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Hopkins v. State12/11/1998
REPORTED
Circuit Court for Baltimore County Case # 96CR3310
Marquis Yaphet Hopkins, petitioner, was convicted at a bench trial in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County of robbery with a deadly and dangerous weapon, robbery, battery, two counts of assault, two counts of use of a handgun in the commission of a felony or crime of violence, and unlawfully carrying a handgun. He received sentences of ten years for the armed robbery conviction, three years consecutive for one of the assault convictions, and a concurrent five-year sentence without the possibility of parole for one of the handgun use convictions. His remaining convictions were merged for sentencing purposes.
Petitioner raised three issues on appeal to the Court of Special Appeals. That court affirmed his convictions, finding no merit in any of the questions presented. We granted the petition for certiorari on a single issue:
Did the trial court err in compelling [petitioner] to give a voice exemplar at trial?
We shall affirm.
I. FACTS
The facts of this case were stated in the opinion of the Court of Special Appeals, Hopkins v. State [No. 621, 1997 Term, slip op. at 1-3, filed Dec. 24, 1997]:
Laurene Theresa McQuay, and her husband, Franklin Andrew McQuay were robbed at gun point outside their townhouse in Timonium, Maryland, shortly after 9:15 p.m. on 27 April 1996. Their testimony at trial established the following.
The McQuays were returning home from a restaurant. Mrs. McQuay had parked their car in the front of their townhouse. As Mr. McQuay exited from the passenger door, a man, later identified as the appellant, approached Mr. McQuay from the back and said, "Yo, check it out." As he spoke, the man placed a gun next to Mr. McQuay's head.
At this point in time, Mrs. McQuay was standing beside their car. The man ordered her to the front of the car. When she arrived, the man demanded that she hand over her money or her husband "would have his mother-fucking head blown off." She handed him her purse, wedding ring, and car keys. The man then said, " ive me the necklace, bitch." As she turned her necklace around to undo the clasp, the man stepped within two feet of her and yanked the necklace off her neck. The man then reached into Mr. McQuay's pocket and removed his wallet. After he did this, the man hit Mr. McQuay on the head with the butt of the gun, knocking him to the ground. The man then ran away.
Dizzy from the blow to his head, Mr. McQuay stayed on the ground a few seconds after the man fled. The McQuays then ran inside their house. Mr. McQuay called 911. When asked to described the robber, Mr. McQuay handed the telephone to Mrs. McQuay who told the police that the robber was a black male, wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt, and "almost" six feet tall.
A little over a month later, on June 6th, Officer Mark G. Carter of the Baltimore County Police Department asked Mrs. McQuay to look at a photographic array to see if she could make an identification. She picked out appellant's photograph as a picture of the man who had robbed them. She wrote on the back of the photograph, "The man in the photo looks very close to the actual guy. His profile is extremely close. I need to see him in person to be sure, I need to hear him speak too." She then signed her name to the back of the photograph. Her husband was unable to identify anyone from the photographic array.
At trial, Mrs. McQuay testified that the robbery lasted only a few minutes, and that during that time she was directly in front of the assailant and between two and ten feet from him at different times. She also testified
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