Southern v. State

807 A.2d 13, 371 Md. 93, 2002 Md. LEXIS 635
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedSeptember 17, 2002
Docket109, September Term, 2001
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 807 A.2d 13 (Southern 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
Southern v. State, 807 A.2d 13, 371 Md. 93, 2002 Md. LEXIS 635 (Md. 2002).

Opinions

CATHELL, Judge.

George Wendell Southern, petitioner, was indicted by a Grand Jury in Prince George’s County on two counts of robbery and related offenses due to his alleged participation in the robberies of two 7-Eleven stores on the morning of February 19, 2000. On September 20, 2000, the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County denied petitioner’s Motion to Suppress. On September 22, 2000, after a jury trial, petitioner was convicted of two counts of robbery and one count of second-degree assault. On November 9, 2000, the Circuit Court imposed a sentence of ten years incarceration without the possibility of parole for the first robbery count1 and a consecutive ten-year sentence on the second robbery count.

On November 15, 2000, petitioner noted an appeal to the Court of Special Appeals. In that appeal, petitioner argued that at the hearing on his Motion to Suppress and after petitioner challenged the constitutionality of his initial detention, the State failed to put on any evidence to sustain its burden of proving the constitutionality of the stop and, thus, petitioner’s motion should have been granted. In a reported opinion, Southern v. State, 140 Md.App. 495, 780 A.2d 1228 (2001), the intermediate appellate court, after agreeing that petitioner properly had raised the issue of the constitutionality of the initial stop, held that the State had the burden of establishing the constitutionality of the stop, that the State had not presented evidence sufficient to meet that burden, and that the Circuit Court had not ruled on the issue. Nevertheless, the Court of Special Appeals did not reverse the convic[96]*96tions, but, instead, ordered that petitioner’s convictions were to remain in effect pending further proceedings and remanded the case to the Circuit Court for the purpose of reopening the suppression proceeding to give the State the opportunity to introduce evidence relating to the constitutionality of the stop and for the Circuit Court to then rule on the constitutionality of the stop.

On December 13, 2001, we granted Southern’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari and denied the State’s Conditional Cross-Petition. Southern v. State, 367 Md. 88, 785 A.2d 1292 (2001). Petitioner presents one question for our review:

“Where the defense challenged the legality of an initial stop at a suppression hearing and the State failed to introduce any evidence on that issue, was it proper for the Court of Special Appeals to order a limited remand at which the State will have a second opportunity to introduce evidence supporting the legality of the stop?”

We answer no to petitioner’s question and reverse. We hold that it was improper for the Court of Special Appeals to remand and reopen the suppression proceeding in order to provide the State with a second opportunity to present new evidence on the constitutionality of the initial stop. The Court of Special Appeals should have reversed the convictions and remanded the case to the Circuit Court for a new trial.

I. Procedural Facts

a. Motion to Suppress

Petitioner filed two one-page omnibus motions, both stating inter alia that he “moves to suppress any and all evidence obtained by the State in violation of the defendant’s rights as guaranteed by the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, and the Maryland Declaration of Rights.”2

[97]*97The Circuit Court for Prince George’s County held a hearing on petitioner’s motions on September 20, 2000. The Circuit Court addressed the pre-trial motions and asked the State, “|w]ell, which motions are we taking up first?” The prosecutor responded, “I.D., and then the statement.” The State then proceeded to call various witnesses to testify about the events on the day of the robberies. The Circuit Court heard evidence relating to the circumstances of the post-apprehension show-up identification and denied petitioner’s motion to suppress the identification. In respect to the issue of the validity of petitioner’s initial apprehension, the testimony was limited to the following:

“The first to testify was Officer Richard Pippin of the Prince George’s County Police. He testified that on February 19th, 2000, he responded to a call regarding a robbery at a 7-11 on Old Branch Avenue. When he arrived, he spoke to a Carolyn Pryor, and approximately 15 minutes later drove her and one other individual several blocks away to Wolverton Avenue. He told her that the police had apprehended a suspect fitting the description of the person who had robbed the 7-11....
“The next witness called by the prosecutor was Corporal Charles Burgess. He stated that he had responded to the report of the robbery and had been involved in the apprehension of a suspect, together with a K-9 officer....
“Officer Monty Burkhalter ... testified that Corporal Burgess had handed over the Petitioner to him after he was apprehended.... Burkhalter stated that at the time the Petitioner was turned over to him, he had already been arrested and was in handcuffs.
“The State’s next witness on the identification was Carolyn Pryor. She stated that she had been a customer in the 7-11 on the morning of the robbery, and as she was approaching the cashier, a man came in the door with dark red T-shirt or bandanna covering the lower part of his face. [98]*98He jumped over the counter and began kicking the cash register, and while he was doing this the bandanna or T-shirt kept falling down. She described this person to the police after the incident, and they took her to another location to see if she could identify a person they had apprehended. When she saw the suspect, she told the police officer, ‘That’s him.’
“Gail Alexander was called as a defense witness on the motion. She stated that on the morning of the robbery she was getting some coffee at the 7-11 on Old Branch Avenue when she heard noises coming from the area of the cash register. When she looked up, she saw a white male attempting to pull out the cash register drawer and saw that over his face he had a red shirt, which kept falling down. Later after the police were called, she and Ms. Pryor accompanied Officer Pippin to an area where they were holding a suspect. She stated that when they arrived at their destination the suspect was removed from the back seat of the police car and made to stand up and face them. She recalled that at that time ‘he was handcuffed with his hands behind him.’ Ms. Alexander testified that although she heard Ms. Pryor identify the man as the robber, she (Ms. Alexander) was unable to identify his face. She also told the officers that the man wasn’t wearing the same clothes that the robber had worn.”

The balance of the evidence proffered at the suppression hearing (as well as most of that discussed next above) was completely unrelated to the events surrounding the apprehension of the petitioner. In its brief to this Court, the State conceded as much, saying: “None of the witnesses called during the suppression hearing described the circumstances of the K-9 tracking or the initial detention of Southern.”

The following dialogue then transpired regarding the evidence as to other matters then before the motions hearing judge:

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Bluebook (online)
807 A.2d 13, 371 Md. 93, 2002 Md. LEXIS 635, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-v-state-md-2002.