DION M. SLATER-EL v. UNITED STATES

142 A.3d 530, 2016 D.C. App. LEXIS 246, 2016 WL 3654275
CourtDistrict of Columbia Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 7, 2016
Docket14-CM-120
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 142 A.3d 530 (DION M. SLATER-EL 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
DION M. SLATER-EL v. UNITED STATES, 142 A.3d 530, 2016 D.C. App. LEXIS 246, 2016 WL 3654275 (D.C. 2016).

Opinions

THOMPSON, Associate Judge:

Appellant Dion Slater-El contends that, the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction for attempted second-degree cruelty to children.1 Concluding that the evidence on which the trial judge primarily relied in finding that appellant caused a grave risk of bodily injury to his young son meets the test of “inherent incredibility” — admittedly a “very stringent test which has been met in only a tiny number of cases-,” In re A.H.B., 491 A.2d 490, 496 n. 8 (D.C.1985) — and that the remaining evidence cannot support a find[533]*533ing of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, we agree, and therefore reverse.

I.

Appellant’s conviction stems from an'incident at the home of his sister, Donna Robinson, and her husband, Ellsworth Robinson. Appellant’s wife, Louisetta Koh, lived in the Robinson home along with her two children, a six-year-old daughter and a 16-month-old son. Appellant is the biological father of the younger child. On October 26,2013, after appellant had brought the children back to Koh after their visit with appellant, an argument between Koh and appellant ensued when Koh informed appellant that she had made arrangements to take both children to North Carolina the next day. Appellant said that he would not allow Koh to take his son. When Ms. Robinson saw that appellant and Koh were “tussling,” Ms. Robinson told appellant to leave, but appellant refused and (the trial court found) shoved Robinson aside.2 The bulk of the testimony at trial was focused on what occurred afterwards, when appellant walked over and picked up his son, who was seated in a highchair.

Ms. Robinson was the government’s first witness. We describe her testimony at some length because the trial court relied on it heavily in finding appellant guilty of attempted second-degree cruelty to children. Ms. Robinson testified that appellant “grabbed” the child, who was “still strapped into” the highchair (depicted in Government Exhibit 2), “grabbed the highchair,” and somehow “ended up on top of ... Koh on the couch with the highchair and the baby[,j” possibly because appellant had tripped over the legs of the highchair. According to Ms. Robinson, appellant “had his arms around the baby” but “also had a full highchair ... in his grasp”; Koh “was under [appellant] and the baby,” while the baby was “still ■ strapped into the ... seat[.]” ■ Ms. Robinson testified that appellant had “a grip on the baby where you really couldn’t see the baby.... You really couldn’t see the baby good, unless you knew the baby was there, you wouldn’t have known that he had that tight of a grip on the baby.”

Ms. Robinson further testified that she and. Koh kept repeating that appellant should “let go of the baby,” and Ms. Robinson tried “to pull him up off the baby.” After a “few minutes,” Mr. Robinson, who had called 911, came downstairs and hit appellant “to get him to let go of the baby,” and there was a “lot of confusion going on at that time.” When the police arrived, Ms. Robinson testified, they “had this baton thing” that Ms. Robinson “guess[ed] [] they were going to poke [appellant] with[,]” but Ms. Robinson told them to stop and joined “[everybody [in] hollering it’s a baby under there, it’s a baby under there.” Ms. Robinson testified that when a. second officer arrived, that officer “was getting ready to mace [appellant],” but everyone again “hollered please don’t use the mace,it’s a baby under there.” The officers tried to pull appellant off of Koh and told him to let the baby go, but appellant “said he wasn’t going to do it,” Appellant eventually, released the baby, but, during the whole time appellant was holding the baby, the baby was “screaming” and “hysterically crying” and “was terrified.” ,

On cross-examination, Ms. Robinson testified that while the highchair was propped up on the couch, appellant had his back [534]*534toward her and never changed that position until the police came. Ms. Robinson agreed that her view was of appellant’s “back and back of his head” and that she grabbed appellant “from the back,” but said that appellant’s “weight was on— could have — anything could have happened at that moment actually.” She added that appellant “was putting the baby at more harm than had he let the baby go, because [Koh] was also there and she had her hands on the baby, as well.”3 Ms. Robinson further testified that she didn’t “know what [appellant] could see, because [she] couldn’t see what he could see.”

On re-direct, Ms. Robinson testified that “[appellant’s] weight was on that baby. Even though he may have had the baby wrapped around — he had his arms wrapped around the baby, the positioning of that baby between him and his wife could have caused that baby harm.... The weight of his body was on the baby ... The only thing that I could see that might have even helped a little bit was the highchair. Had the baby not been in the highchair[,] the baby could have gotten really hurt badly.”

The government’s next witness was Mr. Robinson. Mr. Robinson testified repeatedly that he “couldn’t see the baby” and “didn’t see the baby” or the highchair, because appellant was “right over top [of] the baby” and because the baby and Koh were both “down on the floor in front of [appellant].”4 Mr. Robinson said that appellant “wouldn’t let the baby go even after the police came” and that appellant released the baby only after the police put “a little spoon ... [thing] under his arm” and his arm “popped up.” Mr. Robinson testified that “it didn’t seem like [the police action] hurt the baby” and that he did not hear the baby “do anything.... The baby was walking.”

The government’s final witness was Metropolitan Police Department (“MPD”) Officer Tiffany Keenan, who responded to the 911 call on the night of the incident. Officer Keenan testified that when she and Officer Michael Rodd arrived at the scene, she heard voices yelling, “let go of the baby, get him off of the baby.” Officer Keenan testified that when she entered the residence, she saw appellant “laying on top of’ or “laying over top of the baby and then the baby right under him,” and could see the baby face up and crying “hysterically,]” “like it was very uncomfortable.” Appellant’s torso was “leaning over the couch” and his “knees [were] on the ground.” Officer Keenan then demonstrated appellant’s positioning for the court, which the government described for the record: “[Officer Keenan] kneeled down on the floor bent over[,] encircling her arms in front of her.” Officer Keenan stated that appellant was “more so laying on top of the baby” than cradling the baby. Officer Keenan did not see a highchair and agreed on cross-examination that Koh was not lying under appellant when the officers arrived. Officer Keenan testified that appellant “repeatedly kept saying I’m not going nowhere without my son.” The officers “more than twice” asked appellant to release his son, and, when he would not comply, Officer Keenan pulled appellant’s left arm, “us[ing] the reasonable amount of [535]*535force necessary to ... get him to comply.” Officer Keenan could not “give ... an estimate[d] amount of time,” but said that “it took a little while to. get [appellant] off.” The baby was “on his back facing upward” when appellant released him. Officer Keenan noted that Koh refused medical treatment for the baby, stating that “the baby was fine.”5

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
142 A.3d 530, 2016 D.C. App. LEXIS 246, 2016 WL 3654275, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dion-m-slater-el-v-united-states-dc-2016.