; (2) assess that extent of prejudice caused by the absence of the testimony; (3) consider the effects on judicial administration and economy; and (4) give weight to the timeliness of the motion.
Ford, supra, 276 U.S.App.D.C. at 317, 870 F.2d at 731 (citations omitted).

. At the beginning of the plea proceeding, Brandon claimed that he shot the victims in self-defense at a different location. Prior to trial, Brandon allegedly provided "a set of false alibis for himself and for (appellant),” according to appellant’s counsel. He also gave an earlier account in which he took responsibility, but did not mention self-defense.