Collins v. United States

73 A.3d 974, 2013 WL 4104087, 2013 D.C. App. LEXIS 499
CourtDistrict of Columbia Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 15, 2013
DocketNo. 11-CF-949
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 73 A.3d 974 (Collins v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District of Columbia Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Collins v. United States, 73 A.3d 974, 2013 WL 4104087, 2013 D.C. App. LEXIS 499 (D.C. 2013).

Opinion

FISHER, Associate Judge:

Appellant Jamontie Collins challenges his convictions arising from assaults of two victims and the robbery of one of them, claiming that the trial court committed reversible error by instructing the jury that he could be held vicariously liable for the conduct of co-conspirators. He also [977]*977argues that the evidence is insufficient to support certain of his convictions. We affirm the judgment except for one count of assault with significant bodily injury, which merges into the conviction for aggravated assault of the same victim.

I. Background

A. The Attack at the Red Roof Inn

Appellant’s convictions arose from an attack that occurred shortly after midnight on Saturday, March 20, 2010. Many of the events were captured by security cameras mounted outside a Red Roof Inn.

Around midnight, William Wooten and Richard Brown, then aged twenty-four and eighteen, respectively, were walking eastbound on H Street towards the intersection with Fifth Street in Northwest Washington, D.C. At that time, several young men, including appellant, were loitering in front of the Red Roof Inn, walking back and forth and talking to each other. The various young men were identified throughout the proceedings that followed by their appearance, including descriptions of their clothing. For example, one young man wore a checkered shirt, another wore a red shirt and a red baseball cap, and a third wore a white hooded sweatshirt with stripes on the sleeves. Two other young men — one in a tan-colored, long-sleeved jacket with a dark stripe, and another in a black t-shirt, cap, and jeans — leaned against vehicles outside the hotel entrance.

As Wooten and Brown walked side-by-side towards the Red Roof Inn, they encountered a young boy who they estimated was about ten or eleven years old. The boy asked where they were from and what they had in their pockets, leading Wooten and Brown to suspect that “a set up” or a plan to rob them was afoot. Wooten testified that he responded “Virginia,” but did not reply to the second question, and that he and Brown continued walking. Brown recalled Wooten saying “ ‘money’ or something like that” in response to the second question. Wooten and Brown noted that appellant was standing near the wall by the hotel entrance at the time, roughly a foot away from the little boy.

Suddenly, appellant attacked Wooten from behind, punching him in the eye. Wooten and appellant struggled, throwing punches. As Wooten began to get the upper hand, appellant called to his associates for assistance, saying, “Oh, y’all just going to stand there?” Within seconds, several young men — including a man wearing a two-toned jacket (white with colored shoulders and sleeves) — joined appellant. Wooten estimated that seven or eight young men surrounded him during the fight. Appellant and others slammed Wooten against a car, and the impact from Wooten’s elbow shattered one of the car’s windows, lodging shards of glass in his arm as the young men continued to pummel him.

Brown moved away as the fight began, but quickly drew closer to Wooten and his assailants. As Brown approached, the man in’the checkered shirt pointed to him, and some of the other young men yelled to each other, “Back off. Back off,” while another yelled, “Oh, he’s got a blade on him,” apparently seeing that Brown had pulled out a knife.

Wooten continued to fight back, and with the men temporarily distracted by Brown’s advance, Wooten managed to remove his arm from the car window. He then pulled out a small knife, advancing on appellant. This caused appellant and the others to scatter; while Wooten pursued appellant, the man in the two-toned jacket turned his attention to Brown. In the middle of H Street, in front of the Red Roof Inn, the man in the two-toned jacket told Brown to empty his pockets, which Brown refused to do.

[978]*978At the same time that the man in the two-toned jacket was confronting Brown, Wooten managed to stab appellant’s leg and cut his face with a knife. Appellant yelled, “Get the gun. Get the gun.” Seconds later, a young man in a black, long-sleeved Northface jacket and blue jeans chased Wooten from the middle of H Street towards the hotel, repeatedly firing a semi-automatic handgun at Wooten as they ran south on Fifth Street.

Although Wooten had not seen the gunman participate in the fight before he began shooting, Brown heard the man in the two-toned jacket — the same man who had ordered him to empty his pockets — ask the gunman by name (a name that Brown did not recall) for assistance in robbing Brown. Ten seconds later, Brown heard gunshots. Wooten fled southward on Fifth Street, where a security guard at a nearby federal building called the police.

Brown ran north on Fifth Street, where he saw the gunman pass him, running in the same direction on the other side of the street. About half a block north of the Red Roof Inn and approximately twenty to twenty-five seconds after shots were fired, two men caught up to Brown. They pinned Brown to a car and punched him twice — once in the face — breaking his jaw and blurring his vision. Brown managed to block the other blow with his wrist.

Brown identified the man who threw the first punch as the same man who had told him to empty his pockets in front of the Red Roof Inn — the man in the two-toned jacket. He could not discern who delivered the second blow. The men robbed Brown of his wallet and cell phone, and fled north on Fifth Street. When the men fled, Brown headed back towards the Red Roof Inn to find Wooten, and he spoke with police officers who had responded to the scene of the shooting.

Within a minute or two of the shooting, Metropolitan Police Department Officer Rodney Anderson saw three young men whom he recognized from the Sursum Cor-da neighborhood.1 One wore a red baseball cap and a red shirt; another had a black hat, a black jacket, and short hair; a third, who had dreadlocks, was wearing a blue and white shirt. The men were running away from the area of the shooting on Fifth Street, going northwards at the 500 block of I Street, while Officer Anderson was driving westbound on I Street. Officer Anderson did not stop them, instead driving towards the Sursum Corda neighborhood to respond to a radio call from an officer who was pursuing a suspect from the Red Roof Inn shooting. Approximately two minutes later, Officer Anderson saw the same men running east on K Street at New Jersey Avenue towards the Sursum Corda neighborhood. He stopped and frisked the men, who said they were running because they had heard there was a shooting at 5th and H Streets. Finding no weapons, Officer Anderson let the men go. At trial, Officer Anderson identified the young man wearing black, Rachant Baker, as the gunman shown in the Red Roof Inn security camera footage.

Officer Anderson continued on M Street between North Capitol and First Streets, where he saw another group of “several” men walking east. Officer Anderson described three of the men in the group— appellant, whom Officer Anderson identified as a dark-complected young black male in his twenties, wearing a black jacket and dark blue jeans; a “little kid,” who Officer Anderson estimated to be about twelve years old; and the same young man [979]*979wearing a red cap and a red shirt whom he had seen with the other group.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
73 A.3d 974, 2013 WL 4104087, 2013 D.C. App. LEXIS 499, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/collins-v-united-states-dc-2013.