Porter v. State

421 A.2d 985, 47 Md. App. 96, 1980 Md. App. LEXIS 389
CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland
DecidedNovember 7, 1980
DocketNo. 1649
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 421 A.2d 985 (Porter 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
Porter v. State, 421 A.2d 985, 47 Md. App. 96, 1980 Md. App. LEXIS 389 (Md. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinions

Fisher, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court. Moylan, J., filed a concurring opinion at page 105 infra.

John Robert Culb was shot and killed in the late evening hours of November 1,1978, during the course of a robbery of the Myersville Gulf station in Myersville, Maryland, where he was employed. Appellant, James Thomas Porter, was convicted of the first degree felony murder of Mr. Culb, robbery with a deadly weapon and two counts of the use of a handgun in the commission of a felony. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and fifty years, to be served consecutively.

On appeal, Mr. Porter’s major contention involves the application of M.D.R. 723 a, which requires that an arrested person be presented "without unnecessary delay” before a judicial officer.1

Relying on the authority of Johnson v. State, 282 Md. 314, 384 A.2d 709 (1978), appellant contends that statements obtained in interrogations by the police after his arrest and during a period of detention should have been suppressed as being the product of an unnecessary delay in presenting him before a District Court commissioner. However, at the conclusion of the hearing on the Motion to Suppress, Judge Childs found, in his denial of the motion, that ". . . the [98]*98Johnson Doctrine is strictly for cases which approach the outer limits of twenty-four hours and . . . that, under the circumstances of this case wherein it was a Court holiday and the Court was not in session ... that Rule 723 a was not violated and the statements will not be excluded ...”

The trail that led to Mr. Porter’s arrest and his conviction, although circuitous, can be briefly set forth. On November 4, 1978, appellant made a telephone call to the Culb home, identifying himself and informing Mrs. Culb, the widow of the victim, and her brother-in-law, that he was in possession of Mr. Culb’s wallet. He was told to contact the Maryland State Police. Mrs. Culb’s brother-in-law did inform the Maryland State Police, but it appears Mr. Porter did not. Instead Mr. Porter contacted Montgomery County Police Officer Plant, for whom Mr. Porter had served as a police informant. Mr. Porter met with Officer Plant on November 6,1978, at which time he gave Officer Plant the wallet and an "explanation” of how it came to be in his possession. Plant met with Porter again the next day, and, unknown to Porter, had photographs taken of him. On November 9, 1978, one or more of those photographs was included in a photographic array presented to Mr. Aaron Hane, an attendant at the Myersville Exxon station. Hane identified Mr. Porter, from the array, as the person who had visited his station and bought a quart of oil from him in the late evening hours of November 1st, and who Hane observed walking toward the Myersville Gulf station after leaving his Exxon station. Later that day, the State Police presented this accumulated evidence to District Court Commissioner Barber, and obtained from him warrants to arrest Mr. Porter and search his home and automobile.

Porter was arrested at approximately 8:00 a.m. the next morning, November 10, 1978, at his home in Silver Spring by a team of officers, both uniformed and plain-clothed. He was handcuffed, informed of the charges against him,2 and [99]*99removed to a waiting police cruiser. Both a Waiver of Prompt Presentment form and a Constitutional Rights form (.Miranda warnings) 3 were read to him. Neither form was signed because of the handcuffs. Except for a brief stop to adjust Mr. Porter’s handcuffs, he was driven directly to the Frederick State Police Barracks, arriving there at approximately 9:00 a.m. Mr. Porter was placed in a holding cell. He was neither processed nor presented to a commissioner, notwithstanding the fact that Commissioner Barber, who was also advised that the warrants would be executed on November 10th, called the Frederick Barracks shortly after Mr. Porter’s arrival inquiring if anyone needed to be presented. Trooper Herring advised that Porter was in custody. Commissioner Barber informed the officer he would be available at his home for the next 30 to 45 minutes. When a subsequent call was made to Commissioner Barber’s home, approximately 45 to 60 minutes later, he had already gone. No other attempt was made to contact a commissioner, although the record discloses that three or four were available in the Frederick area.

At approximately 10:15 a.m., Mr. Porter had his first interrogation session with the officers. He signed a Waiver of Rights form, but he refused to sign a Waiver of Prompt Presentment form.4 The interrogation lasted until approximately noon. The substance of Mr. Porter’s first statement concerned how he received the wallet, his phone calls to the Culb home and to Officer Plant.

Officer Plant conducted the second interrogation, which began at approximately 2:00 p.m., after a waiver of Miranda rights form was read to and signed by Mr. Porter. This session lasted approximately one hour. Although Mr. Porter continued to deny direct involvement with the murder and robbery of Mr. Culb, he gave Officer Plant a different version [100]*100of how he obtained the wallet and admitted being in the Myersville area at the time of the incident. He also told Officer Plant that the gun, the subject of a previously unsuccessful search, was located in his basement bedroom.

At approximately 3:30 p.m. it was determined that a commissioner would soon be available at the Frederick District Courthouse. Mr. Porter had his initial appearance at approximately 4:30' p.m. Following his appearance before the commissioner, Mr. Porter was transported back to the barracks. At approximately 6:00 p.m., after hie signed a waiver of Miranda rights form, he gave a third statement which was video-taped. This session lasted approximately one hour.

Appellant argues that the three statements, two before and one following his initial appearance, should have been suppressed, the first two because of a violation of M.D.R. 723 a, the third because it was tainted by the primary illegal detention.

In Johnson v. State, supra, the Court of Appeals made crystal clear that the requirements of M.D.R. 723 a were mandatory, embodying a "sine qua non in any scheme of civil liberties”, supra, at 321, and that "any statement, voluntary or otherwise, obtained from an arrestee during a period of unnecessary delay in producing him before a judicial officer, thereby violating M.D.R. 723 a, is subject to exclusion when offered into evidence against the defendant as part of the prosecution’s case-in-chief.” Supra, at 328-29. If the delay exceeds the outer limits prescribed by the Rule (at the time, 24 hours or the first session of court), the statement is "automatically excludible. . . irrespective of the reason for the delay.” Id. Where, as here, the delay is within those outer limits, "it is incumbent upon the trial court to determine whether the State has met its burden of showing that the delay was necessary under the circumstances of the particular case.” Id.

We are concerned here with one narrow issue: Did the State sustain its burden of proving that the eight and one-half hour delay in this case was a necessary one? If it did not, the statements were inadmissible.

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Bluebook (online)
421 A.2d 985, 47 Md. App. 96, 1980 Md. App. LEXIS 389, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/porter-v-state-mdctspecapp-1980.