State v. Alley

2004 ME 10, 841 A.2d 803, 2004 Me. LEXIS 10
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedJanuary 20, 2004
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 2004 ME 10 (State v. Alley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Alley, 2004 ME 10, 841 A.2d 803, 2004 Me. LEXIS 10 (Me. 2004).

Opinion

LEVY, J.

[¶ 1] Robert Alley appeals from a judgment of conviction entered in the Superior Court (Androscoggin County, Studstrup, J.) following a jury verdict finding him guilty of manslaughter (Class A) pursuant to 17-A M.R.S.A. § 203(1)(A) (Supp.2003). Alley contends that the court committed various errors, including: (1) denying his motion to suppress items seized without a warrant; (2) denying his motion to suppress statements he made to a detective during the investigation; and (3) allowing the State to cross-examine his expert witness after the State allegedly committed a discovery violation.1 We disagree and affirm the judgment.

I. CASE HISTORY

[¶2] At 8:06 A.M. on September 30, 2001, Robert Alley called 911 to report that his neighbor’s dead body was on the floor of his apartment. When officers from the Auburn Police Department arrived at Alley’s apartment, Alley was waiting outside wearing a sweatshirt and pants, both of which were bloodstained. The officers entered Alley’s apartment and [806]*806discovered the victim lying on his back oh the living room floor with blood on his face, hair, beard, and underneath his head. The victim died as a result of “blunt injuries,” i.e., he was beaten to death. After examining the victim’s body, paramedic Richard Theriault asked Alley what had happened. Alley responded that he and the victim had been drinking a lot and playing chess the night before, that Alley went to bed, and then he awoke in the morning to find the victim dead on his floor.

[¶ 3] Officer Stephen Gosselin asked Alley if he would voluntarily go to the Auburn Police Department for questioning and Alley agreed. While at the station, Alley was placed in a juvenile intake room and spoke with officers about the incident.2 Alley was not placed under arrest. After approximately two hours, Alley requested that he be allowed to leave and was told that he could not leave until he gave the police his clothes. Detective Lopez noticed some long gray hairs stuck on Alley’s pant legs that he recognized to be similar to the victim’s hair. Without a warrant, Lopez removed the hairs and placed them in evidence envelopes.

[¶ 4] Alley requested to see his attorney, who was representing Alley in an unrelated matter, at the time he expressed his desire to leave the police station. Although Detective Lopez told Alley that the police would try to locate the attorney and would provide Alley with a phone book, the attorney was not located and Alley was not provided with a phone book or phone.

[¶ 5] Alley told the officers he would bring them his clothing and footwear after he returned to his apartment. The police refused this offer, and instead Detective Lopez left the station at approximately 11:50 A.M. to purchase a change of clothing for Alley. Lopez returned at approximately 12:40 P.M. Alley changed into the new clothing and the police took possession of his bloodstained clothing.

[¶ 6] Detectives Ferland and Fowler offered to give Alley a ride. They left the station at 2:35 P.M. and, at Alley’s request, drove him first to a friend’s residence, who was not at home, and then to Alley’s sister’s house, arriving at 3:15 P.M. Alley’s sister was home and speaking on her phone at the time they arrived. The detectives did not ask Alley any questions during the drive due to Alley’s earlier request to speak with his attorney. Alley did, however, tell the detectives that he had a court appearance the following morning on an unrelated matter and expected to see his attorney there. Later during the ride, Detective Ferland told Alley, “at some point the detectives are going to want to sit down with you. They are going to want to hear your side of the story.”

[¶ 7] At approximately 8:30 that evening, Detectives Ferland and Fowler returned to the friend’s house, assuming that Alley might be there, with the intention of questioning Alley further. They knocked on the door and were invited in by Alley’s friend and a woman believed to be the friend’s wife. Alley was present and he agreed to speak with Detective Ferland, who told Alley immediately that he was not under arrest. Ferland, for the first time, read Alley the Miranda warnings and obtained what he believed was an effective waiver of those rights.

[¶ 8] Alley told Detective Ferland that he drank and smoked marijuana with two friends the night of September 29, 2001; [807]*807after his friends left, he drank and played chess with his upstairs neighbor, and then he blacked out. He stated that when he awoke the next morning, he discovered his upstairs neighbor’s body on the floor, tried to wake him up, and discovered he was dead. Alley also told Ferland that he wiped the victim’s face with a towel, threw the towel in either the sink or trash, and threw a hard object into the bushes outside his apartment. Alley said that he picked up the hard object from the floor, could not see what it was because he was not wearing his glasses, and did not even know why he picked it up. At that point he called 911.

[¶ 9] Alley was indicted on October 12, 2001, for intentional or knowing, or depraved indifference, murder in violation of 17-A M.R.S.A. § 201(1)(A) & (B) (Supp. 2003) and was arrested that day. Alley filed several pretrial motions, including motions to suppress evidence of his clothing and the hairs found on his clothing, and to suppress evidence of his oral statements made on September 30, 2001. The court denied all motions, with the exception of granting in part the motion to suppress as to any statements Alley made at the police station following his request for counsel.3

[¶ 10] Prior to trial, the State instructed its expert bloodstain witness, Herbert Leighton, to contact Alley’s expert bloodstain witness, Ross Gardner, to inquire about the testing Gardner conducted on the victim’s shirt and the results of those tests. Gardner told Leighton about the tests he performed and his conclusions.

[¶ 11] Alley’s jury trial began on September 23, 2002. At trial, Alley called Gardner as an expert witness, but subsequently objected to the State’s cross-examination of Gardner. He argued that the State should not be allowed to question Gardner about information that Alley did not intend to introduce at trial and that the State acquired via Leighton’s phone call because the communication constituted a discovery violation. The court overruled the objection and permitted the State to cross-examine Gardner on all aspects of his testing, including those Alley had not developed during his direct examination of Gardner.

[¶ 12] The jury returned a verdict finding Alley guilty of Class A manslaughter. Alley was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of eighteen years, with all but fourteen suspended. Following the court’s denial of his motion for a new trial, Alley filed this appeal.

II. DISCUSSION

A. The Admission of Alley’s Bloodstained Clothing and the Victim’s Hairs

[¶ 13] Alley contends that the court erred by denying his motion to suppress the clothing and hairs that were seized at the police station because they were seized without a valid warrant or pursuant to a valid exception to the warrant requirement. We review a denial of a motion to suppress for errors of law or clearly erroneous findings of fact. State v. Lockhart, 2003 ME 108, ¶ 15, 830 A.2d 433, 441; State v. Bridges, 2003 ME 103, ¶ 24, 829 A.2d 247, 254.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State of Maine v. Michael R. McNaughton
2017 ME 173 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2017)
State of Maine v. Glidden
Maine Superior, 2015
State v. Wessells
37 A.3d 1122 (Supreme Court of New Jersey, 2012)
State v. Wessells
974 A.2d 427 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 2009)
Shatzer v. State
954 A.2d 1118 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 2008)
State v. Nielsen
2008 ME 77 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2008)
State v. Drewry
2008 ME 76 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2008)
State v. Grant
2008 ME 14 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2008)
State v. Drown
2007 ME 142 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2007)
State v. Cormier
2007 ME 112 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2007)
State v. Scanlon
719 N.W.2d 674 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2006)
State of Maine v. Soucy
Maine Superior, 2006
State v. Neely
829 N.E.2d 718 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2005)
State v. Langlois
2005 ME 3 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2005)
Alley v. Maine
541 U.S. 1078 (Supreme Court, 2004)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2004 ME 10, 841 A.2d 803, 2004 Me. LEXIS 10, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-alley-me-2004.