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REPORTED IN THE COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS OF MARYLAND No. 1431 September Term, 2001

JAMES HERBERT NERO

v.

STATE OF MARYLAND

Salmon, Eyler, James R., Sharer, JJ. Opinion by Eyler, James R., J. Filed: May 7, 2002

Appellant, James Herbert Nero, was charged with armed robbery and related offenses. He was tried with a co-defendant,

Robert Milton Shuebrooks, by a jury in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County. Appellant was found guilty of two counts of

armed robbery, four counts of first degree assault, four counts of use of a handgun in the commission of a felony or crime of violence, two counts of reckless endangerment, and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery. Appellant was sentenced to a total This appeal followed.

of one hundred years' imprisonment.

Appellant presents the following issues for our consideration: I. Whether the trial court erred in denying appellant's motion to suppress; II. Whether the trial court erred in permitting a police officer to testify as to her opinion that some of the witnesses were certain of their photographic identifications of appellant and his co-defendant; III. Whether the trial court erred in not admitting exculpatory evidence; IV. Whether the trial court erred in denying appellant's motion for new trial; and, V. Whether the trial court committed plain error in its jury instructions. FACTUAL BACKGROUND At about midday on May 1, 1999, Robert White was working at the Finlay Fine Jewelry counter at a Hecht's department store in Chevy Chase. day. Sandy Jones, a manager, was also working there that

-2White testified at trial that as he was assisting a customer, Caroline Neuman, he noticed an African American male whom he described as "maybe six feet" tall, with a "short hair cut," and a "kind of long face." The man was dressed in a "blue About five minutes

nylon, like a blue jacket, jeans maybe."

after White first noticed the man, he saw another man grab Neuman and put a gun on the counter. filling a bag with jewelry. The second man told White to start White described the second man as White noticed

being "around five 10 and a half or so" in height.

that the man wore a blazer and pants and that the zipper on his pants was open and his shirt was "hanging through the zipper." The man also wore "a wig like dreadlocks or something like that and [a] Ca[r]go hat with a little flip button [on] the front." White testified that the man had a scar on his eyebrow. White filled the bag with jewelry. White then noticed that

Jones was also filling a bag with jewelry and that the man he first noticed in the store was telling Jones what to put in the bag and to hurry up. When Jones was finished filling the bag

with jewelry, the first man took the bag from Jones and the two men left the store together. White testified that he "stood there for a second and [] was still kind of in shock." He then "ran and got a piece of paper

and a pen and ran after the guys outside, I wanted to try to get their tag number or see which way they were going at least."

-3White testified that a Hecht's security guard, Hurist Morgan, also ran after the two men as they left the store. White and Morgan exited the Hecht's department store onto Wisconsin Avenue and ran up a hill. According to White,

when we got to about mid-way at the top of the hill, I saw [the two men] get into a white Jeep Cherokee so I started writing down the tag number and the guy

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