People of Michigan v. William Mark Warren II

CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 16, 2019
Docket335934
StatusUnpublished

This text of People of Michigan v. William Mark Warren II (People of Michigan v. William Mark Warren II) 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. William Mark Warren II, (Mich. Ct. App. 2019).

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PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, UNPUBLISHED May 16, 2019 Plaintiff-Appellee,

v No. 335934 Macomb Circuit Court WILLIAM MARK WARREN, II, LC No. 2015-004047-FC

Defendant-Appellant.

Before: MURRAY, C.J., and JANSEN and RIORDAN, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

Defendant appeals as of right his jury trial convictions of felony murder, MCL 750.316(1)(b), and first-degree child abuse, MCL 750.136b(2). He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the felony-murder conviction, and 225 months to 40 years in prison for the first-degree child abuse conviction. We affirm.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

This case arises out of the death of 18-month-old AC. At the time of his death on August 13, 2015, AC lived in an apartment with his mother Brandee Wright, Brandee’s friend and roommate Tiarha Burnett, Brandee’s boyfriend defendant, and defendant’s sister, Dajanique Harrison-Beckham. Defendant had moved into the apartment around July of that year after he and Brandee started dating, and his then four-year-old daughter AP sometimes also spent the night. Defendant often watched AC while Brandee worked or ran errands.

Brandee noticed injuries to AC’s face and genitals in late July, and a burn to his finger at the beginning of August, but continued to allow defendant to babysit. AC stayed with his father Gharian Carver from August 8, 2015, until approximately 8:30 p.m. or 9:00 p.m. on August 10, 2015, when Gharian returned him to Brandee’s apartment. Neither Brandee nor Tiarha noticed any additional injuries to AC’s body, and he played with Tiarha’s little sisters, took a bath, and ate dinner.

Defendant, Brandee, AC and AP all slept in the same bedroom that night, and defendant awoke early on the morning of August 11, 2015, to take Dajanique to work before returning to

-1- the apartment. He then stayed in the bedroom with AC and AP while Brandee ran errands later that morning. When Brandee returned, AC was lying in bed facing the wall, and she noticed he was struggling to breathe. She and defendant rushed AC to McLaren Macomb Hospital, before he was transferred to Children’s Hospital, where he later died on August 13, 2015.

While defendant was charged with felony murder and first-degree child abuse, Brandee pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, child abuse, and lying to a police officer. At trial, AP testified that although she did not see anything, she knew defendant had been the one to hurt AC on the morning of August 11, 2015. She was in the bedroom with defendant and AC when she heard a “thump, thump, thump,” and believed defendant had punched AC in the nose.

The testimony of Dr. Daniel Spitz, the Macomb County Medical Examiner, and Dr. Marcus DeGraw, a child abuse pediatrician, was consistent with AP’s testimony that AC suffered intentional abuse. Dr. Spitz identified multiple areas of bruising on ACs body, focusing largely on a bruise to the back of AC’s head, and concluded that AC’s death was the result of blunt head injury consistent with child abuse and could not have been caused by an alleged minor fall into a plastic storage tote the night before. Likewise, Dr. DeGraw opined that AC died from blunt head trauma caused by physical abuse.

On the basis of the above testimony, defendant was convicted of felony murder and first- degree child abuse, and sentenced by the trial court. With his claim of appeal to this Court, defendant filed a motion for remand, asserting that he was entitled to a new trial or a Ginther1 hearing because his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to fully investigate and call an expert medical witness at trial, and for failing to request the accomplice jury instructions at M Crim JI 5.4 and 5.6. In support of the motion, defendant attached an affidavit and a supplemental affidavit from Dr. Douglas Smith, in which Dr. Smith states that the testimony of Drs. Spitz and DeGraw was misleading, that AC’s injuries were consistent with a fall described as happening the night before or some event occurring in Gharian’s care, and that the “bruise” to the back of AC’s head was actually a bedsore. This Court granted defendant’s motion, and remanded for an evidentiary hearing to address defendant’s ineffective assistance arguments. People v Warren, unpublished order of the Court of Appeals, entered November 29, 2017 (Docket No. 335934). Defendant’s appellate counsel then filed a motion for a new trial in the trial court on the same bases.

The trial court held the Ginther hearing over three days, and heard testimony from Dr. Smith, Dr. DeGraw, Dr. Spitz, and defendant’s trial counsel Thomas Tomko. Dr. Smith earned his medical degree and a PhD in experimental pathology, but retired in 2009 and does not maintain his medical license. He testified that he began reviewing abusive head trauma cases in 2014, but has never been a forensic pathologist or a child abuse pediatrician. Nor does he generally serve as an expert witness in the cases he reviews.

Dr. Smith stated that he first learned of AC’s case when Tomko contacted him in February 2016. He requested additional medical records from Tomko, and believed he would

1 People v Ginther, 390 Mich 436; 212 NW2d 922 (1973).

-2- serve as a consultant in the case in accordance with his normal practice—by reviewing the records and identifying and suggesting relevant experts. He never suggested to Tomko that he himself would serve as an expert witness at trial, and generally referred such cases to Dr. Dragovic. However, according to Dr. Smith, Tomko never provided the additional records nor otherwise followed up.

From his review of medical records received after defendant’s convictions, Dr. Smith believed that the mark on the back of AC’s head, which Drs. Spitz and DeGraw relied on to inform their ultimate opinions regarding the cause and manner of AC’s death, was actually a bedsore AC suffered while being kept alive for organ donation, rather than a bruise. Therefore, in his opinion, although AC’s death was caused by blunt force trauma, the back of AC’s head was not a site of impact. And in contrast to Drs. Spitz and DeGraw, he opined that such an injury could have been caused by an accidental fall.

Tomko testified that he requested, and the trial court granted, his motion for expert witness funds. He then looked through an “expert bank” in which he found Dr. Smith’s name, and reached out. Tomko knew that Dr. Smith himself could not serve as an expert, so he contacted Dr. Dragovic, whom Dr. Smith recommended. According to Tomko, Dr. Dragovic expressed a willingness to review the case, and was provided copies of the documents needed to do so, but never ultimately provided an opinion.

When asked if anything Dr. Dragovic said led to his decision not to call an expert witness in the case, Tomko said no—that it was actually a matter of trial strategy based on the defense theory that Brandee, not defendant, had harmed AC when with him earlier in the morning on August 11, 2015, and on the fact that all experts, including Drs. Smith and Dragovic, agreed that AC died from blunt head trauma. Thus, according to Tomko, no further explanation was needed with regard to how AC died. Additionally, he testified that testimony regarding the potential for a lucid interval between head trauma and the manifestation of injuries was unnecessary because the defense had already decided against advancing at trial the theory that AC’s injuries had happened the night before or while in Gharian’s care.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
People of Michigan v. William Mark Warren II, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-of-michigan-v-william-mark-warren-ii-michctapp-2019.