Qawwee v. State

1

MIKAYLE TAHED QAWWEE v. STATE OF MARYLAND

No. 1907-2022

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

August 2, 2024

IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF MARYLAND ^[*]

Circuit Court for Charles County Case No.: C-08-CR-20-000180

Graeff, Nazarian, Woodward, Patrick, L., (Senior Judge Specially Assigned), JJ.

OPINION

Woodward, J. Mikayle Tahed Qawwee, appellant, was arrested on February 20, 2020, and charged with multiple offenses, including first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree felony murder, armed robbery, and possession of a firearm under the age of twenty-one. After a jury trial in the Circuit Court for Charles County on September 12-22, 2022, appellant was acquitted of first-degree premeditated murder, but convicted on all other counts presented to the jury. The court sentenced appellant to life in prison for felony murder, plus concurrent sentences of twenty years for use of a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence, five years for possession of a firearm under the age of twenty-one, three years for wearing or carrying a firearm, and twenty years for conspiracy to commit armed robbery. All other convictions were merged for sentencing purposes.

Appellant presents four questions for our review, which, as stated in his brief, are as follows:

1. Did the motions court err by denying [a]ppellant's motion to suppress his statement to police?

2. Did the trial court err by declining to redact comments made by a detective during [a]ppellant's interrogation?

3. Did the trial court err by admitting hearsay?

4. Were the errors, alone or in combination, harmless? For the following reasons, we affirm the judgments of the circuit court.

BACKGROUND

On February 18, 2020, at approximately 6:50 p.m., Bradley Brown was shot and killed in the driveway of his house on Warehouse Landing Road in Bryans Road, MD. At the time of his death, Brown was seventeen years old. Video footage from a security camera owned by Brown's neighbor showed a car pulling out of Brown's driveway moments after the sound of two gunshots. Sergeant John Riffle, a homicide detective for the Charles County Sheriff's Office, was one of the police officers who arrived on the scene soon after the shooting. The police found a handgun, a hairbrush, and two shell casings near Brown's body. Brown's car was parked in the garage, and in the trunk of the car Sergeant Riffle found a THC vape cartridge.^[1] Several hours earlier, Brown had posted a video on his Snapchat account advertising numerous THC cartridges for sale.

In the early morning hours of February 19, 2020, Sergeant Charles Garner and Detective Hakim Burgess of the Charles County Sheriff's Office were performing surveillance on a house on Stone Avenue in Waldorf, MD; they had been informed that an individual who may have been involved in Brown's shooting resided there. At approximately 7:14 a.m., Sergeant Garner observed an individual, later identified as Darryl Freeman, exit the house and get into a vehicle parked in the driveway. Sergeant Garner informed Detective Andrew Bringley, who was conducting surveillance on a nearby road, that a vehicle left the address on Stone Avenue, and Detective Bringley conducted a traffic stop of the vehicle. Sergeant Garner and Detective Burgess arrived on the scene, and Detective Burgess arrested Freeman. The car was towed to the Sherriff's Office's forensic science lab, where officers processed the vehicle for fingerprints and DNA and found a black ski mask under one of the back seats. Freeman's car had a broken driver's side headlight, and the car recorded leaving Brown's house the night before also had a broken driver's side headlight.

On February 20, 2020, Mikayle Qawwee, appellant, was arrested by Detective Eric Weaver of the Charles County Sheriff's Office. Appellant was transported to the Sheriff's Office District 3 station. At the station, appellant was interrogated by Sergeant Riffle. Appellant stated that he, Freeman, and Keyshawn Belasco went to Brown's house on the evening of February 18, 2020, to purchase vape cartridges. Appellant told Sergeant Riffle that that the deal fell through and then Belasco shot Brown, but that appellant never intended for Brown to be shot. Although appellant initially stated that Freeman was not present and that he did not see or hear what happened between Belasco and Brown before shots were fired, appellant later admitted that Freeman was present during the incident, that he saw Belasco pull out his gun, and that he heard Brown say "no, no" before being shot by Belasco. Appellant initially stated that Freeman never would have made a plan to rob Brown without telling appellant, but later conceded that it was possible that Freeman and Belasco had planned to rob Brown but had not shared any plans to do so with appellant.

Appellant informed Sergeant Riffle that Belasco pointed his gun at Brown and forced him to back up, at which point appellant knew it was a robbery. Although appellant initially stated that he did not know that Belasco had a gun, appellant eventually admitted that Belasco showed him and Freeman that he had a gun before they got out of the car to meet with Brown. At first, appellant told the police that neither he, Freeman, nor Belasco took anything from Brown's car after the shooting, but he later stated that Freeman took some vape cartridges out of Brown's trunk after Belasco shot Brown. Appellant repeatedly told Sergeant Riffle that he did not know what happened to the vape cartridges, but eventually admitted that he gave the vape cartridges to his friend, David Moore, and appellant directed the police to the location of Moore's house.

Shortly after 9:00 a.m. on February 21, 2020, Detective Bringley spotted Moore leaving his house and informed Moore that the police had a warrant to search Moore's house and person. In Moore's sweatshirt pocket Detective Bringley found a THC vape cartridge and accompanying box with the same branding as the cartridges taken from Brown's car. Moore told the police that appellant had reached out to him and asked him to hold on to the box of vape cartridges. Moore stated that appellant told him that Belasco had shot and killed someone, and that appellant grabbed a box of vape cartridges and ran after the shooting.

After appellant was arrested, the police collected DNA from appellant, Freeman, and Belasco and found that appellant's and Belasco's DNA were found on the rear door handle of Freeman's car. Appellant's DNA was found on the ski mask that was under the back seat of Freeman's car, and Freeman's DNA was found on the hairbrush that was near Brown's body.

A jury trial was held in the Circuit Court for Charles County from September 12, 2022 through September 22, 2022. At trial, Matthews Carter, an inmate at the Calvert County Detention Center in February and March of 2020, testified about his conversations with appellant, who was being held in the same unit in the Detention Center. Carter testified that appellant told him that appellant and two friends, "Darryl and somebody else[,]" went to rob someone of vape cartridges and ended up killing him. Appellant told Carter that they shot the person they went to rob because he had a gun.

At the conclusion of the trial, appellant was convicted of (1) first-degree felony murder, (2) use of a firearm in the commission of a murder, (3) first-degree assault, (4) use of a firearm in the commission of a first-degree assault, (5) armed robbery, (6) use of a firearm in the commission of an armed robbery, (7) theft between $100 and $1,500, (8) possession of a regulated firearm under the age of twenty-one, (9) wearing or carrying a regulated firearm, (10) conspiracy to commit robbery, (11) conspiracy to commit armed robbery, (12) conspiracy to commit first-degree assault, and (13) conspiracy to commit theft between $100 and $1,500. As previously stated, appellant was sentenced to life in prison for felony murder, plus concurrent sentences of twenty years for use of a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence, five years for possession of a firearm under the age of twenty-one, three years for wearing or carrying a firearm, and twenty years for conspiracy to commit armed robbery. All other convictions were merged for sentencing purposes.

Appellant filed this timely appeal. We shall provide additional facts as necessary to the resolution of the questions presented.

DISCUSSION

I. Did the motions court err by denying appellant's motion to suppress his statement to police?

A. Facts

On February 20, 2020, appellant was interrogated by Sergeant Riffle. On May 17, 2021, appellant filed a motion to suppress his statements made during such interrogation. At a hearing on September 22, 2021, Sergeant Riffle gave the following testimony regarding his interrogation of appellant on May 17. The interrogation took place in the interrogation room of the Charles County Sheriff's Office District 3 station, and a video and audio of the interrogation of appellant were recorded. The interrogation lasted for several hours. The specific room in which the interrogation took place was climate controlled, and the temperature was not manipulated before the interrogation of appellant. Although appellant mentioned that the room was cold at the beginning of the interrogation, he never brought it up again to Sergeant Riffle and showed no signs that he was suffering from the cold. No one besides Sergeant Riffle and appellant were in the room during the interrogation, Sergeant Riffle never made any promises to appellant during the interrogation, and he never threatened appellant.

Throughout the interrogation, appellant was offered food and "was given chips and stuff periodically[.]" Appellant was never denied food or drink, nor denied an opportunity...