Darryl Keith Baker v. Commonwealth of Kentucky

CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedApril 29, 2021
Docket2019 CA 000538
StatusUnknown

This text of Darryl Keith Baker v. Commonwealth of Kentucky (Darryl Keith Baker v. Commonwealth of Kentucky) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Darryl Keith Baker v. Commonwealth of Kentucky, (Ky. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

RENDERED: APRIL 30, 2021; 10:00 A.M. NOT TO BE PUBLISHED

Commonwealth of Kentucky Court of Appeals

NO. 2019-CA-0538-MR

DARRYL KEITH BAKER APPELLANT

APPEAL FROM FAYETTE CIRCUIT COURT v. HONORABLE LUCY A. VANMETER, JUDGE ACTION NO. 18-CR-00637

COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY APPELLEE

OPINION REVERSING AND REMANDING

** ** ** ** **

BEFORE: COMBS, JONES, AND MCNEILL, JUDGES.

JONES, JUDGE: Darryl Keith Baker appeals from the Fayette Circuit Court’s

final judgment and sentence of imprisonment entered on March 13, 2019. At his

jury trial, aside from a number of misdemeanor convictions, Baker was also

convicted of third-degree assault. He was sentenced to two-years’ imprisonment

on that charge, which was enhanced to fifteen years by being a first-degree persistent felony offender (PFO). After careful consideration, we reverse and

remand for a new trial based on the trial court’s erroneous application of Batson v.

Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S. Ct. 1712, 90 L. Ed. 2d 69 (1986) and its progeny.

I. Background

During the late evening hours of March 27, 2018, police officers were

investigating an automobile parked outside the Day’s Motel on Versailles Road in

Lexington. Police officers later described the Day’s Motel as being in a “high call

volume” area. Baker, a homeless black man, occupied the front passenger seat of

the vehicle. While the officers were questioning Baker, they repeatedly directed

him to keep his hands in view, because Baker kept placing his hands inside his

jacket. The officers asked Baker for permission to search the vehicle. Baker

declined, stating the vehicle did not belong to him and he only had the owner’s

permission to stay there.

After declining to give permission to search, Baker once again hid his

hands, this time dropping them below the seat. To ensure Baker was not reaching

for a weapon, an officer opened the door of the vehicle. When the door opened,

Baker became aggressive, jumping out of the vehicle with his fists clenched and

growling at the officers. At this point, the officers intended to arrest Baker for

-2- menacing1 and ordered him to get on the ground. When Baker did not comply,

Officer David Smith of the Lexington Police Department tried to restrain Baker by

grasping his right arm in order to handcuff him. Baker responded by punching

Officer Smith several times, causing injuries to the officer’s chin, left eye, and

finger. After subduing Baker, the officers searched the vehicle and found a

narcotics pipe and a used syringe.

Following Baker’s arrest, the Fayette County grand jury indicted him

on multiple charges stemming from the incident: third-degree assault,2 resisting

arrest,3 possession of drug paraphernalia,4 and menacing.5 The grand jury later

added a charge of being a first-degree persistent felony offender (PFO)6 to Baker’s

indictment. The Fayette Circuit Court held Baker’s jury trial on November 13,

2018.7 The Commonwealth presented testimony from several Lexington police

1 “Menacing” is defined in Kentucky Revised Statute (KRS) 508.050 as “intentionally plac[ing] another person in reasonable apprehension of imminent physical injury.” 2 KRS 508.025(1)(a), a Class D felony. 3 KRS 520.090, a Class A misdemeanor. 4 KRS 218A.500(2), a Class A misdemeanor. 5 KRS 508.050, a Class B misdemeanor. 6 KRS 532.080. 7 These proceedings in Fayette Circuit Court involved three separate judges. Judge John Reynolds conducted the guilt phase of Baker’s trial, but he left during jury deliberation in order to attend to other matters. Judge Kimberly Bunnell presided when the jury returned its verdict.

-3- officers, including Officer Smith, conforming to the above narrative. The

Commonwealth also introduced body camera video footage of the incident. Baker

did not present witnesses or other evidence in his defense.

After deliberation, the jury found Baker guilty on all counts in the

indictment and recommended a sentence of two years on the third-degree assault

charge, enhanced to fifteen years by virtue of the PFO. For the remaining

misdemeanor charges, the jury recommended a sentence of thirty-days’

incarceration on each count. The trial court entered its final judgment on March

13, 2019, sentencing Baker in accordance with the jury’s recommendation. This

appeal followed.

II. Analysis

Baker presents three arguments on appeal. First, he argues the trial

court erroneously denied his motion to prohibit the Commonwealth from striking

jurors in violation of Batson v. Kentucky. Second, Baker argues the trial court

erroneously denied his right to present mitigating evidence in the penalty phase.

Third, Baker argues the trial court erroneously permitted the Commonwealth to

refer to the site of the incident where he was arrested as “a high crime area,” in

violation of the parties’ agreed motion in limine to refrain from such language. We

agree with Baker’s first argument regarding Batson and note that such an error is

Finally, Judge Lucy A. VanMeter entered the final judgment upon her successful election to the seat formerly occupied by Judge Reynolds.

-4- structural, requiring a new trial. For these reasons, we need not consider his other

arguments at this time.

Baker argues the trial court erroneously denied his Batson challenge

to the prosecutor’s use of two peremptory strikes. At a bench conference during

voir dire, Baker objected to the prosecutor’s use of peremptory strikes against

Juror 4696 and Juror 4079, both of whom were black men. By way of explanation,

the prosecutor argued that Juror 4696 had disclosed that his father was charged

with murder in Fayette County in 1986, when the juror was thirteen years old.

Despite the juror’s assertion he would be impartial during Baker’s trial, the

prosecutor argued she was uncertain what the juror’s experience was with the court

system. Notably, the prosecutor elected not to strike Juror 4718, a white woman,

who disclosed that she had a brother who was prosecuted for fraud in federal court.

Like the immediately preceding Juror 4696, Juror 4718 stated her family member

was treated fairly and it would not affect her ability to sit as a juror. Next,

regarding Juror 4079, the prosecutor stated the following reason for the strike:

I don’t know if you caught this, but whenever his name was called, he stood up, shook his head, and was very disgruntled about it, and kind of gave off bad body language while we were asking questions—I don’t know if you caught it or not. He stood up really quick and sat down . . . . It was pretty quick.

Baker’s counsel maintained his objection to the strikes, asserting these were

insufficiently race-neutral reasons and did not comport with Batson. Without

-5- providing analysis or commentary, the trial court simply stated, “well, [the

prosecutor] stated her reasons.

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Related

Batson v. Kentucky
476 U.S. 79 (Supreme Court, 1986)
Powers v. Ohio
499 U.S. 400 (Supreme Court, 1991)
Hernandez v. New York
500 U.S. 352 (Supreme Court, 1991)
Purkett v. Elem
514 U.S. 765 (Supreme Court, 1995)
Miller-El v. Cockrell
537 U.S. 322 (Supreme Court, 2003)
Snyder v. Louisiana
552 U.S. 472 (Supreme Court, 2008)
United States v. Julio Cesar Vasquez-Lopez
22 F.3d 900 (Ninth Circuit, 1994)
Thomas v. Commonwealth
153 S.W.3d 772 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2004)
United States v. Kimbrel
532 F.3d 461 (Sixth Circuit, 2008)
Commonwealth v. Snodgrass
831 S.W.2d 176 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 1992)
McPherson v. Commonwealth
171 S.W.3d 1 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2005)
Gray v. Commonwealth
203 S.W.3d 679 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2006)
Commonwealth v. Coker
241 S.W.3d 305 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2007)
Chatman v. Commonwealth
241 S.W.3d 799 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2007)
Tunstull v. Commonwealth
337 S.W.3d 576 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2011)
Smith v. Vilvarajah
57 S.W.3d 839 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 2000)
United States v. Geremy Atkins
843 F.3d 625 (Sixth Circuit, 2016)

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