Douglas v. State

1

ABRAHAM JACOB DOUGLAS v. STATE OF MARYLAND

No. 2116-2022

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

October 29, 2024

UNREPORTED ^[*]

Circuit Court for Montgomery County Case No. C-15-CR-22-000602

Leahy, Beachley, Wilner, Alan M. (Senior Judge, Specially Assigned), JJ.

OPINION

LEAHY, J.

A young man was shot in the back at close range while he was hanging out with a larger group of people socializing in the parking lot of an apartment complex, located at 7600 Maple Avenue in Takoma Park, in the early evening of April 22, 2022. He was pronounced dead less than an hour later at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Eyewitnesses did not see the actual shooting, which occurred between parked cars, but described a man, wearing something like "a ski mask" that covered his whole face, walk or run by the victim at the time of the shooting. The evidence established that at least two shots were fired.

After responding to the scene, police officers began receiving "additional calls" about a "possible suspect" in an apartment building on nearby Kennebec Avenue "bleeding from the leg[.]" The officers who responded to Kennebec Avenue saw a man in the doorway of one of the apartment buildings, who retreated back into the building when he saw the officers. Officers then discovered that the man had locked himself inside an unoccupied unit in the basement of the building. After locating a key to that unit, the officers entered a bedroom and found the appellant, Abraham Jacob Douglas ("Douglas"), lying on the bed and bleeding from his left leg. The officers placed Douglas in handcuffs, dressed the wound on his left leg, and called an ambulance. Following his release from the hospital around 2:00 a.m., officers transported Douglas to the Takoma Park police station where he was interviewed by Detective Charles Earle.

Douglas was later indicted by a grand jury in Montgomery County for the murder of twenty-three-year-old Ahmadou Bamba Gueye ("Gueye"), and related charges. On December 14, 2022, following a four-day trial in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, the jury convicted Douglas of first-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and third-degree burglary. The trial court later sentenced Douglas to life imprisonment without eligibility for parole on the murder conviction.^[1]

Prior to trial, Douglas moved to suppress the entirety of his interview with Det. Earle on the grounds that his statements were involuntary, and that Det. Earle had violated his Miranda^[2] right to remain silent by interrogating him. The suppression court found "the entire statement to be voluntary[,]" and declined to suppress Douglas's statements on Miranda grounds. Three of Douglas's statements, as well as the trial court's failure to ask a proposed voir dire question, are the subjects of this appeal - as reflected in Douglas's questions presented, which we slightly rephrase as follows:^[3]

I. Did the circuit court err in denying Douglas's motion to suppress with respect to statements he made after he invoked his right to remain silent under Miranda?

II. Did the circuit court err in failing to ask the question during voir dire, "is there any member of the panel likely to give more weight to the arguments and statements of the State's attorney?"

We find no reversible error in the circuit court's decision to admit the first three statements Douglas made after he invoked his right to remain silent. We hold that Douglas's statements were not admitted in violation of Miranda, nor were they involuntary under Maryland common law, the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution, and Article 22 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights. We also hold that the circuit court did not abuse its discretion when it declined to give the defense's proposed voir dire question. Accordingly, we affirm.

BACKGROUND

A. The Fatal Shooting

In the early evening of April 22, 2022, Ahmadou Gueye was socializing with friends in the parking lot of the apartments located at 7600 Maple Avenue in Takoma Park. Witnesses later testified that around 5:45 p.m. two gunshots were fired, seconds apart, and without warning. Several witnesses said they saw a young man wearing a mask that covered his entire face walk or run by Gueye at the time the shots were fired.

A police dispatcher for the Takoma Park Police Department was in his apartment, which overlooks the parking lot at 7600 Maple Avenue, when he heard the gunshots through his open window. He looked outside and saw "people running various directions." He also saw "a male lying on the ground on his back" in the parking lot, and another person in a white shirt limping toward a restaurant on Sherman Avenue. The dispatcher called the police to report the gunshots immediately after observing the scene from his window. Although the shooting occurred in a location that was not covered by the apartment's surveillance cameras, police obtained surveillance footage from different vantage points that showed a person, wearing a white shirt, exit a vehicle in the parking lot at 7600 Maple, run toward where Gueye had been standing, and subsequently run away.

Officers from the Takoma Park Police Department who responded to the scene of the shooting began rendering aid to Gueye, whom they found lying on the ground, and called for an ambulance. As the paramedics arrived, the officers received additional calls about "a possible suspect running around the neighborhood." Officer Hogan Samels left 7600 Maple Avenue to respond to a call about "an individual bleeding from the leg" at 610 Kennebec Avenue, approximately half a mile away. After arriving at 610 Kennebec, officers saw a man exiting the doorway of the apartment building who matched the description in the call. Upon making eye contact with the officers, the man "retreated back into the building," but officers later saw him again in various locations at 610 and 612 Kennebec, the building next door.^[4] Eventually, the officers "zeroed in" on a basement apartment unit in 612 Kennebec, where they believed the man was located. With the resident's assistance, the officers located a key to that unit and found the appellant, Abraham Jacob Douglas ("Douglas"), locked inside the unit's bedroom, bleeding from his left thigh. The police officers placed Douglas in handcuffs and attended to his wound while they waited for an ambulance to transport him to the hospital. Police then searched the bedroom and discovered a black mask and a shell casing on the ground, a bloody white shirt on the bed, and gun magazines, bullets, and a handgun hidden beneath the mattress.

Douglas received treatment at Suburban Hospital for a gunshot wound and was discharged a few hours later into police custody. Tragically, Gueye ultimately died from a single gunshot through his back.

Douglas was indicted by a grand jury on June 9, 2022 and charged with murder, use of a firearm in commission of a felony crime, and third-degree burglary. After proceedings began in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Douglas pleaded not guilty. On September 20, 2022, Douglas moved to suppress his interview with Det. Earle on the grounds that his statements were involuntary, and that Det. Earle violated Miranda by continuing to interrogate Douglas after he invoked his right to remain silent.

B. The Interview

In the early morning hours of April 23, 2022, Detective Charles Earle interviewed Douglas in an 8 x 10-foot booking area. After routine inquiries into Douglas's identity and whether he had taken medication at the hospital for his gunshot wound, Det. Earle said he was interested in hearing Douglas's side of the story "on how [he] got shot." He remarked that he had initially thought of Douglas as "a victim" because he had been shot, and told him "had you not went into that apartment, a hundred percent victim, a hundred percent."

Douglas responded that he entered the apartment "looking for anything" that "could cover the wound, help me out[.]"

Det. Earle interrupted Douglas and cautioned that he needed to advise him of his Miranda rights. He asked Douglas, "you can read and write, right?" Douglas affirmed, nodded, and added, "[b]ut I'm not writing no statement." Det. Earle reassured him, "I'm not asking you for a statement; but I want to read your rights to you and you're not, so you understand these, and if you want to stop, you can[.]" He then read the Advice of Rights form aloud,^[5] which included the Miranda warnings, and placed the Form in front of Douglas, saying:

[A]nd if you could initial here, here, here, and here, here and here, saying I read to you; and if you can answer yes or no, however you want to do, if you want to chat with me; and then if you would just sign here so I can get your side of the story what happened tonight.

The Form concluded with the written question, "Do you want to talk to us at this time?" and provided a line Douglas could write his answer on. Douglas, his hands still handcuffed, wrote "NO" in capital letters on that line. Immediately thereupon, the following exchange occurred:

[Det. Earle:] All right. You don't want to talk to me?

[Douglas]: [No audible response].^[6]

[Det. Earle]: Okay.

[Douglas]: Other than I was just afraid and I ran in the apartment trying to look for clothes and stuff.

[Det. Earle]: Bro, if you want, if you want to talk to me, I want to hear that; but I -

[Douglas]: But it's like, it doesn't matter anyways, brown, black and--^[7]

[Det. Earle]: Whoa, whoa, whoa, bro -

[Douglas]: -- I'm just - like I was just walking through. I got fucking, I don't know what happened, bro. I don't know what happened. I don't even fucking remember what happened.

Det. Earle responded to Douglas and stated:

Well, I would like to talk to you, but if you're,

...