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Howard v. State

The seizure of affidavits from the defendants' jail cells did not violate their Sixth Amendment right to counsel where the defendants prepared the affidavits and disseminated them to others.

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Appellants Michael DeAnthony Howard and Frederick Maurice Durham were jointly indicted, tried, and convicted for the murder of Darnele Smith, the kidnapping of Tomika Godwin and Calvin Fisher, as well as armed robbery, and burglary.1 Because appellants raise similar issues on appeal, their cases have been consolidated. We affirm the judgments of conviction in both cases. Believing that Smith was selling large quantities of marijuana from his Douglas County apartment, Durham and others devised a plan to rob the premises to obtain money and marijuana.2 On the way there, they picked up Howard, who went along with the scheme. Howard and Durham entered Smith’s apartment, brandishing pistols and yelling, “Where’s the money, where’s the weed” The other accomplices remained in their car. At gunpoint, Howard and Durham forced Smith’s roommate Fisher, and Godwin, a guest in the apartment, to lie on the floor face down. Howard searched the apartment and went into Smith’s bedroom, warning him, “Don’t do anything stupid.” A gunshot rang out from Smith’s room, and Howard walked back into the living room, demanding money and marijuana of the other occupants.

Both perpetrators then forced Fisher into Smith’s room where Smith lay fatally injured on the bed. Again they demanded to know where they could find the money and marijuana, and Fisher pointed to a safe in the bedroom closet. The perpetrators left the apartment a few minutes later, carrying the safe with them.

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