People of Michigan v. Phil Ray Parke

CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 13, 2021
Docket352580
StatusUnpublished

This text of People of Michigan v. Phil Ray Parke (People of Michigan v. Phil Ray Parke) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People of Michigan v. Phil Ray Parke, (Mich. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

If this opinion indicates that it is “FOR PUBLICATION,” it is subject to revision until final publication in the Michigan Appeals Reports.

STATE OF MICHIGAN

COURT OF APPEALS

PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, UNPUBLISHED May 13, 2021 Plaintiff-Appellee,

v No. 352580 Monroe Circuit Court PHIL RAY PARKE, LC No. 19-245059-FH

Defendant-Appellant.

Before: BOONSTRA, P.J., and CAVANAGH and GADOLA, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

Defendant appeals as of right his jury conviction of breaking and entering a building with intent to commit a felony, MCL 750.110, for which he was sentenced, as a fourth-offense habitual offender, to 4 to 20 years in prison. Defendant was also ordered to pay $5,393.21 in restitution, which included reimbursement for 400 packs of cigarettes. We affirm defendant’s conviction, but remand for further proceedings on the issue of restitution only.

In the early morning hours of July 5, 2018, someone driving a blue Ford pickup truck broke into a Sunoco gas station, filled a blue garbage bag with cartons of cigarettes, left the store, and fled in the pickup truck with a companion. Surveillance video clearly shows the entire break-in, but captured only partial images of the face of the person who committed it. The surveillance footage was posted on Facebook through Crime Stoppers, and an unidentified person came forward with defendant’s name. Defendant was subsequently found to own a 1988 Ford Ranger consistent with the apparent make and model of the truck in the video. Defendant’s prints were found on pieces of a blue garbage bag used during the break-in and left behind by the perpetrator. The only issue at trial was identity—whether defendant was the person shown in the surveillance video breaking in to the store.

At trial, a store employee testified that the surveillance video was shared “on Crime Stoppers through Facebook.” The prosecutor then asked: Q. And based on responses from that, were you able to make a determination as to who you believed was responsible for this break-in?

-1- A. Yes. Somebody gave us a name. Defense counsel objected to this response as hearsay. The prosecutor responded, “it’s really only offered to show how—it’s not offered to show the truth of the matter asserted.” The court overruled the objection, but cautioned the prosecutor not to go any further because an objection at “the next step” would be sustained. The next witness to testify, a police officer, then explained that he had been contacted by the store employee “regarding possible leads in the case because of social media.” Specifically, he was given a name that he ran through a law enforcement database. When asked about the results of the search, the officer testified that “the subject that [he] ran” through the database was defendant and the officer went on to describe the search results.

I. THE OUT-OF-COURT IDENTIFICATION

Defendant argues that the trial court abused its discretion by overruling his hearsay objection, under MRE 802, with regard to the testimony about the Crime Stoppers identification. Defendant further argues that admitting the identification was plain error in violation of MRE 403 and the Confrontation Clause, US Const, Am VI; Const 1963, art 1, § 20. Finally, in the alternative, defendant argues that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object on MRE 403 and Confrontation Clause grounds. We conclude that none of these claims warrant appellate relief.

A. HEARSAY ANALYSIS

The trial court’s decision to admit evidence is generally reviewed for an abuse of discretion. People v Ullah, 216 Mich App 669, 673; 550 NW2d 568 (1996). “An abuse of discretion occurs when a trial court’s decision falls outside the range of reasonable and principled outcomes.” People v Franklin, 500 Mich 92, 100; 894 NW2d 561 (2017) (quotation marks and citation omitted). To merit reversal, nonconstitutional error must be outcome-determinative. People v Lukity, 460 Mich 484, 495-496; 596 NW2d 607 (1999).

Hearsay is “a statement, other than the one made by the declarant while testifying at the trial or hearing, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted.” MRE 801. As such, if “the proponent of the evidence offers the statement for a purpose other than to prove the truth of the matter asserted, then the statement, by definition, is not hearsay.” People v Musser, 494 Mich 337, 350; 835 NW2d 319 (2013). This Court has also held that when “a witness testifies that a statement was made, rather than about the truth of the statement itself, the testimony is not hearsay.” People v Harris, 201 Mich App 147, 151; 505 NW2d 889 (1993). Additionally, “[a]n out-of-court statement introduced to show its effect on a listener, as opposed to proving the truth of the matter asserted, does not constitute hearsay under MRE 801(c).” People v Gaines, 306 Mich App 289, 306-307; 856 NW2d 222 (2014).

The question, then, is whether the Crime Stoppers identification was properly admitted for a nonhearsay purpose. While no specific purpose was offered at trial, it is reasonable to infer from the context of the statement that the information was admitted to explain the course of the police investigation. This Court has discussed similar situations in the Confrontation Clause context. The Confrontation Clause cases are instructive because they analyze the out-of-court identifications in question to determine whether they were offered for the “truth of the matter asserted” or for a nonhearsay purpose—the same issue relevant here.

-2- This Court has stated in the Confrontation Clause context that “a statement offered to show why police officers acted as they did is not hearsay.” People v Chambers, 277 Mich App 1, 11; 742 NW2d 610 (2007). In Chambers, testimony about a tip that someone had recognized the defendant in a photograph was held to have been “offered to establish and explain why the detective organized a surveillance of defendant’s home and how defendant came to be arrested,” rather than for the truth of the identification. Id. at 11. This Court has also held that “a tip through Crime Stoppers that the individual” who committed a crime “was named ‘Mike’ and that he ‘lived on Central,’ ” was clearly not offered for the truth of the matter asserted when it was offered to explain why police included the defendant’s picture in a photo identification array. People v Putman, 309 Mich App 240, 246; 870 NW2d 593 (2015).

On the other hand, once again in the Confrontation Clause context, this Court ruled that testimony regarding an informant’s out-of-court statement was improper in People v Henry (After Remand), 305 Mich App 127, 154; 854 NW2d 114 (2014) (but holding that admission of the testimony did not affect defendant’s substantial rights). In Henry, an officer testified that an informant “came forward with the defendant’s name” and that, on the basis of the informant’s information, the officer believed the defendant was responsible for several robberies. Id. This Court held that this “testimony necessarily implied that the informant accused defendant” of the crimes in question, and that the officer found the informant to be credible. Id. The Court noted that, had the officer “limited his testimony to an explanation that, on the basis of the information he received from the informant he proceeded in a certain direction with his investigation, it may have been admissible.” Id.

These cases suggest that the key question is whether testimony was primarily offered to explain the course of an investigation, or primarily to show that a defendant committed the crime in question. On one hand, the testimony in this case clearly implied that someone identified defendant as the perpetrator, and the jury was allowed to use that information for its truth because no limiting instruction was given.

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People of Michigan v. Phil Ray Parke, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-of-michigan-v-phil-ray-parke-michctapp-2021.