PER CURIAM:
Michael Wonson asks us to reverse his two murder convictions because the government failed to present evidence that it maintained custody over the ballistics evidence (multiple cartridge cases and one live round) admitted at trial. Although a crime-scene search technician testified that he collected these items at the scene, and a firearms and toolmark examiner testified that he examined these items, the government never explained how the items made their way from the former to the latter. Instead, the technician who collected the cartridge cases and the live round testified that he gave them to a supervisor who was later fired for mishandling and mislabeling evidence. And the firearms and toolmark examiner did not explain how or when he obtained the ballistics material he examined. In particular, he did not elaborate on a notation in his report indicating that this material had been "personally delivered" (to whom, the report did not specify) by a different crime scene technician who did not testify at trial.
We do not determine whether the proffered evidence should have been excluded because the admission of this evidence was harmless. The cartridge cases and the live round were only a peripheral part of the government's case against Mr. Wonson. Unpersuaded by Mr. Wonson's remaining arguments,
A little before midnight on May 17, 2000, two men in a black pickup truck drove up to Eastern Senior High School in Washington, D.C., where more than a dozen people were socializing. The men shot into the crowd, injuring Nakita Sweeney and killing both Charles Jackson and Ivory Harrison. A week later, Ronald Brisbon was arrested and gave a videotaped confession in which he admitted to participating in the shooting with another man, whom he identified by a nickname. After further investigation, including interviews with Dana Route, Mr. Brisbon's former girlfriend, and with Michael Cobb, the man who sold Mr. Brisbon a black pickup truck one day before the shooting, the government identified Michael Wonson as the second shooter.
The government charged both Ronald Brisbon and Michael Wonson with (1) two counts of first-degree murder while armed,
At the 2012 trial, the government called Mr. Brisbon as a witness,
At the conclusion of trial, the jury convicted Mr. Wonson on all counts, and the judge sentenced him to seventy years to life imprisonment, with a mandatory minimum of sixty years imprisonment. This appeal followed.
Mr. Wonson argues that the trial court erred by admitting the proffered ballistics material because the government failed to establish an unbroken chain of custody. We review the trial court's admission of physical evidence for abuse of discretion. See Plummer v. United States, 43 A.3d 260, 272 (D.C.2012). In order to reverse, however, we must conclude that any abuse of discretion was not harmless. See Travers v. United States, 124 A.3d 634, 638-41 (D.C.2015).
The ballistics material was admitted over repeated objection during Mr. Turner's testimony. Mr. Turner testified that he responded to the scene shortly after the shooting with "lead technician" Ricky Hammett and another colleague. Their attention was directed to "shell casings ... that had been strewn throughout the street which needed to be recovered in reference to a shooting that had occurred at that location." According to Mr. Turner, he and his colleagues remained at the scene collecting evidence for about eight or nine hours.
As soon as he did so, the government moved to admit these two exhibits into evidence. Defense counsel objected, however, noting that there was "a hole in the bag" marked as Exhibit 1. Without disagreement from the government, counsel represented that the hole was big enough for a bullet to fit through. She expressed concern about "the one round that they're saying is the misfired bullet" because "there was a hole in the bag and they placed the piece of tape on top of it."
With some prompting from the court,
Having presented this additional testimony, the government again requested admission of Exhibits 1 and 2, as well as Exhibits 3 through 44, over defense counsel's objection. Out of the presence of the jury, the court again refused to admit the
The government then raised two issues related to defense counsel's cross-examination of Mr. Turner. The first issue was the hole in the bag marked as Exhibit 1. The government sought to preclude cross-examination of Mr. Turner about the hole because he had "no self-knowledge of that particular item."
The second issue was Mr. Hammett's termination for mishandling and mislabeling evidence and the fact that the government had opted not to call him to testify.
Returning to its examination of Mr. Turner, the government established that Mr. Turner's personal knowledge of the custody and control of the ballistics material ended when Mr. Hammett "took this evidence to the mobile crime lab from the ... crime scene." Mr. Turner explained that he was not "aware of what happened to the evidence" because he "wasn't part of his — him [Mr. Hammett] processing the evidence."
Nonetheless, the government asked Mr. Turner to testify "as a general matter" about what happens to evidence brought to the mobile crime lab. Mr. Turner explained that it should be "tagged, marked, placed on a mobile crime property book[,] and it is determined where it needs to go[,] if it needs to go to a lab or ... to the firearms examination section." Logging evidence in the property book, Mr. Turner explained, is meant to "catalog the evidence that's collected [at] the scene so it can be tracked at a later date if necessary."
Mr. Turner also testified "as a general matter" about what happens after evidence "is processed," explaining that "it's sent to the property division," where it is "stored until it's recalled." Because he did not work for the property division, Mr. Turner could not testify "intelligently" about "property storage" procedures; "all [he] kn[e]w" was that "we send it to them and
At this point the trial court asked defense counsel to "put on [the] record [her] objections" to the admission of these exhibits. Defense counsel argued that Mr. Turner did not "have personal knowledge of the evidence and how it's been stored in any way, shape or form from the time it was collected," that he did not "have personal knowledge that the evidence that he has in that bag is the exact same evidence that was recovered from that scene," and thus that the "[g]overnment hasn't established in any way, shape or form [that] the chain of custody has been maintained."
The court acknowledged that in order to admit these items, it had to determine that the proffered evidence "is what it is claimed to be," i.e., bullets recovered from the crime scene.
After the court ruled, the government called Mr. Mulderig, who had examined the cartridge cases and live bullet admitted as Exhibits 1-44.
Without deciding whether the trial court abused its discretion by admitting
To begin, the ballistics material did not directly link Mr. Wonson to the shooting. Although the police found ammunition in Mr. Wonson's truck, it was not the same brand of ammunition found at the scene. And although the police used an examination of toolmarks on the recovered casings to match them to a gun, the government presented no evidence to connect the gun to Mr. Wonson.
Instead, the ballistics material played a subtler and less central role at trial: the government used it to corroborate Mr. Brisbon's account of the shooting as a two-man operation and his identification of Mr. Wonson as his accomplice. These items corroborated Mr. Brisbon's testimony because they (1) consisted of two types of cartridge cases, suggesting that the shooting involved two guns and two shooters, as Mr. Brisbon testified; and (2) included one live cartridge, supporting Mr. Brisbon's narrative that Mr. Wonson's gun had jammed and that Mr. Wonson had removed and discarded a live round at the scene of the shooting.
Any benefit to the government from this corroboration was slight, however, given the other evidence presented to the jury. First, Mr. Brisbon's 2012 testimony that this was a two-man operation was corroborated by his own prior consistent statements. Indeed, as the jury heard, when the police arrested Mr. Brisbon a week after the shooting, he told them that he had committed the murders with a second man.
The admission of the live round likewise had minimal force when placed in the context of Mr. Wonson's trial. Although it meshed with Mr. Brisbon's narrative that Mr. Wonson's gun had jammed, it was not the only evidence corroborating this detail; Ms. Route testified that "[w]hen Michael Wonson and Mr. Brisbon came back into the house with the two rifles, Mr. Brisbon said to Michael Wonson, `I can't believe the gun jammed.'" Moreover, Mr. Turner specifically recalled collecting a live round from the scene of the shooting. Lastly, although the government mentioned in closing that a jammed gun might explain the live cartridge recovered from the scene, this was a peripheral observation. The government's central focus was on the testimony from Mr. Brisbon, Ms. Route, and Mr. Cobb, not the ballistics material.
For all of these reasons and in the absence of any evidence indicating that the jury attached particular significance to the cartridge or cartridge cases as it deliberated, we conclude that admission of the ballistics material at Mr. Wonson's trial does not require reversal.
We are unpersuaded by Mr. Wonson's three remaining arguments. First, he argues that "a remand is necessary for the government to provide the full OIA [Office of Internal Affairs] investigation report concerning Officer Hammett," to determine if the government fulfilled its obligations under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). But assuming that the government should have disclosed the full report (instead of a mere summary) to the defense prior to trial, Mr. Wonson has no Brady claim on appeal. Our conclusion, with the benefit of hindsight, that the admission of the bullet evidence was harmless, likewise compels a conclusion that this report would not have satisfied the materiality component of a successful Brady claim.
Second, Mr. Wonson argues that the trial court violated the Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause by failing to instruct the jury that testimony related to Mr. Brisbon's conviction and sentence
Finally, Mr. Wonson argues that the prosecutor's closing argument was "inflammatory" and violated the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause. In particular, he complains that the prosecutor "repeatedly mention[ed] the length of time it had been between the time the victims were killed and the 2012 trial," and that the prosecutor "juxtaposed that argument with repeated comments that justice had come to Brisbon in 2002." Because Mr. Wonson never objected to these comments, we review for plain error. Even assuming error that is plain, the prosecutor's argument, while melodramatic, did not "so clearly prejudice[]" Mr. Wonson's rights "as to jeopardize the fairness and integrity of his trial." Burgess v. United States, 786 A.2d 561, 570 (D.C.2001) (quoting Irick v. United States, 565 A.2d 26, 32 (D.C.1989)).
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm Mr. Wonson's convictions.
So ordered.
Concurring opinion by Associate Judge EASTERLY.
EASTERLY, Associate Judge, concurring:
The majority opinion does not decide whether the trial court abused its discretion in admitting the proffered ballistics material and relies on a harmless error analysis to resolve that challenge to Mr. Wonson's convictions. It is clear, however, that the government did not provide the trial court with the requisite foundation to admit this ballistics material. That the government repeatedly sought admission of this evidence in the absence of adequate foundation, and ultimately succeeded, reveals a need to review the admissibility requirements for tangible items that the government proffers as inculpating a defendant in the commission of a crime.
"It is generally recognized that tangible objects become admissible in evidence only when proof of their original acquisition and subsequent custody forges their connection with the accused and the criminal offense." (Dawayne) Brooks v. United States, 717 A.2d 323, 328 (D.C.1998) (quoting Gass v. United States, 416 F.2d 767, 770 n. 8 (D.C.Cir.1969)); see generally 2 MCCORMICK ON EVIDENCE § 213 (7th ed.2013) [hereinafter 2 MCCORMICK ON EVID. § 213] (providing background on chain of custody). A trial court has "broad discretion" when deciding whether to admit physical evidence. Plummer, 43 A.3d at 272. But before a court may admit tangible items proffered by the government, the government must address two related concerns.
First, the government must establish that the objects are genuine — i.e., that the proffered evidence is what the government says it is.
Second, the government must establish the integrity of the evidence — i.e., that the evidence has not changed in material ways. See Ford v. United States, 396 A.2d 191, 194 (D.C.1978) (a trial court "must be satisfied" that an article the government seeks to move into evidence "has not been changed in important aspects" (quoting United States v. S.B. Penick & Co., 136 F.2d 413, 415 (2d Cir.1943))); accord Fleming, 923 A.2d at 836; Gilmore v. United States, 742 A.2d 862, 871 (D.C. 1999). "This determination is made in light of the `nature of the article, the circumstances surrounding the preservation and custody of it, and the likelihood of intermeddlers tampering with it.'" Gilmore, 742 A.2d at 871 (quoting Ford, 396 A.2d at 194).
The government may satisfy these dual concerns by establishing an unbroken chain of custody. Once it does so, courts afford the government the benefit of "an evidentiary presumption" that it properly handles and suitably preserves the evidence over which it maintains continuous custody and control. Plummer, 43 A.3d at 272 ("[W]hen physical evidence is in the hands of the government, the presumption arises that it has been handled properly." (quoting In re D.S., 747 A.2d 1182, 1187 (D.C.2000))); Brooks, 717 A.2d at 328 ("[W]hen the item has been in the possession of government officials charged with its keeping, the court may assume ... that the officials properly discharged their duties." (quoting Ford, 396 A.2d at 194)).
To gain the benefit of this presumption and its burden-shifting framework, the government must establish an unbroken chain of custody by a "reasonable probability." Plummer, 43 A.3d at 272. Absent proof by a reasonable probability that challenged evidence was in the government's continuous custody and control, the trial court generally must exclude the proffered evidence.
In its brief to this court, the government argues that a break in the chain of custody affects "only" the weight of the evidence, not its admissibility. This is incorrect. It is true that, "normally," the government establishes a chain of custody by a reasonable probability, and whatever imperfections remain "go to the weight of the evidence rather than its admissibility." (Herbert) Brooks v. United States, 993 A.2d 1090, 1094 (D.C.2010) (quoting Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, 557 U.S. 305, 311 n. 1, 129 S.Ct. 2527, 174 L.Ed.2d 314 (2009)). After all, the government may be able to prove an unbroken chain of custody by a reasonable probability but unable to satisfy a higher standard of proof. Thus, in Plummer, this court explained that, because the government had presented sufficient evidence that it had maintained continuous custody and control over the physical evidence in question, "[a]ppellant's chain of custody concerns therefore go not to the admissibility of the evidence, but instead to the weight that it could be given." 43 A.3d at 273 (emphasis added). The clear implication of Plummer — which aligns with the other decisions binding on this court discussed above and with the MPD's understanding of the import of chain of custody
Turning to the particular facts of this case, the government clearly failed to establish by a reasonable probability that it had maintained an unbroken chain of custody over the proffered ballistics material. To be sure, the government presented evidence that Mr. Turner collected cartridge cases and a live round of ammunition from the scene of the shooting. And it presented evidence that ballistics material was later examined and engraved by the firearms and toolmark examiner, Mr. Mulderig. But between those events there was an evidentiary void. This void precluded a determination by a reasonable probability that the government maintained continuous custody and control of this ballistics material prior to trial and in fact suggests that the government lost track of it entirely for a period of time after its collection and before its examination.
Notably the trial court admitted the ballistics material after hearing relevant testimony from only Mr. Turner. But Mr. Turner did not provide information sufficient to support a determination by a reasonable probability that the government maintained continuous custody and control over these items.
In ruling that the ballistics material was admissible after hearing Mr. Turner's testimony, the trial court determined it was sufficient that these items had, at some point, been "stored in a police property office," because "the presumption here" is that the office "preserve[s] the property." But the trial court overlooked the government's failure to present any evidence explaining when the police property office took possession of the ballistics material or how the material got there. Cf. Gilmore v. United States, 742 A.2d 862, 872 (D.C. 1999) (holding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by rejecting a defendant's chain of custody challenge, despite an officer's "plainly careless" handling of an object recovered from the crime scene and his inability to locate the object for eight months, because the officer eventually found the object in his evidence locker and "was able to account for its whereabouts during the entire time period"). Effectively, the trial court gave the government the benefit of a double presumption: it presumed both that the government maintained continuous custody and control over the ballistics material and that it properly handled and preserved these items. By presuming too much, the trial court relieved the government of its burden of establishing the admissibility of the proffered evidence.
As a coda to the above analysis, it should be noted that the admission of the ballistics material was not contingent on the government's subsequent presentation of other chain-of-custody evidence. But even if it had been, none was forthcoming. To the contrary, the missing links in the government's chain of custody were revealed more starkly. Because the ballistics material was last seen in the possession of Mr. Hammett, the government needed to explain what Mr. Hammett did with it. But to avoid a damaging cross-examination about Mr. Hammett's termination for mislabeling and mishandling evidence, the government opted not to forge the next link in the chain by calling Mr. Hammett to testify. Nor did the government present testimony from any witness who had obtained the ballistics material from Mr. Hammett. And again, the government did not present the property book or any other documentary evidence from which the journey of these objects could be traced.
Instead, the government presented the testimony of Mr. Mulderig, who testified that he examined some ballistics material in "[a]pproximately June of 2000." See supra note 19. Mr. Mulderig said nothing about where these items came from (because the government never asked him). The only certainty is that Mr. Mulderig did not get these items from Mr. Hammett. Mr. Mulderig's report notes that the cartridge cases and the live round of ammunition were "personally delivered" by "Technician Elizabeth Sharp-Hamlet" on the day after the shooting. But Ms. Sharp-Hamlet's role in the investigation is a complete unknown: she did not testify, no witness mentioned her, and her name is absent from every other document admitted at trial. Thus, there is no way to discern from this record who she was, where she obtained the ballistics material from, or whom she "personally delivered" it to.
In sum, whether one starts with Mr. Turner's collection of ballistics material and moves forward to Mr. Hammett, or whether one works backward from Mr. Mulderig's receipt of ballistics material from Ms. Sharp-Hamlet, one reaches a point where one cannot connect the dots — a point where one must conclude that the government's chain of custody was simply "insufficiently proved." Turney, 626 A.2d
Indeed, for the proposition that a break in the chain of custody affects only weight not admissibility, Hammond and Garcia both cite to In re D.S., which in turn cites to Turney. But Turney contains no limitation on the import of a break in the chain of custody; instead, as noted above, it approvingly cites cases where courts held that evidence was improperly admitted because the government failed to sufficiently prove an unbroken chain of custody. See Turney, 626 A.2d at 874-75. Garcia also cites to Key v. United States, 587 A.2d 1072 (D.C.1991), which in turn relies on Bartley v. United States, 530 A.2d 692 (D.C. 1987), and Morrison v. United States, 417 A.2d 409 (D.C.1980). But neither case involved a challenge to the government's proof of chain of custody, and the cited passages in these two cases address only the sufficiency of the evidence regarding the operability of a weapon.
But the government did not carry that burden here. That Mr. Mulderig engraved the ballistics material might resolve questions about genuineness and integrity after that point, but it has no bearing on the break in the government's chain of custody evidence that preceded Mr. Mulderig's involvement. Mr. Turner's testimony purporting to identify the live bullet in Exhibit 1 is also insufficient to justify admission of all of the ballistics material proffered by the government: his testimony concerned only one of the government's forty-four exhibits. Even as to Exhibit 1, Mr. Turner never explained how it was possible for him to identify a single, fungible bullet; he did not even testify as to its make or caliber. Instead it appeared that he relied on its presence in the bag marked as Exhibit 1 — a bag with a hole that Mr. Turner could not account for.