United States v. Murphy

29 M.J. 573, 1989 CMR LEXIS 774, 1989 WL 114504
U S Air Force Court of Military Review·Decided September 27, 1989·No. ACM 27422·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinions

DECISION

KASTL, Senior Judge:

Following a heavily-litigated trial which the prosecution called a “war of attrition,” appellant Staff Sergeant Murphy was found guilty by a general court-martial consisting of members of wrongful use of cocaine, a violation of Article 112a, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 912a. A significant portion of the prosecution’s evidence consisted of the results of a positive urinalysis indicating the presence of cocaine in the appellant’s urine. Her sentence is a bad conduct dis[575] charge, two years of confinement, and reduction to airman basic. Before us, she raises four matters for our consideration.

Adequate Notice Under R.C.M. 701

The appellant first argues that the military judge erred by failing to suppress the testimony of a government rebuttal witness after the prosecution failed to follow the dictates of R.C.M. 701. That witness, Ms. Tonya Brooks, testified, over defense objection, as an accomplice and the sole eyewitness to the cocaine offense charged.

We disagree and find the recent decision of United States v. Trimper, 28 M.J. 460 (C.M.A.1989) dispositive. The defense insisted at trial that Brooks’ name should have been revealed in response to the defense’s routine disclosure request — or at least made known after the defense moved that the Government particularize the specific location at which the accused supposedly ingested cocaine. After Brooks testified, the military judge permitted the defense a continuance from the close of court the afternoon of 18 July until the afternoon of 19 July; the defense succeeded in ferreting out both a witness who testified that Ms. Brooks had bad character and proof of a Texas conviction for driving while intoxicated.

Following the guidance of Trim-per, we hold that the prosecutor should have foreseen the likely relevance of this witness’s testimony and disclosed it. See R.C.M. 701(a)(3) and 701(d) and United States v. Callara, 21 M.J. 259, 263 (C.M.A.1986). Though we follow the reasoning of the Court of Military Appeals in Trimper and Callara that failure to disclose was error, we find — as did the Court of Military Appeals in those two cases — that excluding the testimony of the witness was unnecessary to cure the dilemma. The military judge was free to fashion other remedies. Here, she did so by granting a continuance. See R.C.M. 701(g)(3).

One could argue that Trimper is distinguishable in that the evidence there involved uncharged drug use which rebutted Captain Trimper’s assertions of innocence; in the present factual pattern, the testimony of Ms. Brooks went directly to prove the offense charged and was admissible in the government’s case-in-chief. We view this distinction as offering no consolation to the appellant. In sum, we find no error.

The Consent Search

The appellant also argues that the military judge committed prejudicial error when she failed to suppress incriminating statements made by the appellant as well as the results of a urinalysis subsequently obtained “without the appellant’s voluntary consent.” We believe the appellant’s assertion of error mixes Fourth Amendment oranges with Fifth Amendment apples. The key to unravelling the matter is not whether an Article 31, 10 U.S.C. § 831, warning was needed but, under the Fourth Amendment, whether the consent was voluntary. See Mil.R.Evid. 314(e)(4); United States v. Roa, 24 M.J. 297 (C.M.A.1987); United States v. Simmons, 26 M.J. 666 (A.F.C.M.R.1988). See also Saltzburg, Schinasi & Schlueter, Military Rules of Evidence Manual 254-255 (2d ed. 1986) and LaFave, Search and Seizure, 214-217 (2d ed. 1987). The trial judge’s conclusion of voluntary consent will not be disturbed unless unsupported by the evidence of record or clearly erroneous. United States v. Middleton, 10 M.J. 123, 133 (C.M.A.1981) and eases cited. Premised on that standard, we find the military judge ruled correctly.

Individual Defense Counsel

Our attention is invited to the defense claim that the appellant was improperly denied an individual military counsel. We are satisfied that the military judge correctly ruled that no attorney-client relationship had been established with the judge advocate in question and that the individually requested defense counsel was unavailable. United States v. Gnibus, 21 M.J. 1, 7 (C.M.A.1985); United States v. Wallace, 14 M.J. 1019, 1022 (A.C.M.R.1982). See also United States v. Perry, 14 M.J. 856, 859 (A.C.M.R.1982). In addition, our review of the record convinces us that the accused received a vigorous, robust de[576] fense. See generally United States v. Kelly, 16 M.J. 244, 248 (C.M.A.1983).

Testimony by Appellant’s Commander

Finally, Sergeant Murphy argues that the judge erred in permitting her commander to testify in regard to rehabilitation. Two separate matters worthy of analysis arose during the testimony of the appellant’s squadron commander. First, the commander was asked, “Would you like to have Staff Sergeant Murphy ... to come back to work for you in the squadron?” The commander responded in the negative. Second, the commander specified that the reason for his negative answer was:

A____because of my [sic] animosity.
Q. Animosity in the squadron?
A. Yes, sir.

Based on this testimony, we first assess whether a commander properly may indicate under United States v. Ohrt, 28 M.J. 301 (C.M.A.1989), whether he wants the individual to come back into his squadron. We find this a permissible observation. Here, the commander opined that he didn’t want Sergeant Murphy back in his unit; this is substantially different from an impermissible recommendation that she should not be returned to duty anyplace in the Air Force. See United States v. Ohrt, 28 M.J. at 305.

As for the other part of his remarks: As we read it, the comment about “animosity” did not violate the caution of United States v. Horner, 22 M.J. 294 (C.M.A.1986); that the commander must base his assessment upon this appellant’s character and potential, not simply upon the severity of the offense. Reading this commander’s remarks, we are convinced that he was not displaying some sort of ineradicable personal “animosity” against the appellant. To the contrary, he was simply noting that Sergeant Murphy had blotted her copybook badly in the unit so that others now felt such “animosity” towards her. Because of this, he did not want her returned to duty with his unit. We find such testimony proper. See United States v. Beno, 24 M.J. 771 (A.F.C.M.R.1987).

Order of Witnesses

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United States v. Murphy, 29 M.J. 573, 1989 CMR LEXIS 774, 1989 WL 114504 (usafctmilrev 1989).

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