Brice v. State

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Brice v. State

CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland

DecidedDecember 22, 2022

Docket1537/21

StatusPublished

This text of Brice v. State (Brice v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Special Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Brice v. State, (Md. Ct. App. 2022).

Pincite

Opinion

Aaron Lamont Brice v. State of Maryland, No. 1537, September Term, 2021. Opinion by Harrell, J.

CRIMINAL LAW – SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE – SOLICITATION TO COMMIT FIRST-DEGREE MURDER

The State satisfies its burden of evidentiary sufficiency when ‘“any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.”’ Kamara v. State, 205 Md. App. 607, 632 (2012) (quoting State v. Coleman, 423 Md. 666, 672 (2011). After a bench trial, Appellant was convicted of solicitation to commit first- degree murder. To prove that a defendant solicited the commission of first-degree murder, the State must prove that: (1) that the defendant urged, advised, induced, encouraged, requested, or commanded another person to commit first-degree murder; and (2) that at the time the defendant made the oral or written efforts to persuade another person to commit first-degree murder, the defendant intended that the first-degree murder be committed. See MPJI-Cr 4:31.

The State’s evidence centered on a recording of a telephone call that Appellant placed from jail. Appellant placed that call to the solicitee the day after Appellant was convicted of numerous crimes against the victim, his former love interest. During the call, Appellant told the solicitee: “Shoot that bitch up.”

At trial, Appellant’s counsel argued that the context of the conversation heard on the call showed that Appellant was directing the solicitee to shoot a brown car parked in a lot outside the victim’s apartment. The State claimed that Appellant’s references to that vehicle were coded references to the victim’s location. The trial court found that Appellant used the brown car as a landmark for the solicitee to find the victim, and that the jail call contained a thinly veiled solicitation to commit first-degree murder.

The evidence established that Appellant directed the solicitee to “[s]hoot that bitch up.” Later in the conversation, the solicitee asked: “What you want, me to fire that bitch up?” Appellant responded: “Yeah.” Based on those statements — and all of the other evidence — the court was able to infer reasonably that Appellant asked the solicitee to kill the victim, rather than shoot at a vehicle outside the victim’s apartment. Moreover, the trial court did not err in relying on evidence extrinsic to the solicitation in concluding that Appellant was guilty of solicitation to commit first-degree murder. Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County Case No. C-02-CR-21-000944

REPORTED

IN THE APPELLATE COURT**

OF MARYLAND

No. 1537

September Term, 2021

AARON LAMONT BRICE

v.

STATE OF MARYLAND

Berger, Friedman, Harrell, Glenn T., Jr. (Senior Judge, Specially Assigned),

JJ.

Opinion by Harrell, J.

Filed: December 22, 2022

*Ripken, Laura S., J., did not participate in the Court’s decision to designate this opinion for publication pursuant to Md. Rule 8-605.1. **At the 8 November 2022 general election, the voters of Maryland ratified a constitutional amendment changing the name of the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland to the Appellate Court of Maryland. The name change took effect on 14 December 2022. “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”

The Captain (portrayed by Strother Martin) in “Cool Hand Luke” (1967).

In this case, a trial judge in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County disagreed

implicitly that this quotation applied to the defense’s essential theory. In a bench trial in

November 2021, the defendant, Aaron Lamont Brice, argued that the text of a telephone

call he made from jail did not communicate a solicitation to murder a specific person.

The court found him guilty. The judge sentenced Brice to 25 years, suspending all but 15

years, consecutive to any outstanding sentence, and five years of probation. Brice

appeals timely and presents a single question for our review:

Was the evidence insufficient to sustain Appellant’s conviction for solicitation to commit first-degree murder?

For reasons we shall explain, we affirm the judgment of the circuit court.

BACKGROUND

The State’s case focused on a telephone call Brice made to Alton Michael Logan

Rivera while Brice was in jail. Brice placed that “jail call” the day after he was convicted

of numerous crimes against Lauren Friedlieb, his former love interest. During the jail

call, Brice told Rivera: “Shoot that bitch up.” The State contended that Brice instructed

Rivera during the call to shoot and kill Lauren.1 Brice’s attorney argued that the context

of the conversation heard on the jail call showed that Brice actually was directing Rivera

1 We refer to the victim as “Lauren,” to avoid confusion with her father, Frank Friedlieb, whom we refer to as “Frank.” to shoot a vehicle parked in a lot outside Lauren’s apartment. The State claimed that

Brice’s references to that vehicle were coded references to Lauren’s location so that

Rivera could locate and shoot Lauren.

After opening statements, the court admitted into evidence the parties’ stipulation

as to the prior convictions that had Brice in jail the day before he placed the jail call to

Rivera. That stipulation was entered into evidence as a joint exhibit:

1. A two-day trial was held on March 8, 2021 and March 9, 2021, and the Defendant was found guilty of forty-two counts in the District Court for Anne Arundel County, listed chronologically by offense date:

i. One Count of Assault in the Second Degree . . . involving the Defendant assaulting Lauren Friedlieb in her home, . . . on January 22, 2020 at approximately 2:00am;

ii. One Count of Violation of Protective Order . . . involving the Defendant sleeping against the front door of [Lauren’s home] on January 22, 2020 at approximately 1:37pm;

iii. One Count of Violation of Protective Order and One Count of Violation of Release Condition . . . involving the Defendant observed by officers on January 22, 2020, at 11:45pm in front of the balcony at [Lauren’s home], yelling for Lauren Friedlieb up to her balcony in violation of Pre-Trial Release Conditions and an Interim Protective Order;

iv. One Count of Violation of Protective Order . . . involving Ring footage from January 23, 2020 at 2:13am and 2:34am that captured the Defendant kicking the front door at [Lauren’s home], in violation of a Protective Order;

v. One Count of Violation of Protective Order . . . involving the Defendant calling Lauren Friedlieb from the Anne Arundel County Detention Center on January 26, 2020;

vi. One Count of Motor Vehicle Unlawful Taking, One Count of Unauthorized Removal of Motor Vehicle, One Count of Theft: $25,000 to $100,000, and One Count of Violation of Protective 2 Order . . . involving Lauren Friedlieb’s surveillance from February 1, 2020 capturing the Defendant entering her 2018 White Volkswagen Atlas (“Atlas”) from the parking lot beneath her balcony at [her home] in violation of the Interim Protective Order. The Atlas was later recovered in the lot adjacent to . . . the townhome of Frank Friedlieb, the victim’s father;

vii. Twelve Counts of Violation of Protective Order and One Count of Violation of Release Condition . . . involving the Defendant calling Lauren Friedlieb approximately 128 times on her cell phone between 11pm on February 1, 2020, and 11:30am on February 2, 2020, in violation of the Final Protective Order;

viii. Eighteen Counts of Violation of Protective Order . . . involving the Defendant contacting Lauren Friedlieb personally and via third parties (at his direction from the jail) via social media messages, text messages and calls to her personal cell, and calls to her employment from February 9, 2020, to August 21, 2020;

ix.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI