Jurors' remarks don't win new trial

Convicted killer doesn't sway judge

Friday, Oct. 17, 2008

The defense counsel for William Nathaniel Coates, 30, also argued the verdict in the case was contradictory, necessitating a new trial.

Coates' attorney, Tiffany Harvey, who took the stand Wednesday, testified that while she was walking in the hallway while jurors were deliberating their verdict, she overheard a juror shouting. According to Harvey, the woman yelled, "My friend told me he confessed." She also heard someone say, "He's covering for him."

Melissa Miller, a second defense attorney, pointed out that the October 2007 shooting of Joseph Gifford Hickman and subsequent murder trials of Coates and his co-defendant James Francis Swann, 33, of Reisterstown, were highly publicized. In his trial, Swann confessed to shooting Hickman, who died on the front steps of a friend's Ryon Court home.

Miller argued that the juror's exclamation during the deliberation constituted misconduct.

"The jury had no reason to be discussing the confessions of anybody else," said Miller.

However, Judge Amy J. Bragunier ruled that what is said in the deliberation room should stay there. While Bragunier said she could have acted on the comment at the time, she could not grant the defense's motion based on the overheard words. "It was a situation that should have been brought to the court's attention. I could have taken remedial action," she said.

Partway through the hearing, Miller brought up a second incident, in which a law clerk interacted with a juror during deliberations. While they are deciding a verdict, jurors are isolated in a closed room, and if they have a question, they are supposed to write a note to a judge.

After talking to attorneys in her chambers, Bragunier summarized the conversation between the juror and law clerk that happened when the woman opened the door and stepped into the hallway.

"The juror said, ‘We need to see police reports.' [The law clerk] said, ‘What's in evidence is in evidence,'" Bragunier told the courtroom.

Bragunier said she received a note from the jurors a short time later asking for written reports from detectives about a witness's testimony. Bragunier said although the law clerk's interaction with the juror was improper, it didn't influence the verdict, since she wrote the same response to the request.

Miller lodged another objection against the verdict, saying it was internally inconsistent.

In Coates' trial, Charles County Deputy State's Attorney Jerome Spencer said the defendant didn't have to fire the shots to be convicted of murder. Spencer argued that because Coates was Swann's getaway driver, he aided and abetted in the killing.

According to Miller, the second-degree murder conviction was inconsistent with Coates' acquittal of conspiracy to commit murder. "My client was found not guilty of conspiracy, but jurors relied on arguments of aiding and abetting. Both require a meeting of the minds. … In order to find him guilty as an aider and abettor you have to find him guilty as a conspirator," she said.

Spencer said that while the verdict may be factually inconsistent, it was not legally inconsistent. "I think the verdict reflected a rational, reasonable assessment of the strength of the evidence," he said. "Legally, conspiracy and aiding and abetting are two separate concepts."

Bragunier said that if the defendant thought the jury's finding was inconsistent, he should have voiced an objection when the verdict was read. "The court could have sent the jury back to deliberate," said Bragunier. Plus, the judge said she was not "convinced the verdict in this case is inconsistent."

Before denying the motions for a new trial, Bragunier denied the defense's motion for acquittal. Before the judgment, Miller made the argument that there was no evidence connecting Coates to Hickman's murder.

Swann and Coates were arrested a few days after police stopped them as they were driving out of the Waldorf neighborhood following the shooting. Near the crime scene, police had discovered Swann's cell phone and his fingerprint on a box of ammunition of the same caliber as the bullet that killed Hickman. Swann was convicted of second-degree murder in the case in June.

However, Miller said this was not enough indication her client was involved in the crime.

"There's absolutely no evidence," Miller argued.

"I cannot find that there was no evidence," Bragunier said. "We do have evidence that Mr. Coates was with Mr. Swann before and after [the crime], and he places himself there during the incident."

Paul Washington, Coates' friend, said he is upset about the outcome of the case.

"The whole thing was crazy. You're ready to take a man's life, to sentence him with no evidence," he said. "He should get a new trial."

Washington, who has known Coates more than 10 years, said his friend is a good father and talks every day to his daughter from prison.

brodgers@somdnews.com