Rehearing Denied September 25, 2019
Page 860
[Copyrighted Material Omitted]
Page 861
APPEAL
FROM THE WASHINGTON COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT [NO. 72CR-17-3512],
HONORABLE JOANNA TAYLOR, JUDGE
Laura
Avery, Fayetteville, for appellant.
Leslie
Rutledge, Atty Gen., by: Karen Virginia Wallace, Asst Atty
Gen., for appellee.
OPINION
WAYMOND
M. BROWN, Judge
A
Washington County jury convicted appellant Freddie Lee Jones
of aggravated robbery and being a felon in possession of a
firearm. Appellant was sentenced as a habitual offender to
forty years imprisonment for the aggravated-robbery
conviction and five years imprisonment for being a felon in
possession of a firearm. The sentences were to run
concurrently for an aggregate prison term of forty years.
Appellant appeals his convictions, arguing that the circuit
court erred by denying his pretrial motion to suppress
pretrial identifications of him and by denying his
directed-verdict motion. We affirm.
Appellant
was accused of the aggravated robbery of the Valero gas
station located at the corner of Zion and Crossover Roads in
Fayetteville on October 20, 2017. When the Fayetteville
Police Department (FPD) could not find a suspect, they turned
to Facebook. An edited copy of the surveillance video of the
robbery was posted to FPDs Facebook page around October 30,
2017, to find leads.[1] FPD subsequently received an anonymous
tip naming appellant as the suspect. Appellant was arrested
and charged with aggravated robbery and being
Page 862
a felon in possession of a firearm. He filed several pretrial
motions to exclude evidence, including the pretrial
identifications of him by two witnesses. A motions hearing
took place on May 23, 2018.
Detective Nick White of the FPD testified that he was the
lead investigator on the Valero robbery case. He stated that
he processed the scene and spoke with the victim, Manish
Patel. He also said that he collected surveillance footage of
the robbery on October 21, 2017, the day after the robbery.
He testified that he did not identify any specific person as
a suspect at that time. He stated that two patrol officers
had canvassed the area and come up with two potential persons
of interest, but they were eventually ruled out. Detective
White stated that FPDs community-oriented policing division
posted the surveillance video to the public on the FPDs
Facebook page. He said that instead of "having the
actual audio from the surveillance footage[,] we had a scary
music video soundtrack to it." He stated that he did not
get any tips or develop any information about who the suspect
was between the time of the robbery and the time of the
Facebook post. He admitted that he had developed a suspect of
his own but ruled him out based on the presence of tattoos on
the persons wrists that were not present in the surveillance
video. He testified that he received an anonymous call naming
appellant as the suspect after the video had been posted to
Facebook. He stated that the caller was female and that she
gave specific information as to why she believed appellant
was the suspect, where he lived, and with whom. He said that
no one else called in any tips or information about the
robbery. Detective White stated that the informant left a
voicemail for him but called back and spoke to him directly.
He said that he did not have contact with the informant again
until about a week before the hearing. He testified that the
prosecutor told him that the informant was Haylie West,
Natasha Marquezs daughter. He stated that based on the tip,
he asked patrol officers to go to appellants residence at
804 South Erika and attempt to locate either appellant or his
girlfriend, Marquez, so that they could be interviewed. He
said that he eventually interviewed both of them. He said
that Marquez was aware that appellant was the person he was
investigating for the robbery.
Detective White stated that he spoke with Jarren Brown,
appellants cousin, following Browns arrest on unrelated
narcotics charges. He stated that Brown requested to speak to
him the day Brown was arrested and that Brown indicated
appellant was the person on the video. He said that Brown
stated that Marquez had shown him the Facebook post and that
it was "definitely [his] cousin" on the video.
Detective White testified that he and Brown viewed the
surveillance video later, after Brown had already identified
appellant as the person. He stated that Brown identified
appellant on the surveillance video by appellants stature,
appearance, and voice.
Detective White testified that appellant was initially
arrested on an unrelated warrant. He stated that he
interviewed Marquez, and she gave statements concerning
appellants involvement in the robbery. He said that
Marquezs statements included intimate details that had not
been released to the public, including the fact that the
victim would not stop eating peanuts. He stated that
appellant was then arrested on the robbery charge. He said
that Marquez denied any involvement at the time and was
released.
On
cross-examination, Detective White stated that he spoke with
Marquez three separate times before she was arrested. He said
during the first interview, Marquez
Page 863
identified appellant as the robber. In the second interview,
Marquez stated that the victim would not stop eating peanuts,
that appellant had to fire his weapon twice, and that the
victim would not give appellant the money. According to
Detective White, in the third interview, Marquez admitted
being the driver on the night of the robbery and gave
information about where she parked during the commission of
the robbery. He said that Marquez told him that appellant had
taken the weapon to Browns residence. The narcotics
detectives were subsequently involved and conducted a
controlled buy at Browns residence. A search warrant was
issued, and Brown was arrested. He stated that Brown denied
having the weapon but stated that appellant had approached
him about buying the weapon. He ...