Appellants William and Sharmilla Powell are husband and wife. They appeal their various convictions stemming from the death of Jesse Evans and the armed robbery of Geno Evans and Antonio Cunningham.1 The evidence viewed in a light most favorable to the verdicts showed that William sold drugs and that Geno Evans was believed to be a drug dealer.2 William and Sharmilla decided to rob Geno. On the day in question, William and Sharmilla drove a rented black Chrysler Pacifica to Geno’s house. William entered the house and pointed a chrome colored hand gun at Geno and Cunningham who had been inside watching television. Wearing an Halloween mask and armed with an assault rifle, Donovan Scott, who was William’s uncle, entered the home shortly after William. William and Scott ordered Geno and Cunningham to the ground and demanded money. Not satisfied with the amount of money they obtained from the pockets of Geno and Cunningham, the men had Geno make a phone call to have someone bring more money. Geno first tried to call police, but Scott knocked the phone out of Geno’s hand. Next, Geno called his father Jesse Evans who lived nearby. Jesse, discerning from the phone call that something was wrong, walked over to Geno’s house armed with a shotgun. When Jesse arrived outside Geno’s door, William looked through the window. William and Scott then exchanged guns, and William used the assault rifle to shoot Jesse through the door. During the melee, both Geno and Cunningham were shot and wounded, but Geno was able to make it outside the house and he ran over to a neighbor’s house to call police. While Geno was outside, Sharmilla emerged from the van and shot at him twice, but missed. William and Sharmilla eventually fled in the Chrysler Pacifica. When the police arrived, they found the bodies of Jesse and Scott on the porch of Geno Evans’ house and found a wounded Cunningham inside the house. Police later apprehended appellants in Washington, D.C.
At trial, Sharmilla testified that she was never at Geno’s house on the night in question and, instead, was at home with her children when the shooting occurred. She said William sometimes sold drugs and that, on the night in question, he did leave the house and go out, but noted William was not driving the Pacifica. She also testified that she had purchased the guns that were used in the shooting, but surmised that Scott had taken the guns from her home. Later on the same night of the shooting, Sharmilla stated she, William, and the children left to go to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for the couple’s anniversary.3
