Court Opinion

ID: 9540616
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:18:20.179271+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:00:05.000847
License: Public Domain

KENNEY, J.
Having reconsidered the hearsay issue in this case in light of the Court of Appeals decision in Bernadyn v. State, 390 Md. 1, 887 A.2d 602 (2005), the majority has concluded that Detective Canales’s handwritten list showing that the name “Sat Dogg” appeared on the television screen at bowling lane 22 is not hearsay. That conclusion is reached by treating the evidence as an item of circumstantial crime evidence from which reasonable jurors could infer that the appellant was present in the bowling alley on the night of the shooting. In other words, the evidence is merely “non-assertive circumstantial crime scene evidence” like the “sweater with [appellant’s] DNA on it, casings from a gun that were under [appellant’s] bed, and a car that looked like [appellant’s] car.” Maj. op. at 37, 895 A.2d at 348. In light of Bernadyn, I am persuaded that the evidence is hearsay and, therefore, I must respectfully dissent.
Evidence must be evaluated in the context of what is sought to be proved. Here, the State seeks to prove that appellant was the person who shot Bussey, Davis, and Eborn at a bowling alley on the night in question. Appellant denies that he did and that he was even present at the bowling alley on that night. In its determination, the majority relies heavily on the prosecutor’s response to appellant’s objection that “this evidence is being offered to show what names were on the screens as observed by Detective Canales when on the scene.” Clearly, the only name on any of the screens that is of any *49consequence in the context of this trial is the name “Sat Dogg,” appellant’s somewhat unusual nickname. Its presence on the lane 22 screen has little, if any, relevance except as an implied assertion that someone known as “Sat Dogg” was bowling on lane 22 on the night in question. But, even assuming that the evidence might be properly introduced for the limited purpose of demonstrating what names Detective Canales observed on the screen, there is no indication that the admission was limited to that purpose or that the trial court saw any need to do so. Bernadyn, 390 Md. at 15, 887 A.2d 602. The trial court admitted the evidence based on its understanding that the evidence did not constitute hearsay because it was not intended as an assertion. That understanding, which was not necessarily limited to the trial court, was rendered incorrect by Stoddard v. State, 389 Md. 681, 887 A.2d 564 (2005).
That the “prosecutor argued only that the crime scene included a bowling lane with the name ‘Sat Dogg’ written above it,” Majority Opinion at 37, 895 A.2d at 348, is belied by the prosecutor’s argument. The purpose of the evidence, and I would suggest only relevance, is apparent in the State’s closing argument. After acknowledging that, when Detective Canales arrived at the scene he did not know anything about “who Saturio Fields was, who Sat Dogg was,” the prosecutor argued: “What about the name on the television monitor? Connection to the crime scene. There was testimony about how it got there, how the names got up there. And we know that the Defendant has a nickname Sat Dogg. We know it. How do we know it? [a witness] said so. We have the tattoo on [the appellant’s] arm to show it. Where was the name Sat Dogg? Lane 22.”
Stoddard and Bernadyn lead me to conclude that the evidence at issue cannot be treated merely as circumstantial evidence from which a fact finder might conclude that appellant was present at the bowling alley on the night of the incident, a fact that appellant denies. The shell casings, the sweater, and the vehicle, which point to appellant (but possibly could have been present at the scene as a result of the actions *50of a third person), are evidentiary dots that were connected by other evidence. On the other hand, the name “Sat Dogg” on the television monitor, standing alone, has no purpose except to assert that appellant was obviously present and bowling on Lane 22 on the night in question. Its probative value is dependent on an unknown scribe’s belief that one of the bowlers on lane 22 was “Sat Dogg,” and the accuracy of that belief.