Hackley v. State

866 A.2d 906, 161 Md. App. 1, 2005 Md. App. LEXIS 8
CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland
DecidedJanuary 28, 2005
Docket2953, Sept. Term, 2002
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 866 A.2d 906 (Hackley 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
Hackley v. State, 866 A.2d 906, 161 Md. App. 1, 2005 Md. App. LEXIS 8 (Md. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

BARBERA, J.

Appellant, Wendell Hackley, was convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County of second degree assault, reckless endangerment, and stalking. 1 The court merged the reckless endangerment conviction into the assault, and sentenced appellant on that conviction to ten years’ incarceration, with all but two years suspended. The court sentenced appellant on the stalking conviction to a concurrent term of five years’ incarceration, "with all but two years suspended and five years of supervised probation.

Appellant’s sole argument on appeal challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain his stalking conviction. For the following reasons, we shall affirm the circuit court’s judgment.

• FACTS

At the time of trial, Devora P. had known appellant for approximately thirteen years. The two dated for some time and have a child, Adriana, who was born in October, 1991. Eventually, Ms. P. and appellant stopped seeing each other, and did not come into contact for a number of years.

*5 Around 7:30 a.m., on November 17, 2001, Ms. P. was sitting in her car, preparing to leave for work. The car was parked in the driveway of her home. As she looked in the rear view mirror, she saw a man walking towards her. She recognized the man as appellant when he reached her car.

Ms. P. was surprised by appellant’s presence. Appellant repeatedly asked Ms. P., “Where’s my daughter?”, to which she responded, “Adriana is not here. She is with my mother.”

Ms. P. testified that appellant reached in his coat pocket and pulled out a gun. He then opened up the car door, pulled Ms. P. out of the car, and started hitting her on the head with the gun, cutting her. Ms. P. kicked appellant and screamed for her mother. Ms. P.’s mother called the Bladensburg Police Department, then went outside. After that, appellant let go of Ms. P. and left.

Officer Cowling responded to the scene and found Ms. P. with blood on her shirt and head. Ms. P.’s mother eventually drove Ms. P. to the hospital, where she received eight to nine stitches to her head.

Over the next month, appellant made contact with Ms. P. on four more occasions. The first occurred when Ms. P. found two letters, in appellant’s handwriting, under her car’s windshield wiper. The police were called and, upon arrival at Ms. P.’s home, removed the letters from the car’s windshield.

One of the letters was addressed to appellant’s daughter, Adriana. Appellant wrote, among other things:

I know your [sic] mad at daddy for hitting your mother but I had no control over that. I tried to warn her that I need you and her to help me because I was losing my mind. When I was hearing voices they want me to hurt you and her. But I no [sic] I will never harm you but I can’t say that about her.
What I think I did to her is nothing compared to what was going to happen that day. I came there to kill her and that’s the truth but when I was walking there from down the street I began seeing pictures of you in my mind of how *6 you would look, and I started crying because all I wanted was my little girl.

In a letter addressed to Ms. P., appellant wrote, among other things:

I tried and I tried to warn you, how my mind was becoming crazy.
I’m sorry for hitting you but that was not me, I told you when I use drugs another personality comes out of me, and he came over there to kill you on that day, but when I started walking towards the house I began crying because I wanted my family back (you and Dinky) but you laughed at me not knowing all the pain I’ve had built up inside of me for years. You have [sic] better listen because the only thing that saved your life that day was Adriana and my love for her.
This is how it’s going to be[,] we will be a family together, or we (me & you) will die together because I couldn’t hurt her.
If I see you with another man in these next few weeks I’m shooting no questions asked and that’s a promise I will not break. I’m trying to warn you before I seriously hurt you, I think you now see what I’m capable of but that’s nothing compared to what I have done before, and will do it again if necessary.
[T]he way you saw me is not the way I always look, but I used so much drugs about 8 days before you seen [sic] me.
* * *
I’m sorry for hitting you and if we become a family again it would never happen again, I promise.
Rember [sic] that was a gun in my hand and I had intended to kill you that morning not me.... (I’m warning *7 you for the last time[.]) Take this very seriously[.] I will be watching you very closely[.] No men around you or her, you have until December 27 after that, no more warnings. This time it will not be years to come there but hours.
* ❖ *
P.S. You no [sic] how my temper was, now it’s 5 times crazier, only when I do drugs. If y’all return never again will I do them[,] if not prepare for the worst. Do you know I still don’t even know if I came [over] there for real, or if it was a dream. I woke up with blood all over my hands[.]

On a subsequent day, Ms. P. found two more letters placed under her car’s windshield wiper. Again, the letters were in appellant’s handwriting. Again, Ms. P. called the police, who came and removed the letters from the windshield. The letter addressed to Adriana stated, among other things,

Your no good mother has only ten days before the killing starts.... On your life and your sister somebody will die over there, and it might even be you.
She just doesn’t no [sic] how crazy and violent I’ve become all because of my love for you.
I’m tired of looking at your pictures!,] the ones I have left and didn’t tear up. My moods v[a]ry so much I never no [sic] what I’ll do. But I do no [sic] you could change my whole way of life, but there is not a lot of time. Whatever happens I will always love you. But time is near and I’m not playing.

The letter addressed to Ms P. stated, among other things: “You have ten days left or the killing starts. Don’t think [the] police can stop me[,] they can’t stop me.... Play and you will die in ten days. But your [sic] not the only one, I will kill whoevers [sic] around when we kick those doors in. Bullets will ring out____”

On the morning of December 14, Ms. P. went with her children next door to her babysitter’s house to ask the babysitter a question. As they were leaving the babysitter’s house, *8 Ms. P. saw appellant driving “up the street” in the cream colored Jeep he had driven on the day he had assaulted her a month earlier.

Ms. P. told the children to “[h]urry up [and] [g]et in the car.” As appellant drove closer, however, Ms. P.

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

Related

Gateway Terry v. Prince George's Cnty.
Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 2022
Goldings v. United States
98 Fed. Cl. 470 (Federal Claims, 2011)
Stephens v. State
18 A.3d 168 (Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 2011)
Moore v. State
983 A.2d 583 (Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 2009)
Nelson v. State
975 A.2d 298 (Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 2009)
Chow v. State
903 A.2d 388 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 2006)
Hackley v. State
885 A.2d 816 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 2005)
Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission v. Anderson
884 A.2d 157 (Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 2005)
Garg v. Garg
881 A.2d 1180 (Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 2005)
Chow v. State
881 A.2d 1148 (Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 2005)
Bryant v. State
881 A.2d 669 (Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 2005)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
866 A.2d 906, 161 Md. App. 1, 2005 Md. App. LEXIS 8, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hackley-v-state-mdctspecapp-2005.