Jones v. State

1

ANITA NICOLE JONES v. STATE OF MARYLAND

No. 1079-2020

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland ^[**]

April 13, 2023

Circuit Court for Baltimore City Case No.: 117317019

Graeff, Leahy, Ripken, JJ.

OPINION ^[*]

Leahy J Anita Nicole Jones, ("Appellant"), was indicted in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Maryland, and charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter, and wearing or carrying a dangerous weapon openly with the intent to injure. Following a jury trial, Appellant was acquitted of first and second-degree murder, but convicted of manslaughter and wearing or carrying a dangerous weapon openly with intent to injure.^[1] After she was sentenced to ten years' incarceration for manslaughter and a consecutive three years for wearing or carrying a dangerous weapon openly, she timely appealed and asks this Court to address the following, slightly modified, questions:

1. Was the evidence insufficient to support Appellant's conviction of wearing or carrying a dangerous weapon openly with intent to injure?

2. Did the trial court err in granting the prosecution's challenge to the defense's strike of a single white venireman under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), and seating that struck juror on Mrs. Jones' jury?

3. Did the trial court err in not asking the jury panel on voir dire whether they were able and willing to uphold a defendant's constitutional right to remain silent and not consider their silence in any way in determining whether they were guilty or not guilty as required by Kazadi v. State, 467 Md. 1 (2020)?

For the following reasons, we shall reverse Appellant's conviction for wearing or carrying a dangerous weapon with intent to injure and otherwise affirm.

BACKGROUND

Numerous witnesses testified at trial. Our summary of the trial record provides "only the portions of the trial evidence necessary to provide a context for our discussion of the issues presented[,]" Washington v. State, 180 Md.App. 458, 461 n.2 (2008); accord Kennedy v. State, 436 Md. 686, 688 (2014), rather than a comprehensive review of the evidence presented.

On October 13, 2017, Appellant was at the Children's Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital because her teenage son, Christopher Yancey, Jr., had been admitted for treatment of pulmonary complications following a prior cardiac surgery. At around 11:52. a.m., while Christopher, Jr. was in surgery, his father, Christopher Yancey, Sr., arrived and was present alone in the hospital room with Appellant.

Thereafter, according to Rachel Vann, a pediatric nurse on duty at a nearby nurse station, Appellant "ran out of the room screaming help, screaming for help." Another nurse, Sapana Edwards, testified that Appellant came out of the room, "kind of hyperventilating" and stated, "He cut himself." When the nurses entered the room they saw Yancey, Sr. laying on his back, holding his neck and making a "moaning, gurgling sound." After seeing blood, Vann hit the code bell and, at around 12:47 p.m., the Rapid Response Team began treating Yancey, Sr. but that treatment ultimately proved unsuccessful.

Christopher Yancey died as a result of two stab wounds to his chest. One wound was one and a half inches deep and the other was approximately two inches deep. The latter wound was rapidly fatal, having penetrated the subclavian artery, a major artery in the body. The wounds both exhibited a sharp edge on one side and a blunt edge on the other. The medical examiner opined that the manner of death was by homicide. Yancey, Sr. was pronounced dead at 1:42 p.m.

Numerous video clips were admitted from hospital surveillance cameras during trial. The custodian for the video recordings agreed that, in one image, where it was alleged that Appellant discarded the knife into a trashcan outside the hospital, that "whatever [the] item was, it was small enough that it could fit in [Appellant's] palm[.]" Other footage showed that Appellant left the hospital at around 2:32 p.m., or around an hour after Yancey was pronounced dead. After further investigation, Appellant was arrested later that evening, at around 11:30 to 11:45 p.m.

Part of the evidence admitted for the jury's consideration included a recorded phone call made between Appellant and a prison inmate, Shawn Cartier, at around 12:03 p.m. on the day of the incident, and before Yancey, Sr. was stabbed. During that transcribed call, purportedly about Yancey, Sr., Appellant stated, among other things, that "he's pushing me to the point where I really want to hurt him and like real sh*t, really want to hurt him now."

The jury also heard from Miranda Yancey, the victim's sister, who testified that Appellant called her after Yancey, Sr. was injured and told her that Yancey "stabbed hi[m]self and fell" and also, that he tried to commit suicide. Miranda Yancey also testified that she lived with Appellant for a time, and during that time, she saw her in possession of a knife. In fact, Ms. Yancey saw Appellant with that knife on the very morning of the incident. She described the knife as "one of the knives you could hook to your pocket, like the white little Skoal things on it," and as a "flip knife." Another witness, Dellaree Howard-Ginyard, Appellant's foster mother, testified that Appellant told her that she carried a pocketknife for protection. The knife was never found.

Appellant testified on her own behalf. Pertinent to the issues raised, she admitted that she and the victim, Yancey, Sr., got into an argument when they were alone in their son's hospital room, waiting for their son to get out of surgery. While they were both seated, Yancey, Sr. got up to leave and Appellant said "that's what you always do, you just leave, but if it was that baby, you would stay" referring to a child he had with another woman. Appellant then added, "f*ck your b*tch. I hope your baby dies." Yancey, Sr. then told her not to say that again, and, after Appellant again referred to his other child, he said "b*tch, I'm tired of you playing with my baby," and he grabbed her up out of her chair by her shoulders.

Appellant was "scared" and worried that the hospital staff would remove her for fighting with Yancey, Sr. Around that same moment, she testified that Yancey started choking her. According to Appellant, "he was choking me and it felt like I couldn't breath[e]." She explained that "[h]e looked different, it's just he never been that mad before, I've never pissed him off that bad." Appellant hit back, to try to get away, but to no avail. Appellant related that she was "terrified" and that, during the continued struggle, she "reach[ed] out for [her] blade" in her pocket.

After she took the knife out, Yancey, Sr. said "so you going to stab me?" Appellant maintained at trial that that was not her original intention and that she was attempting to force Yancey, Sr. to "back off." However, after he would not let her go, she testified she swung the knife and admitted that "I stabbed him." Despite this, Yancey, Sr. kept choking her, so she stabbed him a second time. She claimed she did not intend to hurt him and just wanted to "get him off of me." Appellant related that he said "b*tch you stabbed me," and that he needed stitches. He then said "yo, it's bad," before collapsing on the floor.

Appellant testified that she tried to stop the bleeding, but then screamed for help and went out the door. After hospital staff responded, Appellant then called a few people, went outside the hospital with the knife in the pocket of her hoodie, and then threw the knife in the trash. Appellant admitted that she carried the knife with her all the time and had been doing so since February 12, 2016, the day she was assaulted in an unrelated incident. Asked what type of knife it was, Appellant testified that it was a "[p]ocketknife."

In raising her claim of self-defense, Appellant also testified to an extensive history of abuse that she suffered at the hands of Yancey, Sr. She explained that she met Yancey, Sr. at the age of thirteen, became pregnant with his child at fourteen, and was struck by him for the first time when she was six months pregnant. Nonetheless, Appellant moved into the same apartment with Yancey, Sr. Once they moved in, Appellant explained that the physical abuse got "worse" and that Yancey, Sr. would slap her, choke her, give her black eyes, and even cut her. In one particular incident, Appellant recalled that Yancey, Sr. choked her to the point of passing out and then told her "b*tch, I could have kil[lled] you" after she regained consciousness.

Appellant also noted that Yancey, Sr. frequently called her demeaning names and coerced her into having sexual relations. When she would try to leave, Appellant explained that Yancey, Sr. would tell her "[b]*tch, you ain't going away, don't nobody want you but me." Despite the parties' turbulent circumstances, Appellant and Yancey, Sr. married and had six children together. Appellant stated that she continued to stay with Yancey, Sr. for the sake of their children and because "[h]e made me feel like he loved me" despite the physical and emotional abuse.

Dr Joanna Brandt, a physician specializing in forensic psychiatry, testified as an expert regarding the effect of the abuse on Appellant. In Dr. Brandt's expert opinion, Appellant suffered from several mental illnesses, including "Major Depressive Disorder with anxious distress, Post-Traumatic Stre[ss] Disorder . . . a number of substance use disorders . . . [and] Battered Woman Syndrome." Dr. Brandt explained that Battered Woman Syndrome is defined by "a recognized pattern of interaction between the batterer and the woman . . . known as the Cycle of Violence[.]" She noted that the cycle consists of several distinct phases, including the tension...