Langley v. State

28 A.3d 646, 421 Md. 560, 2011 Md. LEXIS 568
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedSeptember 19, 2011
Docket51, September Term, 2008
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 28 A.3d 646 (Langley v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Langley v. State, 28 A.3d 646, 421 Md. 560, 2011 Md. LEXIS 568 (Md. 2011).

Opinions

HARRELL, J.

At the time we granted certiorari and heard oral argument here, this case presented an emerging issue that plagued courts nationwide: determining whether the content of 9-1-1 telephone calls made following the apparent completion of a discrete crime or crimes is considered “testimonial,” and thus inadmissible under Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004), when offered without a live witness—the caller. The Supreme Court’s recent Michigan v. Bryant, — U.S. -, 131 S.Ct. 1143, 179 L.Ed.2d at 93 (2011), however, provides some clarity in what theretofore was a murky jurisprudential crystal ball. This case calls for a relatively straightforward application of Bryant.

William Langley (“Langley”) appeals from the judgment of the Court of Special Appeals, which affirmed the convictions entered against him in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. Pertinent to the present posture of this case, the panel of the intermediate appellate court held that certain statements telephoned to police by an eye-witness to portions of events related to a murder-robbery (1) describing an individual alleged to be Langley exiting the crime scene; and (2) identifying features, such as color and license-plate number, of an automobile that another witness at trial testified that Langley had access to, were not “testimonial” within the contemplation of Confrontation Clause jurisprudence, and thus admissible. For reasons to be explained more fully infra, we hold that applying Bryant to the facts of the present case leads us to [563]*563conclude that these statements were non-testimonial, and, therefore, Langley’s confrontation rights were not impaired by their admission at his trial. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Special Appeals.

EVIDENTIARY AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The State’s case at trial demonstrated that, on the evening of 3 October 2005, Nae Chun Pak, the owner of the Cherry Hill Carry-Out on Cherry Hill Road in Baltimore City, was shot and killed in his store. An employee of the store, who testified that Langley was a regular customer of the store, identified Langley at trial as the assailant. The employee testified that he first saw Langley that evening at around 6:00 pm, when he was arguing with Pak at the security window in the store where customers order their food; apparently, Langley was demanding a refund for a cheesesteak sandwich he purchased that was not to his liking. Pak obliged, and Langley left the store. The employee testified further that Langley returned less than an hour later. Pak, with the store busy at the time, was taking orders from a line of customers. Langley pushed one customer aside, raised his arm, and fired one shot at Pak. The employee, having dove to the floor behind the counter, rose to assess the situation and noticed Pak laying on the floor.

As Langley was leaving the store, one Herbert Stokes was waiting on the street in his tow-truck for an acquaintance to get him a bottle of water from a store across the street from the Cherry Hill Carry-Out. After hearing a gunshot, Stokes saw people streaming out of the Cherry Hill Carry-Out, one of whom he identified in the courtroom at trial as Langley. He witnessed Langley get in what he believed to be a white Oldsmobile and drive away. Subsequently, Stokes selected Langley’s photograph from a photo array as the person who “looked like the man” who came out of the store and got in the white car.1

[564]*564Additional evidence about the presence of a white car and a description of the assailant were recounted to a 9-1-1 dispatcher by another person, apparently a female located outside the Carry-Out (who, for some unknown reason, was not produced to testify at trial). Over defense objection, a recording of the 9-1-1-tape recording was admitted into evidence and played for the jury. The following was heard on the recording:

9-1-1 Operator: Baltimore City operator number 1316. What would you like, [police], fire or ambulance?
Caller: I just want to give some information on a shooting that just occurred at Cherry Hill Shopping Center.
9-1-1 Operator: Okay. Let me call the District for that. Let me give you a District number because I don’t have that information here.
Caller: Go ahead. [Hurry up. It just happening.]2
9-1-1 Operator: Are you—
Caller: I seen the guy get in the car. Will you give me the number or not?
9-1-1 Operator: Ma’am, you can—(phone rings)
Caller: Hello?
9-1-1 Operator: Ma’am, you just told me that you had to give information not get information.
Caller: I mean—
9-1-1 Operator: Where do you want to have the Officer sent to?
[565]*565Caller: I don’t want them sent nowhere. They already going out to the store. But the guy, I seen him get in the car. Tag number MRG 908.
9-1-1 Operator: Do you know what type of car it was?
Caller: No, I don’t know the type of car. All I know it’s white.
9-1-1 Operator: Four door?
Caller: Look like it might have been a four door. I did look at the tag number and it looked like MRG 908.
9-1-1 Operator: Do you know what he was wearing?
Caller: No. Looked like jeans or something in a T-shirt.
9-1-1 Operator: T-shirt, was it dark or light?
Caller: Kind of light. He didn’t have no mask, he didn’t have no hat, he didn’t have nothing on.
9-1-1 Operator: Was he a light-complected man?
Caller: Kind of brown skinned. I didn’t know what kind of ear it was.
9-1-1 Operator: Now, he was wearing a light top and he was a brown complected man?
Caller: Don’t quote me on the color.
9-1-1 Operator: Yes, ma’am.
Caller: I just will tell you about the tag because I looked at it, MRG 908.
9-1-1 Operator: Maryland tag?
Caller: Yes, I believe so. I didn’t even look at that.
9-1-1 Operator: What hundred block is that?
Caller: It’s in the Cherry Hill Shopping Center. I think that’s the 600 block.
9-1-1 Operator: At Cherry Hill Road?
Caller: Yes, Cherry Hill Road.
9-1-1 Operator: Cherry Hill?
Caller: Yes.
9-1-1 Operator: Thank you.

[566]

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Langley v. State
28 A.3d 646 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 2011)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
28 A.3d 646, 421 Md. 560, 2011 Md. LEXIS 568, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/langley-v-state-md-2011.