United States v. Burns

27 M.J. 92, 1988 CMA LEXIS 2978, 1988 WL 100228
CourtUnited States Court of Military Appeals
DecidedSeptember 30, 1988
DocketNo. 50,830; CM 443923
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 27 M.J. 92 (United States v. Burns) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Military Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Burns, 27 M.J. 92, 1988 CMA LEXIS 2978, 1988 WL 100228 (cma 1988).

Opinions

Opinion of the Court

EVERETT, Chief Judge:

On January 13-14 and February 15, 1983, Specialist Five Jerry Burns was tried at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, before a military judge sitting as a general court-martial. Contrary to his pleas, he was found guilty of a number of serious offenses, including an aggravated assault on Joann Williams, in violation of Article 128, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. § 928. He was sentenced to a dishonorable discharge, confinement for 26 months, total forfeitures, and reduction to the grade of Private E-l. The convening authority approved the sentence. The Court of Military Review made a minor change in the findings as to one of the specifications and then affirmed the remaining findings and sentence. The court later denied appellant’s motion for reconsideration. Thereafter, we granted review to consider the following issue:

WHETHER APPELLANT WAS DENIED HIS CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO CONFRONT ADVERSE WITNESSES BY THE ERRONEOUS ADMISSION OF APPELLATE EXHIBIT V, THE ARTICLE 32 TESTIMONY OF MS. JOANN WILLIAMS, AS SUBSTANTIVE EVIDENCE OF THE MATTERS ASSERTED THEREIN.

I

At appellant’s Article 32, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C § 832, investigation, Joann Williams testified under oath that she had been waiting near Fort Jackson to catch a bus very late on the evening of November 15, 1982. Burns stopped and offered her a ride to downtown Columbia; but once she was in his car, he kidnapped her and drove to Fort Jackson, where he took her to his room, threatened, raped, sodomized, and robbed her. When she tried to escape, he cut her on the neck with a knife and tied her up. She also saw him get some bullets and a gun from behind a ceiling tile in his room. Around 5:45 a.m., Burns said he was taking her back; but she broke away, ran, and reported the incident to a sergeant who was nearby. She showed the room to the sergeant and saw Burns speed away in his car with his lights off. Ms. Williams was taken by the military police to the hospital at Fort Jackson where a nurse treated her cut.

She also testified at the pretrial investigation that she was approximately 21 years old; that her mother’s name was “Mattie Williams”; and that her “home” address was 432 Toal Street. Sometimes she stayed at Dreamland Inn where her boyfriend also stayed and where her mother was a maid. Despite some insinuation by defense counsel that the Inn was notorious for prostitution, • Ms. Williams repeatedly denied that she was a prostitute, had ever engaged in sex for money, or had danced in nightclubs. Instead, she professed to be a creative dancer — “that’s mainly done at schools and auditoriums.” She also claimed that “I mainly go to school” at the Logan Night School.

By reason of the events about which Ms. Williams had testified at the Article 32 investigation, numerous charges against Burns — including kidnapping, rape, sodomy, robbery, communicating threats, and [94]*94aggravated assault, in violation of Articles 134, 120, 125, 122, and 128, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C §§ 934, 920, 925, 922, and 928, respectively — were referred to a general court-martial for trial.1 However, subsequently the staff judge advocate informed the convening authority that

[o]n approximately 5 January 1983, it was discovered that the alleged rape victim in the Burns Trial, Miss Joann Williams, lied under oath at the Article 32 Investigation regarding at least three points. Miss Williams indicated at the Article 32 and to the Fort Jackson CID investigators that she was approximately 21 years old. She is 16 years old. Miss Williams testified at the Article 32 that her mother’s name was Mattie Williams. Her mother’s name is Edith Bradley. Miss Williams was also repeatedly questioned and repeatedly denied being a prostitute or ever being involved in any type of prostitution. Miss Williams has been arrested twice for solicitation to commit prostitution, and has been found guilty by a juvenile court for possession of .3 grams of marijuana and solicitation to commit prostitution. The latter conviction for solicitation was ruled on by the South Carolina Juvenile Court within the past three weeks, and actual sentencing has not yet occurred.

The staff judge advocate acknowledged “that the credibility of Miss Williams will be an issue in the trial,” but — “having considered Miss Williams’ untruthful testimony rendered under oath at the Article 32 investigation” and having also examined all the evidence about her which had been presented at the Article 32 investigation— he still recommended that the same charges against Burns be referred for trial.2 The convening authority acceded to this recommendation.3

When appellant’s court-martial began about a month and a half after his pretrial investigation, Ms. Williams failed to appear in court. Trial counsel then announced that he would establish her “unavailability” in order to introduce her former testimony in evidence. Thereupon, he called Private Edward A. Elfrink, who testified that he was a legal clerk in the office of the staff judge advocate and that his principal function was to gather witnesses for trials by court-martial. For several weeks he had been calling Ms. Williams, but he had never reached her. Elfrink attempted to reach her at three different places — Dreamland Inn, 104 Howe Street, and Henley Homes.

Twice he had sent a subpoena by certified mail to Ms. Williams at the Henley Homes address; and on one of these occasions he had received back the “returned receipt,” which had a signature purporting to be that of Joann Williams. However, Elfrink admitted that he was not familiar with her signature and had not ascertained whether someone else had signed her name on the returned receipt. The receipt— which, after identification by Elfrink, was admitted as a prosecution exhibit — indicates that a letter was sent “restricted delivery” to Joann K. Williams; that it was signed for on February 9, 1983; and that the signature of the recipient purports to be that of the addressee. Moreover, this exhibit reflects that the certified letter had been sent to Ms. Williams at 15-1 Henley Homes, South Bull Street, Columbia, and had been mailed the day before.

Elfrink identified the next prosecution exhibit as a copy of the subpoena which had been enclosed in the delivered certified letter. The subpoena had been signed by trial counsel and required Ms. Williams to appear as a witness at appellant’s court-martial at 8:00 a.m. on February 15, 1983.

Finally, Elfrink testified that, in seeking to locate Ms. Williams, he had been in contact with Ms. Lydia Brown, who was her counselor from the Department of Youth Services in Columbia. His last con[95]*95tact with Ms. Brown had occurred some 15 minutes before he took the stand.

Ms.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
27 M.J. 92, 1988 CMA LEXIS 2978, 1988 WL 100228, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-burns-cma-1988.