| Shortly after midnight on May 10, 2005, 19-year-old Kareem Dotson left the home of girlfriend, Shalonda Melton in Cleveland Ohio. Melton walked Dotson to the side door and watched him walk down the driveway to his truck – which had expensive chrome rims.
Before Dotson could unlock his truck, someone came from the backyard and hit him on the head with a gun. The attacker, whose face was covered, ordered Dotson to the ground, face down. Melton came outside and found a second person who was also armed and had a shirt pulled over his mouth. When Melton exposed the person's face, both she and Dotson recognized him as 18-year-old Bryce Smith, who Melton had dated in the past and who lived several houses down the street.
When Melton asked Smith what he was doing, Smith stated that Dotson owed him money. Smith then walked to where Dotson was lying on the ground and held a gun to Dotson's head, while the other assailant, who also had a gun pointed at Dotson, searched Dotson's pockets. Melton's younger sister, who initially thought the first assailant was her ex-boyfriend (and Smith's cousin), DeAndrew “Stinker” Foster, yelled, “Stinker stop; Stinker stop.”
At some point, Smith said, “I can't do this,” and left. During a tug-of-war with the first assailant over Dotson's keys, Melton told the person, who she thought was Foster, to “quit playing.” According to Melton, the person responded, “This ain't no [obscenity] Stinker. It's Pel Pel, bitch. Give me the keys,” and then pulled his mask down and pointed his gun at her.
Melton later learned that Pel Pel was 20-year-old David Garner. She recognized the first assailant was Pel Pel, not Stinker, and threw Dotson's keys at him. Melton said she saw Pel Pel get into Dotson's truck and drive away. Melton called 911 on her cell phone immediately after the carjacking. Both Melton's grandmother and sister were talking to her during the call, which made it difficult for her to talk with the operator. Melton told the operator that Dotson had been “gunned down,” which meant that Dotson had been robbed at gun point.
Initially, Melton told the operator that she did not know the carjacker's name because she did not know Pel Pel's real name; however, Melton gave the operator Pel Pel's name after Melton's sister said that the carjacker was Pel Pel. Melton did not provide Smith's name because “he wasn't doing as much as Pel was doing.”
Dotson, whose cell phone had been taken in the robbery, called 911 from a friend's cell phone. When Dotson was asked during the 911 call if he knew who robbed him, without hesitation he said, “DeAndrew Foster and Bryce Smith.”
On August 17, 2005, a federal grand jury indicted Garner and Smith on charges of carjacking use of a firearm to commit a robbery. They were charged with the May 10 incident involving Dotson and an unrelated similar crime on June 4, 1985. Garner was already in federal custody, facing unrelated drug charges.
On November 7, 2005, Garner and Smith went to trial before a jury in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge James Gwin in the Northern District of Ohio.
On November 10, 2005, the jury acquitted Garner and Smith of the charges relating to the June 4, 2005 carjacking. The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on the charges relating to the May 10 carjacking of Dotson, so a mistrial was declared.
A retrial was scheduled for November 21, less than two weeks later and just three days before Thanksgiving. Prior to the retrial, Smith pled guilty to the carjacking and weapons charges and agreed to testify for the prosecution. On the morning the retrial began, the prosecution disclosed to the defense phone records from Dotson’s cell phone for May 9 and May 10. The phone had been stolen on the night of the crime. The records contained a list of incoming and outgoing phone calls from several hours before to several hours after the carjacking.
Garner’s defense lawyers objected to the late disclosure, although the prosecution said it had just received the records from the FBI that morning. The defense requested a continuance in which to research subscriber information for the listed phone numbers.
The defense estimated that 10 outbound calls were made on Dotson's cell phone during the relevant period and that the government had provided six or seven names of persons whose phone numbers were listed in the records. The government, however, was unable to obtain subscriber information for all the listed phone numbers because the information was “too old to retrieve.”
The cell phone records revealed that several calls were made on Dotson's phone when it was in the control of the person or persons who robbed him of his truck. Several numbers were called that Dotson did not know, including one that was made at 2:23 a.m. in the morning to a number associated Jennifer Love, a romantic interest of Garner’s. The cell phone records revealed that the call was not answered. The records revealed that Melton’s phone had both received and had placed a call to Dotson's cell phone well after the carjacking had taken place. The inbound call from Melton’s phone to Dotson's cell phone was at 2:51 a.m. on May 10, 2005, three hours after the carjacking. The call lasted more than four minutes.
Judge Gwin overruled the defense objection to the admission of the records into evidence and denied the request for a continuance. The judge concluded that the government had “provided in a timely fashion what they have. It's just ... they didn't get it until late.”
Smith testified that he dated Melton from 2001 until 2003 and they were still friendly. He said that he spoke to Melton twice the night of the carjacking: once before, when he was working and Melton asked him to come over; and once afterward.
On his way home from work that night, Smith noticed a truck with nice rims parked in Melton's driveway. Shortly after arriving home, Smith drove to the projects where he said he talked to Garner. Smith said he told Garner that he knew a quick way to make money by steeling rims off a truck. Smith said he and Garner decided to go to Melton's house and wait for the truck's owner to leave. Smith testified that he committed the carjacking with Garner, not Foster.
Foster testified that he was not with Smith during the carjacking.
Love testified that she had an intimate relationship with Garner, whom she knew as Pel. Shortly after the carjacking, a call was placed from Dotson's cell phone to the cell phone of Love's roommate, Yolanda Gott.
On November 22, 2005, the jury convicted Garner of carjacking and use of a weapon to commit a robbery. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
On December 7, 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit vacated Garner’s convictions and ordered a new trial. “The issue, the reason why Mr. Garner believed that the [cell phone] log contained relevant, exculpatory evidence is the fact that after the number was identified as Shalonda Melton's cell phone number, it became obvious that she had at least two conversations with the person who robbed Kareem Dotson of his phone and his truck. Shalonda Melton testified that that person was David Garner – she also testified that she did not know David Garner, had never met David Garner, and had never had a conversation with David Garner,” the appeals court said.
The appeals court noted that Judge Gwin had inferred that the conversation referenced on the cell phone log was a conversation Melton had Smith, Melton's testimony was that Bryce Smith did not get in the vehicle, and that he walked away from the carjacking while it was in progress.
“How then, could the cell phone, which was in the carjacker's possession, be used by Bryce Smith to call Shalonda Melton?” the court said.
“The impeachment value of the…logs is incalculable, given the serious contradictory testimony from Shalonda Melton and the jury's need to know whose cell phone was used to connect with the carjackers,” the court ruled. “The suppression of the evidence until just prior to trial by the government, knowing that Shalonda Melton would be their first fact witness,” prejudiced Garner’s ability to defend himself, the court ruled.
On July 21, 2008, the prosecution filed a motion to dismiss the case. On July 24, 2008, Judge Gwin granted the motion. Garner remained in prison, serving a 20-year sentence on an unrelated drug conviction.
– Maurice Possley
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