Baker v. Commonwealth

922 S.W.2d 371, 1996 Ky. LEXIS 24, 1996 WL 133271
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 21, 1996
Docket94-SC-162-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 922 S.W.2d 371 (Baker v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Kentucky Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baker v. Commonwealth, 922 S.W.2d 371, 1996 Ky. LEXIS 24, 1996 WL 133271 (Ky. 1996).

Opinions

LAMBERT, Justice.

Appellant was convicted of kidnapping ten-year-old Donald Scott Baker and of reckless homicide in connection with his death. In this matter of right appeal, appellant seeks reversal of the reckless homicide conviction on grounds that double jeopardy principles prevent her conviction of both crimes. In essence, she claims that the elements of the charges, as set forth in the court’s instructions,1 were “so inexorably interwoven” that [373]*373the offense of kidnapping was consumed by the reckless homicide conviction.

Appellant’s convictions arose out of the brutal murder of Donald Scott Baker, stepson of one Stephanie Baker.2 On November 25, 1992, appellant drove Stephanie Baker to Pace’s Creek Elementary School. Their purpose was to gain control of Scott Baker under the pretext of taking him to spend Thanksgiving with his father. Wearing a black wig for the purpose of disguise, appellant went into the school and upon the false representation that she was the child’s cousin, prevailed upon school authorities to let her take him. While appellant was inside the school, Stephanie Baker waited in the ear hiding in the back seat and covering herself with laundry. After appellant and the child had entered the car and they had all driven away, Stephanie Baker revealed herself. Sometime thereafter, Stephanie Baker grabbed Scott by the neck and began to choke him. Mercilessly, relentlessly, and despite his struggle, she strangled him until he was dead. Meanwhile, appellant had continued driving, but allegedly made some feeble effort to have Stephanie Baker stop the attack. After the child was dead, appellant and Stephanie Baker dumped the body in a hole in rural Laurel County. Later, consistent with their previous cruelty, they returned to the location of the body where Stephanie Baker set it afire. Appellant was indicted for complicity to commit murder, kidnapping and the misdemeanor offense of abuse of a corpse. She was convicted of reckless homicide, kidnapping and abuse of a corpse for which she was sentenced to a total of twenty-five years imprisonment.

At oral argument, appellant conceded that the facts in evidence could have supported a conviction under the statutory elements of both felony crimes. Appellant acknowledged that it would not have been unreasonable for the jury to have believed that she restrained Scott Baker with the intent to terrorize or inflict bodily injury upon him; and that it would not have also been unreasonable for the jury to have believed that she acted recklessly before or after Stephanie Baker commenced the attack upon the child. By her own account, after having lured the child into the company of Stephanie Baker, in circumstances where she knew or should have known that he was endangered, appellant continued her participation by driving the car after the attack upon the child had begun. She made little or no effort to stop it. Such facts are sufficient to support a conviction of kidnapping and reckless homicide.

Appellant maintains, however, that as presented in the instructions, the crime of kidnapping was consumed by the reckless homicide. In particular, she claims a double jeopardy bar by virtue of the inclusion of kidnapping in the reckless homicide instructions, reasoning therefrom that a finding of guilt of reckless homicide precludes a separate conviction for one of its elements. She also maintains that failure of the jury to [374]*374convict her of murder establishes that she did not intend the child’s death at the time he was kidnapped or at any time thereafter. As such, she argues that the kidnapping conviction consisted of restraint plus an intent to terrorize or cause bodily harm, but not death, elements she compares broadly to recklessness. These, she concludes, are the same elements used to convict of reckless homicide.

At the outset we must observe that appellant’s double jeopardy claim is unpre-served. Appellant made no double jeopardy objection whatsoever nor did she tender instructions. She did object to the instructions which were given on grounds that they contained overlapping mental states. Nevertheless, we have held in Sherley v. Commonwealth, Ky., 558 S.W.2d 615, 618 (1977), and Gunter v. Commonwealth, Ky., 576 S.W.2d 518, 522 (1978), that failure to object on grounds of double jeopardy does not constitute a waiver of the right to raise the issue for the first time on appeal. This view appears to be based on Menna v. New York, 423 U.S. 61, 96 S.Ct. 241, 46 L.Ed.2d 195 (1975), a per curiam opinion which held that a plea of guilty after an unsuccessful plea of double jeopardy would not constitute waiver; that the merits of the double jeopardy claim should be reviewed on appeal. Menna, 423 U.S. at 62, 96 S.Ct. at 242. From Menna to Sherley and Gunter is a significant leap of logic and we now question its soundness. A principal reason for doubting the soundness of the rule, in addition to the general reasons for requiring preservation, is the difficulty of analyzing a double jeopardy claim when there is no context from the trial court. In such a circumstance, an appellate court must decide from the entire record whether double jeopardy principles have been violated on any one of multiple bases. As such, appellant’s counsel is at liberty to throw every possible double jeopardy theory at the Court without having had to analyze and present such claims in the trial court. Deciding issues in such a manner is fraught with danger of error or omission and we can think of no compelling reason for such deference to double jeopardy principles. As with other rights, constitutional rights may be waived by failure to timely and properly present the issue. West v. Commonwealth, Ky., 780 S.W.2d 600, 602 (1989). Nevertheless, we will observe the Sherley rule in this case and address the merits of appellant’s double jeopardy claim.

Initially, we have no difficulty with appellant’s contention that no persuasive distinction can be made between multiple charges presented in the same trial rather than successive prosecutions. Whether the claim of double jeopardy arises out of a single prosecution or successive prosecutions, the analysis of whether there has been a violation should be the same. We so held in Walden v. Commonwealth, Ky., 805 S.W.2d 102, 106 (1991), and see no reason to depart from the rule.

Much of this Court’s recent decisional law on double jeopardy has come in the wake of Grady v. Corbin, 495 U.S. 508, 110 S.Ct. 2084, 109 L.Ed.2d 548 (1990), in which the Supreme Court held that a subsequent prosecution would be barred if it was necessary to prove the same conduct for which a defendant had already been prosecuted. Walden v. Commonwealth, Ky., 805 S.W.2d 102 (1991); Ingram v. Commonwealth, Ky.,. 801 S.W.2d 321 (1990). In general, application of Grady v. Corbin resulted in broadly proscribing multiple convictions arising out of a single act or occurrence. Such was clearly the result in

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Baker v. Commonwealth
922 S.W.2d 371 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 1996)

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Bluebook (online)
922 S.W.2d 371, 1996 Ky. LEXIS 24, 1996 WL 133271, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baker-v-commonwealth-ky-1996.