Graure v. United States

18 A.3d 743 (D.C. 2011)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Ali Talebnejad, the general manager of Good Guys, testified that he saw D enter the club, through the back door, between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. D took a photograph of a dancer, which was against club rules. The dancer took D’s cell phone and gave it to Talebnejad. Talebnejad took the phone to the bar, where there were two other employees, Vladimir Djordjevic, and Kathleen Lazorchack, and asked Djordjevic to check to see whether there were pictures on the phone. Djordjevic found a photograph of the dancer and deleted it. Talebnejad told Lazorchack to return D's phone to him and to ask him to leave the club. Lazorchack told D that he had to leave the club. D picked up his glass of beer and walked toward the front of the club, with Lazorchack trailing him. Lazorchack told him that he could not take his drink outside. D responded by shouting and cursing at Lazorchack and by throwing his glass on the ground, shattering it. D then left the club. Arefanine Berhane, a cashier at the Chevron gas station testified that he arrived at the station for his shift on November 3 a little before 8:00 p.m., just as D was entering the station. D asked Berhane whether the station sold gasoline containers and Berhane showed him a two-gallon can and sold it to him. D purchased a lighter, paid for and pumped 'something like two gallons' of gasoline, and then walked south in the direction of Good Guys. Valerie Kremer worked as a waitress at Good Guys, saw D whom she had seen in the club earlier in the evening, come back into the club with a red gasoline can and a lighter. Kremer testified that Djordjevic 'had his arm around D to make sure he didn't go any further into the club.' Kremer, who was about fifteen feet away from D, observed D 'pouring gasoline anywhere he could possibly pour it.' She saw a lighter in D's hand, and 'knew the fire . . . had ignited' because she 'felt heat from behind' her as she ran toward the back of the club. Kremer saw Djordjevic 'engulfed in flames' and then saw him in the club's kitchen, trying to put out the fire on his body with the sink hose sprayer. There was so much smoke in the club that it was difficult to see, and customers had to help Kremer get out through the back door. Frank Raucci, a regular customer at Good Guys saw D re-enter the club. D was struggling with another man as the two men were trying to grab each other's arms. Raucci saw a small flame in D's hand, and then saw 'a huge fireball that just went [] from floor to ceiling of the whole front of the club.' Djordjevic) was 'completely covered in flames' and 'his whole body was burning.' Lazorchack also saw the front of the club in flames from floor-to-ceiling and from wall-to-wall and saw Djordjevic 'on fire.' Once outside the club, Lazorchack heard '[s]creaming and burning and crackling, mostly screaming and tumbling down the steps' from people who had not yet made it outside. Other witnesses saw the event and testified as well. Djordjevic emerged from the building several minutes after the fire started. Djordjevic was 'charred from head to toe,' and little was left of his clothing. Djordjevic told Lazorchack to 'stay calm' and not to touch him.' When Lazorchack asked, 'how did this happen,' Djordjevic said, 'I saw that man coming back with a can and I tried to stop him.' Talebnejad also testified that when he saw Djordjevic standing with Lazorchack there was 'smoke . . . rising from [Djordjevic].' Talebnejad asked, 'what happened?' and Djordjevic told him that 'the guy' came back to the club and tried to burn it and that he (Djordjevic ) had tried to stop him. Raucci could see Djordjevic's exposed veins and tissue where the skin had been burned off. Djordjevic never left the hospital where he was taken after the fire, and he eventually died from his injuries. Of the twenty or more other people who were in the club at the time the fire ignited, no one else sustained injury other than 'cuts and bruises from falling down the stairs and over the tables.' Djorejevic sustained third-degree burns over 95% of his body and required multiple skin graft surgeries over a span of many months. Detectives Molino and Espinosa arrested D in his room at a motel in Alexandria, Virginia. At the time appellant had second-degree burns covering his hands and his arms up to his elbows. In D's hotel room, officers saw various first aid items and burnt skin in the trash can. An ATF forensic chemist detected gasoline on the shoelaces, jeans, and black shoes recovered from the hotel room. D claims in part that the trial court erred in admitting Djordjevic's statements to Lazorcheck and Talebnejad - i.e., his statements that he 'saw that man coming back with a [gas] can' and 'trying to burn' the club, and that he (Djordjevic) 'tried to stop him' D was convicted and appealed.