Evans-Smith v. Taylor

30 Va. Cir. 116, 1993 Va. Cir. LEXIS 76
CourtLoudoun County Circuit Court
DecidedFebruary 1, 1993
DocketCase No. (Law) 13577
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 30 Va. Cir. 116 (Evans-Smith v. Taylor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Loudoun County Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Evans-Smith v. Taylor, 30 Va. Cir. 116, 1993 Va. Cir. LEXIS 76 (Va. Super. Ct. 1993).

Opinion

BY JUDGE JAMES H. CHAMBLIN

As set forth in detail under Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, the Amended Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus is denied and dismissed for the following reasons:

(1) Even if the information given to Investigator Jay Merchant by Karen Spalding on the morning after the murder is considered after-discovered evidence, no relief is available under Fitzgerald v. Bass, 6 Va. App. 38 (1988), because after-discovered evidence does not constitute a basis for habeas relief;

(2) The information given to Merchant by Spalding is clearly exculpatory evidence, but under United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 105 S. Ct. 3375 (1985), such evidence is not material; and

(3) The information given by Spalding to Merchant is exculpatory evidence coming under the doctrine of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S. Ct. 1194 (1963), and its progeny and is not evidence, potentially useful to the defense but lost due to the bad faith of the police, under the doctrine of Arizona v. Youngblood, 488 U.S. 51, 109 S. Ct. 333 (1988).

[117]*117 Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law

After a jury trial this Court on August 11, 1989, sentenced the Petitioner, William Evans-Smith (“Petitioner” or “Evans-Smith”) consistent with the jury verdict to twenty years in the penitentiary on a conviction of second degree murder of his wife, Barbara Evans-Smith (“Barbara”). The Petitioner’s petition for direct appeal was denied by the Court of Appeals on June 1, 1990, and by the Supreme Court of "Virginia on September 14, 1990.

On May 14, 1992, Evans-Smith filed herein a petition for writ of habeas corpus attacking his conviction on the basis of what he alleges as newly discovered material exculpatory evidence not disclosed to him prior to trial. The evidence concerns statements made to Investigator Jay Merchant of the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Department by Karen Spalding the morning following the murder about a person she had seen walking on the road near the gate to the Evans-Smith farm where Barbara had been murdered.

As a result of a hearing herein on July 8, 1992, on the Respondent’s Motion to Dismiss the original Petition, the Court allowed the Petitioner to amend his petition. He filed an Amended Petition on July 29, 1992, to which the Respondent filed an Answer on September 8, 1992. The Amended Petition alleges that the Spalding statements are both material exculpatory and after-discovered evidence, but if they are not deemed such, then they are potentially useful evidence lost due to the bad faith of the police under Arizona v. Youngblood, 109 S. Ct. 333 (1988).

On September 21, 1992 this Court set a hearing to determine what information was given to Merchant by Spalding and whether the facts concerning Spalding’s report to Merchant were available to Evans-Smith so as to have been included in his prior habeas corpus proceeding. The hearing was held on January 12, 1993.

I. Findings of Fact

A. Spalding Report

As a part of the investigation of the murder, Merchant conducted a “road check” on Route 725 near the Evans-Smith farm early on the morning of Tuesday, April 16, 1985. At the time Merchant knew that Barbara had been murdered in the residence on the farm the previous day, April 15, 1985, and had been told by Dr. George Hocker, the [118]*118Loudoun County Medical Examiner, that he estimated her time of death to have been 6:00 to 6:30 A.M. give or take one to two hours. Merchant arrived for the “road check” at about 4:30 A.M. and stayed until about 8:30 A.M.

During the “road check” Merchant stopped every vehicle to determine if anyone saw or heard anything at the time the murder occurred. He stopped a total of twenty-two vehicles, and he made notes concerning each vehicle he stopped. The notes were made in a spiral bound notebook. He made notes at the time he spoke to the occupants of each vehicle he stopped. He identified the notebook at the hearing, but the notebook itself was not admitted into evidence. .

Karen Spalding and her family were living in April 1985 at a house on Route 725 a short distance east of the Evans-Smith farm. The Spalding family was living there temporarily while their fire damaged house near Purcellville was being repaired. Spalding’s daughter attended Lincoln Elementary School in Lincoln, Virginia, which is west of the Evans-Smith farm.

The morning of April 16, 1985, Spalding was driving her daughter to school when she was stopped on Route 725 near the Evans-Smith property by Merchant. She was headed west on Route 725 toward Lincoln Elementary School when she was stopped at 7:36 A.M. He asked and obtained from Spalding her name, address and telephone number. He asked her how often she travelled Route 725 and on what days. She told him that she usually came by about 8:00 A.M. taking her daughter to school. He told her that there had been a murder and asked if she had seen or heard anything. She replied negatively. He gave her his card and asked her to call him if she knew anything. Merchant made contemporaneous notes of his stops of Spalding. (Respondent’s Exhibit 2.)

Spalding worked in McLean, Virginia, in April 1985. She proceeded to work after dropping off her daughter at school. She had to be at work by 9:00 A.M. Sometime after the stop, but the same day, Spalding remembered having seen someone walking on Route 725 near the Evans-Smith farm. She called and left a message for Merchant to call her. Later the same day Merchant returned the call to her.

In the telephone conversation Spalding told Merchant that on the previous Thursday or Friday she saw a person walking on Route 725 toward Lincoln near the Evans-Smith farm at about 8:00 A.M. She told him that it was a white male wearing a jean jacket, jeans and a baseball [119]*119hat. She said he was in his late 20’s or early 30’s and had a reddish-brown beard. Merchant told her that someone would get back in touch with her, but no one ever did. Merchant made contemporaneous notes of this conversation. (Respondent’s Exhibit 4.)

Merchant made his notes of both the stop and the telephone conversation in the same notebook. He had notes of all twenty-two vehicle stops of which Spalding’s stop was the tenth. On the next page of the notebook after the notes of the twenty-second stop are Merchant’s notes of his telephone conversation with Spalding.

Although Spalding talked with her husband the evening of April 16, 1985, about these events, she did not discuss them with anyone other than him until May 1992. In November 1991 Spalding went to work for the law firm of David H. Moyes, one of the attorneys who had represented Evans-Smith at trial. In May 1992 during a discussion with a co-worker at the law firm, Spalding mentioned the events of April 16, 1985. As a result, this information was provided to present counsel for the Petitioner and led to the filing of this habeas petition.

Spalding does not know Blair D. Howard, the other attorney who represented the Petitioner at trial, and she does not know the Petitioner.

B. Proceedings Before Trial

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Related

Bustillo v. Johnson
65 Va. Cir. 69 (Fairfax County Circuit Court, 2004)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
30 Va. Cir. 116, 1993 Va. Cir. LEXIS 76, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/evans-smith-v-taylor-vaccloudoun-1993.