Bryan Blake - Mistaken Witness ID - Poor Defense

Blake, Bryan; murder; NRE: mistaken witness identification, inadequate legal defense, prosecutor misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence, misconduct that is not withholding evidence

[530:578]; 1st Dept. 7/14/88; reversed, due to prosecutorial misconduct and evidentiary error

"This was a close and wholly circumstantial case, requiring the jury to engage in a very complex and difficult reasoning process. That deliberative process was made even more difficult by the crime involved herein, a ghastly and incomprehensible murder. These factors magnified the prejudicial impact of certain trial errors which, in combination, require reversal of this conviction and a remand for a new trial.

"At approximately 8:15 a.m. on August 2, 1985, Police Officer Joseph Oquendo, after following a trail of blood to the apartment of Thomas Barnes, entered the unlocked apartment and saw a most gruesome sight: the body of Barnes lying face up on the floor with a knife protruding from his abdomen, his throat slit, his genitals cut off and stuffed in his mouth, and multiple knife wounds throughout the body. The autopsy revealed that Barnes had been stabbed 54 times, with 16 of those stab wounds inflicted to the right side of the face and neck alone. Near the body was another knife and a bloodied and ripped tank-top shirt bearing the number 12. On August 21, 1985, [Blake] was arrested for the murder of Barnes, based on information placing him with Barnes the night of the murder and linking him to the tank-top shirt.

"We...find that the inferences to be drawn were sufficient to enable a jury to exclude to a moral certainty every other hypothesis but [Blake's] guilt. [???] Nevertheless, a review of the facts is necessary to appreciate the prejudicial impact of the various trial errors which deprived [Blake] of his right to a fair trial.

"On August 1, 1985, Lawrence Garvie went to the Rawhide Bar in Manhattan to meet friends. While there, his attention was drawn to a man he described as well-built, dark-haired, with a trimmed mustache, about 25 or 26 years old, wearing a pale yellow tank-top shirt bearing the number 12 on front and back. [FN1:] On August 21, 1985, the day of [Blake's] arrest, Garvie viewed a lineup which included [Blake] and stated that [Blake] looked very much like the man in the tank-top shirt, particularly in his build and clothing. Garvie could not, however, make a definite identification because [Blake] wore his hair differently and had no mustache. [END FN1] At about 8:00 or 8:30 p.m., Garvie engaged the man in conversation and learned from him that he had a one-syllable Irish surname, which he could not recall, was half-Italian and half-Irish, 32 years old, lived in Queens, and patronized the bar Billy the Kid's in Queens. The men were later joined by Garvie's friend Thomas Barnes. When the man in the tank-top shirt mentioned having a friend from St. Louis, Missouri, Barnes, a St. Louis native, fell into a 'very animated' discussion with the man. When Garvie left the bar at about 10:30 p.m., Barnes and the man were still talking. At about midnight, Miguel Erazo, who was also at the bar, saw Barnes leave the Rawhide with a man wearing a white tank-top shirt, bearing the number 12.

"At about 12:50 a.m. on August 2, 1985, Paul Hawkins, who lived in the apartment below Barnes, heard a groan and 'scuffing' noise. About a half-hour later, he heard someone stumble down the stairs from the floor above, which was the building's top floor. The next morning, at about 8:00 a.m., as Hawkins was leaving to work, he saw blood on the walls outside his apartment and noticed that the blood led all the way upstairs. He went upstairs and saw that Barnes' door was open. He alerted Barnes' neighbor and went to work. Shortly thereafter, the police arrived, finding the deceased and the tank-top shirt. At trial, both Garvie and another person who had been at the bar identified the shirt as the one Barnes' companion wore.

"[In his statement to the police, Blake] insisted...that he never wore tank-tops and had not had a mustache in the past five tears.

"Although we find that the evidence was sufficient, as a matter of law, to support the jury's verdict, we have serious doubts that the jury was able to accord the evidence its proper weight given the prejudicial nature of certain trial errors. Foremost of these errors was the prosecutor's violation of the unsworn witness rule when he introduced into evidence the videotaped statement complete with certain improper statements he made concerning the case. A prosecutor becomes an unsworn witness when he injects his own credibility into the trial or 'express[es] his personal belief on matters which may influence the jury...'

"At [one] point in the videotaped session, the prosecutor formulated a motive for the killing. He told [Blake] that he and the other detectives were 'pretty sure' that [Blake] killed Barnes because he had forced [Blake] to perform oral sex, which [Blake] did not like to do.

"One additional error must be addressed. Over defense counsel's strenuous objection, the court permitted into evidence 22 color photographs of the murder scene, including several gruesome, close-up pictures of the deceased's mutilated body...The only question was whether [Blake] was the murderer, and as to that question, these photographs were absolutely irrelevant. We conclude, then, that the photographs were introduced for no other reason than 'to arouse the emotions of the jury and prejudice the defendant.'"

from NRE synopsis (By Maurice Possley):

"Based on the descriptions given by Garvie and Erazo, police arrested 22-year-old Bryan Blake on August 21 and put him in a lineup, although he did not have a mustache and was several inches shorter and 20 pounds lighter than the description given by Garvie and Erazo.* After Garvie and Erazo identified Blake** as the man who was with Barnes, Blake was charged with murder."

[* It is not at all clear how and why Bryan Blake came to the police's attention in the first place. And, aside from supposedly having a tank-top with the number '12' on it, which turned out to be wrong, there was no basis to put him in a lineup, given the description mismatch.]

[** This is odd: In the case cited above, Garvie said that, alhough Blake looked 'very much' like the man he saw Barnes leave with, given the lack of a mustache as well as different hair style, he coudn't be sure.]

"There was no physical evidence linking Blake to the crime."

"Blake claimed he spent the night of August 1, 1985 [in Queens], and the following day visited his sister in New Jersey. Blake said he had been at Rawhide perhaps six months to a year earlier and that he may once have played pool with Barnes. He said he never wore tank tops and had not had a mustache for at least five tears."

[Following conviction, and then, reversal:]

"[There was] a second trial in February 1989. For the first time...a bartender at Rawhide [was tracked down], who testified that he had been called in for a lineup and failed to identify Blake. The bartender said the man who left with Barnes was not Blake.

"On February 27, 1989, the jury deliberated 90 minutes before acquitting Blake, who was then released. Blake sought compensation for wrongful imprisonment from the New York Court of Claims, but his claim was denied.

R30 [811] "'It wasn't even close,' said one juror [after retrial]. Said another: 'We felt they had no case. . .[W]e were surprised it got to the grand jury. It's incredible what can happen to people, to be dragged into court for such a little bit of evidence.'"

[All emphases added unless otherwise noted.]