Wilder v. State

BRANDON WILDER v. STATE OF MARYLAND

No. 1740

COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS OF MARYLAND

September Term, 2016

May 11, 2018

Circuit Court for Baltimore City

Crim. No. 114176033-44

UNREPORTED

Eyler, Deborah S., Graeff, Salmon, James P. (Senior Judge, Specially Assigned), JJ.

Opinion by Salmon, J.

*This is an unreported opinion, and it may not be cited in any paper, brief, motion, or other document filed in this Court or any other Maryland Court as either precedent within the rule of stare decisis or as persuasive authority. Md. Rule 1-104.

Around 4:30 a.m. on May 9, 2014, the bullet-ridden body of Ramon Wilder was discovered in an alleyway near St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore. The State charged the victim's half-brother, appellant Brandon Wilder, with that murder. Appellant was tried jointly with his friend and accomplice Theodore "Teddy" Grice. See Grice v. State, No. 1894, Sept. Term, 2016, 2018 WL 1036880 (Md. Ct. Spec. App. Feb. 21, 2018).

A jury in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City convicted appellant of premeditated first-degree murder, felony first-degree murder, second-degree murder, armed carjacking, carjacking, attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, and use of a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence.¹

In this appeal, appellant challenges his convictions on three grounds, raising the following questions, which we have re-ordered:

1. Did the circuit court err in the manner in which it conducted voir dire?

2. Did the circuit court err by declining to individually question an alternate juror after that juror indicated in a note that, inter alia, she did not "feel safe with all the killings going on in the news," that she "fe[lt] like the courtroom is the last place [she] should be," and that she "ha[s] been thinking about this for a couple of days . . . and as the days go on, [her] feelings are worse"?

3. Did the circuit court err in denying multiple motions for mistrial?

Because we conclude that the trial court did not err or abuse its discretion, we shall affirm appellant's convictions.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Appellant and co-defendant Teddy Grice were jointly tried over nine days, from June 29 to July 13, 2016. Because another panel of this Court recently summarized that trial record in the course of affirming Grice's convictions, we adopt pertinent portions of that unreported opinion, as follows:²

I. Background

Ramon and Brandon Wilder shared a father and grew up together. In the years leading up to Ramon's death, however, they had a falling out. Brandon and Ramon were in competition for drug sales, and Ramon pursued women who were or had formerly been Brandon's intimate partners.

Grice and Brandon, on the other hand, were very close. Their relationship was described as being like that of a father and son. Grice would provide anything Brandon needed and vice versa. The two were described as seeming to be together all day, every day.

In the days before Ramon's death, Brandon complained that Ramon had taken money from him and was a bad brother. Brandon said that he was going to rob his brother or beat him up for taking drug sales. Grice encouraged Brandon and agreed that Ramon had been a bad brother, stating that if Ramon were his brother, he would do the same.

Labria Paige, who was also charged in connection with Ramon's death, had known Brandon since middle school and been involved in an intimate relationship with him off and on over the years. In May 2014, she was in a relationship with Brandon and had recently given birth to one of his children.

Paige had first met Brandon's half-brother, Ramon, in 2007. According to Paige, Grice never liked Ramon. She described Grice as manipulative, opining that Ramon would still be alive if it were not for Grice.

Breauna Diggs, also charged in connection with Ramon's death, was Grice's girlfriend. Diggs had become an opiate addict following surgery, and she procured her Oxycontin from Grice. She testified that she was high most of the time during the events leading up to and following Ramon's death.

Celeste Price, one of the State's witnesses, knew Grice from the neighborhood and knew that Ramon sold drugs during the day around St. Agnes Hospital. She had been in an intimate relationship with Brandon in 2012, but in May 2014 she was in an intimate relationship with Ramon, which, she said, was not public knowledge.

II. Ramon's Road Trip to Atlantic City

On Thursday, May 8, 2014, Ramon surprised Price with a trip to Atlantic City for her birthday. While they were en route in a limousine, Ramon received a phone call from Labria Paige, the mother of Brandon's child. During the conversation, Ramon put Paige on the speaker phone so that Price could hear her. According to Price, Paige said that she wanted to have sex with Ramon and no longer wanted to be with his brother, Brandon. For the remainder of the day, Ramon texted a lot, but Price did not know with whom.

Although they had originally planned to stay the night in Atlantic City, Ramon and Price returned to Baltimore, arriving home at around 2:00 a.m. on the morning of May 9, 2014. Ramon told Price that the limousine driver would drop him off where he had parked his rental vehicle, a black Chevy Silverado pickup truck, so that he could go to his night job.

III. Meanwhile, in Baltimore

At around noon on May 8, Grice had picked up his girlfriend, Breauna Diggs, in his silver Cadillac. The two drove to a motel in Halethorpe, where they met Brandon and Paige. Brandon and Paige were fighting because Brandon had found out that Ramon had been at Paige's house while Brandon was out of town. Grice told Brandon that Ramon had had sex with Paige.

Brandon, Paige, and their five-month-old son left the motel in Paige's van, following Grice and Diggs to a neighborhood in southwestern Baltimore City, where Grice parked his Cadillac. From there, the group drove around in Paige's van and used drugs. While they were driving, Grice told Brandon that Ramon was taking drug sales away from them and that Ramon had shown him disrespect. Grice repeated the theme of disrespect throughout the day.

IV. The Set-Up

At some point during the day on May 8, 2014, Brandon called Ramon from Paige's phone and put the phone to her ear. According to Paige, Brandon wanted her to find out where Ramon was. She explained that throughout the day Brandon, pretending to be her, sent sexually explicit texts to Ramon from her phone. Paige asserted that Brandon wanted her to trick Ramon into thinking that she wanted to have sex with him, to lure him into meeting her. Brandon said that he was going to rob Ramon and that he was upset with Ramon for trying to have sex with his "baby mother" in front of his son. Grice egged Brandon on by emphasizing the amount of disrespect Ramon had been showing him. Paige heard Grice say that he had given Brandon a handgun.

After midnight on Friday, May 9, 2014, Grice parked the van near his Cadillac and got out with Diggs and Brandon, while Paige remained in the van with her infant son. Grice and Brandon had a brief conversation, and Brandon got back in the van. According to Diggs, she and Grice nodded off once they got to the Cadillac. When they woke up, they drove around for a while and then went back to the parking spot, where they got a call from Brandon.

V. The Trap

After dropping off Diggs and Grice, Paige and Brandon drove to a parking lot a few blocks away, near St. Agnes Hospital, where they anticipated a rendezvous with Ramon. Brandon instructed Paige that when Ramon arrived she was to tell him to walk over to her vehicle to see his nephew (Brandon's son). Brandon then exited the van and walked into an alley.

Shortly after Brandon left, Ramon pulled up in his rental car, the black Silverado. Paige signaled to him by flashing her lights, and she could hear Ramon singing as he approached her. Then she heard gunshots and saw Ramon run away. When she tried to drive away, she was stopped by Brandon, who was holding a gun. Paige later discovered that one of the shots struck the van near where her child was seated. Grice covered up the bullet hole with a bumper sticker.

VI. The Aftermath

Brandon took Ramon's truck and told Paige to follow him. Paige tried to call Ramon's phone, but Brandon answered.

Grice, who was parked nearby with Diggs, panicked when his phone rang and said that he hoped "he" wasn't calling on "his" phone. Breaunna Diggs later learned that Grice was expressing concern that Brandon was calling him from Ramon's phone.

Grice, Brandon, and Diggs went to Grice's house, where they dropped off Grice's Cadillac. From there, Grice, Brandon, and Diggs drove Ramon's Silverado to a Microtel hotel near BWI Airport. Grice told Brandon that he hoped Brandon had not been using a "dead person's" phone to call him.

Grice, Brandon, and Diggs met up with Labria Paige at the Microtel, where she was waiting in her van. From there, Paige and Diggs drove the van, while Grice and Brandon drove Ramon's truck, to a nearby Red Roof Inn. At the Red Roof Inn, Grice and Brandon searched Ramon's truck.

The two women walked to a 7-Eleven, and Grice and Brandon joined them there a few minutes later. The four then returned to the Microtel and got a room, and Grice and Brandon said that they would be back on foot after they took Ramon's truck to an Extended Stay hotel.

At the Microtel, Brandon told Paige that he shot Ramon because Ramon was "too happy" to have sex with her in front of Brandon's son. Paige told Diggs that she had lured Ramon to meet up with her by texting and calling him.

VII. The Investigation

Detective Frank Miller of the Baltimore City Police Department was the lead investigator. He testified that Ramon's truck was found at an Extended Stay hotel near . . . BWI Airport. He also testified that he had reviewed surveillance footage from that hotel and saw that at around 5:30 a.m. on May 9, 2014, a vehicle pulled into a parking space and that two men emerged from it. He

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