United States v. Brown

49 M.J. 448, 1998 CAAF LEXIS 1780, 1998 WL 985868
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Armed Forces
DecidedOctober 1, 1998
DocketNo. 97-0435; Crim.App. No. 9401494
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 49 M.J. 448 (United States v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Brown, 49 M.J. 448, 1998 CAAF LEXIS 1780, 1998 WL 985868 (Ark. 1998).

Opinions

[449]*449 Opinion of the Court

COX, Chief Judge:

The issues before us involve the admissibility of eyewitness-identification expert-opinion evidence. At trial, appellant requested an expert in the field of eyewitness identification, and the military judge denied it. The Court of Criminal Appeals concluded that the military judge erred, at least in part. The Court of Criminal Appeals held that at least some of the expert’s testimony, as proffered by the defense, was admissible and should have been received. Testing for prejudice, the Court of Criminal Appeals concluded, nonetheless, that appellant was not prejudiced by the exclusion of evidence in the particular circumstances of this case. Appellant challenges the correctness of the military judge’s ruling and the appellate court’s conclusion of no prejudice. 48 MJ 353 (1997). We agree that appellant was not prejudiced.

I

In June, July, and August 1994, appellant was tried by officer and enlisted members in a general court-martial at Fort Hood, Texas. Pursuant to his pleas, he was convicted of communicating a threat, aggravated assault (3 specifications), and assault consummated by a battery. Contrary to his pleas, he was convicted of resisting apprehension, reckless driving (causing an accident and injury), wrongful appropriation of a vehicle, and fleeing the scene of an accident.1

II

At the time of the events in question, appellant had recently returned to Fort Hood after a one-year unaccompanied tom in Korea. Appellant was assigned to a replacement detachment, but he had not completed in-processing into the detachment. He and his wife had had marital problems before he left for Korea, and the problems recommenced upon his return (i.e., “she wanted out”).

On Thursday, February 24,1994, appellant brutally assaulted his wife, and he was placed in military confinement overnight.

On the morning of Friday, February 25, 1994, Sergeant First Class (SFC) Columbus Davis, a member of the replacement detachment, was detailed “to get ... [appellant] in-processed in one day.” SFC Davis assumed custody of appellant from the detention facility and was to escort him throughout the in-processing. SFC Davis was unarmed. Because appellant’s medical and personnel records were at his quarters, it was necessary for SFC Davis to take appellant to his quarters on Fort Hood.

At the quarters, Mrs. Brown, appellant’s wife, answered the door and admitted appellant and SFC Davis; then she retreated to the bedroom. Appellant pursued her there and proceeded to assault her. When SFC Davis heard the commotion, he entered the bedroom and separated them. Mrs. Brown escaped to a bathroom. Appellant verbally threatened SFC Davis. Then he went to the kitchen, obtained a long knife, and physically threatened SFC Davis with it. When appellant was unable to pry open the bathroom lock with the knife, he fled the scene. SFC Davis chased after him, but lost him. SFC Davis then had Mrs. Brown call the military police.

According to SFC Davis, when appellant fled he was wearing tennis shoes, faded light-blue jeans, a matching long-sleeved denim shirt, and a dark blue or black baseball cap with a white letter “A” on it. To SFC Davis, who had lived in the Killeen, Texas, area for 28 months, the cap “was very unusual, because it had a big alphabet on the front, and I was wondering what that alphabet stood for.” Prosecution Exhibit 6 consists of two photographs of an Atlanta Braves-style baseball cap. The name “BROWN” is plainly [450]*450visible on the outside of the cap. SFC Davis testified that Prosecution Exhibit 6 depicted the type of cap appellant had been wearing.

A few hours later that same day, at about 1:45 p.m., Mr. Kyle B. Heitmiller, an employee of TU Electric, was driving his company truck in nearby Killeen. Mr. Heitmiller stopped at a gas station to fill up his tank. As he drove into the station, he observed a man talking on a pay phone “about 35 to 40 feet” from where he stopped his truck. Mr. Heitmiller did not pay much attention to him, but he did notice that the person was a slim black male, about 6-feet tall, wearing blue jeans, a dark windbreaker, and a blue baseball cap with a white “A” on it. Mr. Heitmiller, who is Caucasian, did not know this man.

After filling the tank, Mr. Heitmiller headed for the station to pay for the gas, leaving the keys in the ignition. He got as far as the sidewalk in front of the building, when he turned around and saw that somebody was in the truck. He thought “for just a split second” that the person could be the fellow-employee he had worked with earlier that day, and that he was “just moving the truck.” As he walked briskly toward the truck, Mr. Heitmiller realized immediately that it was not his fellow-employee.

Thereupon, Mr. Heitmiller ran to a point about 6 to 8 feet away from the truck— “[mjaybe a little closer” — as the driver was “fixing to put it in gear.” As Mr. Heitmiller was running toward the truck, the man in the truck was “looking south through the windshield.” When Mr. Heitmiller got close, the man “turned and made pretty good eye contact.” Mr. Heitmiller and the man “went eye-to-eye.” Mr. Heitmiller also got a good view of him from the side. Mr. Heitmiller estimated that he saw the man at the 6 to 8 foot range for “10 to 15 seconds.” Then the man backed the truck out of the station “at a high rate of speed.” Mr. Heitmiller gave chase on foot for about 30 yards.

Afterward, Mr. Heitmiller ran back to the station and called 911. He described the thief to the police as “a black male who had on a ball cap, and a dark windbreaker.” In court, Mr. Heitmiller identified appellant as the thief. He also identified Prosecution Exhibit 6 as “appear[ing] to be the cap that he had on.”

Later on Friday, February 25, Mr. Roy C. Pena, an off-duty employee of TU Electric, spotted the truck and followed it. The vehicle proceeded around Killeen, onto Fort Hood, through appellant’s neighborhood, and back into Killeen. Eventually, the driver of the stolen truck pulled into an apartment complex parking lot and stopped. This allowed Pena enough time to knock on a stranger’s door and call the Killeen police. As Pena was describing what had happened to the first responding officer, the driver of the stolen truck began to drive away. The police gave chase.

Ultimately, the truck ran a red light and collided with a taxi cab in an intersection, injuring the cab driver. The first officer arriving at the scene of the accident saw the driver emerging from the stolen truck, and he chased him on foot for some length. At several points in the foot chase, the officer got “within 10 to 15 feet” of the driver, but he could not catch him. The officer described him as a “black male, thin to slender build, between 5'10" and 6'1", dark clothing ... I can’t remember exactly what kind of clothing he was wearing.” The truck was taken to a wrecking yard for storage. The driver remained at large.

On the next day, Saturday, February 26, 1994, Mrs. Brown, along with the Browns’ 2-year-old daughter, a female friend of Mrs. Brown, appellant’s detachment commander, and his first sergeant, proceeded to the Browns’ quarters in order to collect appellant’s military gear — as well as to await a locksmith who was to change the locks in the quarters for Mrs. Brown’s protection. Appellant was hiding in a closet with a butcher knife. When he was discovered, he jumped out and chased Mrs.

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Related

United States v. Dimberio
52 M.J. 550 (Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals, 1999)
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50 M.J. 533 (Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals, 1999)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
49 M.J. 448, 1998 CAAF LEXIS 1780, 1998 WL 985868, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-brown-armfor-1998.