Thomas v. People

60 V.I. 183, 2013 WL 6236080, 2013 V.I. Supreme LEXIS 90
CourtSupreme Court of The Virgin Islands
DecidedDecember 2, 2013
DocketS. Ct. Criminal No. 2011-0073
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 60 V.I. 183 (Thomas v. People) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thomas v. People, 60 V.I. 183, 2013 WL 6236080, 2013 V.I. Supreme LEXIS 90 (virginislands 2013).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

(December 2, 2013)

Cabret, Associate Justice.

Following a jury trial, Cuthbertson Thomas and his co-defendant Richie Fontaine were convicted of nine felony counts each, arising from a shooting outside of an elementary school on St. Thomas. Thomas challenges his convictions on four grounds, arguing that the Superior Court erred: (1) by denying his motion for acquittal because the prosecution did not present sufficient evidence to convict; (2) by denying his motion for a mistrial based upon the testimony of Detective Jose Allen; (3) by permitting the jury to visit the crime scene after the close of the People’s case-in-chief; and (4) by admitting an unduly prejudicial photograph into evidence showing a small wound on one of the victims. For the reasons that follow, we affirm Thomas’s convictions, but remand for resentencing in conformity with 14 V.I.C. § 104.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On May 6, 2009, shots were fired in the vicinity of the Emmanuel Benjamin Oliver Elementary School on St. Thomas. At the scene of the shooting, a purple Toyota Corolla was struck by multiple bullets. Although the passengers were not injured, one bullet entered a school bus and injured M.H., a ten-year-old child. On September 23, 2009, the People filed an Information, which was later amended, charging Thomas and Fontaine with nine crimes each arising from the shooting.1

[187]*187On December 1 and 3, 2010, Thomas and Fontaine were tried before a jury. The People first called Shunell Fregiste, the driver of the purple Corolla. Fregiste testified that on the day of the shooting he drove, unlicensed, to the Emmanuel Benjamin Oliver Elementary School to pick up a friend’s child. Larry Fontaine and two minors were passengers in the car with him.2 While outside the school, Fregiste spotted three individuals walking down a nearby one-way street. He recognized two of the three individuals as Thomas and Fontaine, and testified that Thomas had a “skinny” and “tall” build and was wearing a white shirt with a New York Yankees baseball cap while Fontaine had a “short” and “tough” build and was wearing a white shirt. (J.A. 152-53, 176-77.) Both men had masks or scarves covering their faces. Despite the mask, however, Fregiste testified he was able to recognize Thomas because they had grown up together in Dominica where they went to high school and participated in the Boy Scouts together. Fregiste also testified that in his experience, Thomas always wore a New York Yankees baseball cap.

Moments after seeing both men, Fregiste saw them reach inside their clothing and draw out firearms. Fregiste sped up, but came across a green truck and school bus in his path. Fregiste then heard gunshots from behind his car, and when he turned back in his seat to look, he saw Thomas, Fontaine, and the third individual he did not know firing toward his vehicle. Fregiste swerved his vehicle around the school bus and drove off, though his car was struck by bullets before getting away.

After returning home, Fregiste asked a friend to tell the police that she had been driving the purple Corolla. Fregiste did not tell her, however, or the other passengers in the car that he recognized two of the shooters. A few days after the shooting, on May 15, 2009, Fregiste spoke, to the police for the first time, but denied driving the purple Corolla, seeing any weapons, or being able to identify anyone involved in the shooting. Two weeks after the shooting, on May 20, 2009, Fregiste spoke with the police a second time and gave a written statement in which he admitted that he drove the car and also identified Thomas and Fontaine as the shooters. During his second meeting with the police, Fregiste said that he had not actually seen Thomas and Fontaine with the guns, instead he said that he saw them immediately before the shooting with masks over their faces [188]*188coming towards the vehicle. At that time, Fregiste also picked Thomas out of a photo array as one of the shooters. Defense counsel brought out each of these inconsistencies in Fregiste’s statements to the police during cross-examination. Fregiste also admitted on cross-examination that he instructed his friend to lie to the police because he was afraid he would be prevented from getting a license in the future if his unlicensed driving was discovered.

Next, the People called Larry Fontaine, who was a passenger in the car with Fregiste on the day of the shooting. Larry Fontaine testified that he and Fregiste drove to the elementary school, that he saw three men wearing white shirts approach the car with “their hands sticking out,” (J.A. 227) and that he heard a lot of gunfire. He described one of the men as tall and thin and the other as short and chubby. He also testified that he did not see scarves or anything covering the faces of the three men he saw on the day of the shooting. Despite that fact, he was unable to identify any of the shooters because he only “[g]lance[d] them, like seconds” before reacting to the shooting by moving to cover the children in the back of the car. (J.A. 217.)

A third eyewitness, Michelle Baron, told the jury that she was sitting in her car parked down the street from the school listening to gospel music on May 6, 2009, when the shooting occurred. Baron testified that she heard ten to fourteen gunshots and saw a purple car and a white car speed past her car. However, Baron did not see the shooters. After the shooting, she left her car and walked up to the scene where she found M.H. wounded in the school bus.

The People also called Detective Jose Allen who testified that he was personally familiar with both Thomas and Fontaine. Detective Allen told the jury that he had seen Thomas and Fontaine together and was aware that they knew each other. He also testified that he had seen Thomas wear a black New York Yankees baseball cap on prior occasions. Just before cross-examination, the People requested a sidebar conference to inform the court and the defendants’ attorneys that Allen knew Thomas and Fontaine because of their involvement in prior criminal investigations. The People alerted the defendants’ attorneys to that information in the event that they chose to limit their cross-examination to avoid the jury hearing anything prejudicial concerning those investigations. In response, Thomas and Fontaine moved to strike Allen’s testimony and Thomas also moved for a mistrial, claiming that his ability to cross-examine Allen was [189]*189unduly hampered. The judge denied the motions to strike and Thomas’s motion for mistrial, finding that the jury had not heard any prejudicial testimony and that the attorneys still had the opportunity to cross-examine Allen.

The People also called M.H., who testified that following school on May 6, 2009, he was in the school bus waiting to be driven to an afterschool program when he heard “seven or so gunshots,” (J.A. 449, 453), felt something hit him, and then fell to the floor. M.H. did not testify to seeing the shooters. Through other witnesses, the People admitted into evidence M.H.’s shirt and jacket showing a bullet hole, as well as his medical records and a photograph of the gunshot wound. The emergency responders who transported M.H. to the Roy L. Schneider Hospital on St. Thomas, as well as the physician who treated him at the hospital, also testified about M.H.’s injuries. M.H.’s physician explained that M.H. had to be airlifted to Puerto Rico for further treatment because of the seriousness of his injuries.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
60 V.I. 183, 2013 WL 6236080, 2013 V.I. Supreme LEXIS 90, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-v-people-virginislands-2013.