United States v. Bennefield

741 F. Supp. 1002, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8542, 1990 WL 97787
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedJuly 5, 1990
DocketCr. A. No. 90-10007-C
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 741 F. Supp. 1002 (United States v. Bennefield) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Bennefield, 741 F. Supp. 1002, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8542, 1990 WL 97787 (D. Mass. 1990).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

CAFFREY, Senior District Judge.

This action is before the Court on defendant’s motion to exclude evidence of an out-of-court, showup identification of the defendant and any in-court identification which may be made at trial. The defendant is charged in a one-count indictment as a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). This charge arose out of an alleged armed robbery of a bookstore with a sawed-off shotgun by the defendant and two other men. Shortly after the robbery, the police arrested the defendant several blocks from the scene of the crime. The police transported the defendant back to the bookstore in handcuffs where he was shown to the victim and identified by the victim as the man who had held the shotgun during the robbery. The defendant now moves for the exclusion of any evidence of this showup identification, arguing that its admission would violate his rights to due process because the showup identification procedure was unnecessarily suggestive and created a serious likelihood of misidentification. The defendant further seeks to exclude any in-eourt identification which might be made at trial on the ground that such an identification would unavoidably be tainted by the prior unnecessarily suggestive showup identification. After careful consideration, this Court finds that the showup procedure used in this case was not unnecessarily suggestive. Thus, the admission of the out-of-court identification and any in-court identification will not deprive the defendant of a fair trial under the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment.

I.

On May 13, 1989, Spenser’s Mystery Bookshop on Newbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts was robbed by three men. Andrew Thurnauer, the owner and operator of Spenser’s Mystery Bookshop, was working at the Bookshop on May 13,1989 at approximately 7:00 p.m., closing time.1 As Thur-nauer was preparing to close, the shop was empty. While in the back of the store, Thurnauer noticed a man peer into the glass window of the store and then turn quickly and walk up the stairs. When Thurnauer approached the front of the store, two men walked into the store immediately after one another. The first man who walked into the store was dressed in white and was wearing a hat resembling a sailor’s hat which was pulled down over his ears. The second man was holding a two-barrel shotgun, which appeared shorter than a normal shotgun.

The two men threatened Thurnauer and demanded money. Thurnauer put his arms in the air and told them where the money was. The men appeared dissatisfied with the amount of money they discovered. The man with the shotgun then escorted Thur-nauer to the back of the store where he placed him in a stock room. The man with the shotgun threatened Thurnauer with his life and told him to remain in the stock room for ten minutes. Thurnauer remained in the stock room until the police came into the store and he told them he had been robbed.

On May 18, 1989 at approximately 7:10 p.m. Detective S. Blair and Detective F. Waggett were on duty in plain clothes in the vicinity of Newbury Street and Here[1004]*1004ford Street.2 While in this area, the detectives noticed a man walking back and forth in front of the Spenser Mystery Bookstore. A series of armed robberies had occurred in the area, and the detectives observed that the man in front of the bookstore fit the description of one of the wanted suspects in those robberies. A second man exited the store who fit the description of the second suspect in those armed robberies.

The two men quickly walked together toward a vehicle that was double parked on Newbury Street in front of the bookstore. As the detectives were approaching them, a third man exited the bookstore. The detectives observed that this third man was carrying a sawed off shotgun partially concealed under his jacket. Because of the heavy pedestrian and motor vehicle traffic in the area, the detectives did not attempt to apprehend the men at that location, but rather contained them as they entered the vehicle. The detectives then radioed for assistance. Detectives Blair and Waggett monitored the vehicle as it drove up Hereford Street and turned onto Commonwealth Avenue.

Police Officers Michael Donovan and Cliff Connolly positioned their marked police vehicle at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Dartmouth Street in order to intercept the suspect vehicle. After weaving through traffic, the suspect vehicle drove into the marked police car and suffered a flat tire. Two of the occupants of the suspect vehicle exited the car and began running on foot toward Clarendon Street. Officer Connolly, also on foot, pursued the two suspects. Officer Connolly chased one of the men down an alley and found him hiding beneath a parked vehicle. Officer Connolly arrested this man who was later identified as Lonnie Bennefield, the defendant herein. The other man who fled the vehicle was chased and apprehended by Officer Robert Butler. Officer Donovan apprehended the third man in the back seat of the suspect car.

The three men, including the defendant, were identified by Detectives Blair and Waggett as the men they had seen exit the bookstore. The three men were then transported back to Spenser’s Mystery Bookshop where they were showed to the victim, Andrew Thurnauer, who identified the defendant as the man who carried the shotgun and locked him in the stock room at the rear of the store. In his testimony to the state grand jury, Mr. Thurnauer gave the following account of his out-of-court identification of the defendant:

Q: And a short time after that, were individuals brought back to the area of the store for the purpose of you attempting to make an identification of those individuals?
A: Yes, I stayed inside the store, right by the front door, which, as I said, is all glass and I can see straight through it. Three individuals were marched to the top of the stairs one by one and I was asked to identify them, if possible.
Q: As to the first individual, were you able to identify him?
A: I didn’t know who the first person was. There was nothing about his appearance that was incompatible with the person I saw peering into the store, but I only got a small glimpse of that person.
Q: What about the second individual who was presented to you; did you recognize that individual?
A: The second person was the man who was dressed in white, and as I said, his clothing seemed quite distinctive to me. He was still wearing the hat with the brim pulled down and he wore glasses, I should add. And so he very strongly resembled the person who was in the store.
Q: And what about the third person who was presented to you; were you able to identify him?
[1005]*1005A: The third person who stood at the top of the stairs looked like the person who held the shotgun. The person holding the shotgun, I believe, was wearing a hat. The person at the top of the stairs was not wearing a hat, but in all other respects, he resembled the person inside the store.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
741 F. Supp. 1002, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8542, 1990 WL 97787, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-bennefield-mad-1990.