Bowie v. State

1995 OK CR 4, 906 P.2d 759, 66 O.B.A.J. 162, 1995 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 3, 1995 WL 15696
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 12, 1995
DocketF-88-369
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 1995 OK CR 4 (Bowie v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bowie v. State, 1995 OK CR 4, 906 P.2d 759, 66 O.B.A.J. 162, 1995 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 3, 1995 WL 15696 (Okla. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinions

OPINION

LANE, Judge:

Appellant, Benito Jerome Bowie, was convicted of First Degree Murder in the District Court of OHahoma County, Case No. CRF-87-6621, the Honorable Joe Cannon presiding. Following a two stage proceeding, the jury found three aggravating circumstances and sentenced Appellant to death. He has brought the instant appeal challenging both the conviction and the sentence. Because error exists which requires vacation and remand of the sentencing portion of the trial, we will address only the allegations with respect to the first stage of the trial and the determinative proposition as to the second stage.

Facts

Appellant was convicted for instigating the death of Eric Douglas Dunn by enticing Dexter Tyrone McDade to commit the murder. Appellant was the head of a sophisticated drug distribution ring. McDade worked in Appellant’s organization and was eager to please Appellant. He testified at trial that he understood that if he did as Appellant asked, he would be rewarded. Dunn was [761]*761involved with another drug organization run by Appellant’s brother, Claude.

On the night the murder occurred, Dunn had an argument with another one of Appellant’s employees, Robert Taylor, at a party given by Appellant’s cousin, Ricky Rideau. Dunn eventually hit Taylor several times, cutting Taylor’s mouth. When the two drew guns on one another, others at the party broke up the fight. Although Dunn left the house, he called back several times during the evening.

Wfiien Appellant was informed of the fight, he was incensed that one of his “men” had been hurt. Appellant called Roger Britt and Gonzales Zale and asked them to come to the party. Brit was specifically requested to bring his gun and two packages of cocaine.

After these two men arrived at Rideau’s house, Appellant, Britt, Gonzales, McDade, Taylor, Rideau and Claude Bowie had a meeting in the basement. Appellant outlined a plan whereby Dunn would be called back to the house and then killed. He told the others that the cocaine would be planted on the body. When the others opposed the plan, the meeting broke up. Appellant, however; spoke to McDade in private, telling him to go ahead and that he was to be the triggerman.

Wfiien the group went back upstairs, Dunn had returned to the party. He was led into a bedroom, ostensibly to make up with Taylor. Appellant then cursed at him and told him “he didn’t appreciate him hitting his boy.” When Dunn tried to get out of the room, McDade fired two rounds, hitting Dunn in the back and leg.

McDade left Oklahoma City for Okmulgee, eventually going to California. Testimony at trial established that he received between $15,000.00 and $20,000.00 dollars from Appellant at various times through friends.

Pretrial Issues

In his first proposition of error, Appellant claims that his constitutional right to a speedy trial was violated by the forty (40) month delay between the time of the crime and the commencement of the trial. Appellant was first charged with this crime on December 28, 1984. When the case came on for preliminary examination, it was dismissed at the request of the State. The charges were not refiled until November 20, 1987. The case went to trial on April 18, 1988.

The right to a speedy trial is a right guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, made applicable to the states through the Fourteen Amendment. It is also a right enumerated in the Oklahoma Constitution. Okla. Const. Art. 2, § 20.

The Supreme Court has recognized the unique nature of the right to a speedy trial. A violation of the right, while potentially prejudicial to a criminal defendant, may just as often be beneficial. Accordingly, the reasons for the delay must be closely examined. Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 521, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 2187, 33 L.Ed.2d 101 (1972).

Our analysis of the facts in the present case is directed by United States v. MacDonald, 456 U.S. 1, 102 S.Ct. 1497, 71 L.Ed.2d 696 (1982). In that case, the Supreme Court held “the Speedy Trial Clause has no application after the Government, acting in good faith, formally drops charges.” Id. at 7, 102 S.Ct. at 1501, 71 L.Ed.2d at 703. The reasoning was based on the acknowl-edgement that:

[t]he Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial is thus not primarily intended to prevent prejudice to the defense caused by the passage of time; that interest is protected primarily by the Due Process Clause and by statutes of limitations. The speedy trial guarantee is designed to minimize the possibility of lengthy incarceration prior to trial, to reduce the lesser, but nevertheless substantial impairment of liberty imposed on an accused while released on bail, and to shorten the disruption of life caused by arrest and the presence of unresolved criminal charges.

Id. at 8, 102 S.Ct. at 1502, 71 L.Ed.2d at 704.

Based on the foregoing, our focus in terms of the measurement of the length of time to which Speedy Trial considerations must be applied is the period between the second filing of the charge and the time the case actually came to trial; a period of only [762]*762five months. We can reach only one conclusion; based on the short length of time involved between the filing of the charges and the start of the trial, Appellant received a speedy trial.

In his next allegation, Appellant claims that his rights against double jeopardy were violated when he was tried and convicted for this crime, the details of which were used as evidence in aggravation in a different trial. Alternatively, he claims that principals of collateral estoppel should have barred the subsequent proceeding. We disagree.

In January of 1988, Appellant was convicted for the murder of Melvin Traylor. Although the State sought the death penalty, the jury failed to find the existence of the two alleged aggravating factors and recommended that Appellant be sentenced to a term of life imprisonment. Evidence of the crime underlying the conviction in the present case was introduced in the second stage of the Traylor murder trial.

At the outset, it is important to distinguish the manner in which evidence of the present crime was used in that previous case. Evidence of the murder of Eric Dunn was presented to the Traylor jury not to determine Appellant’s guilt of the crime involving Traylor (that portion of the trial was over), but to support the State’s theory that Appellant constituted a continuing threat to society1. The subsequent determination of guilt of the substantive crime is not a violation of double jeopardy.

In support of his argument that the refusal of the jury to recommend the death penalty for the Traylor murder should be considered an acquittal for the murder of Dunn, Appellant relies on Bullington v. Missouri, 451 U.S. 430, 101 S.Ct. 1852, 68 L.Ed.2d 270 (1981). We agree with the Supreme Court’s subsequent decision in Poland v. Arizona, 476 U.S. 147, 106 S.Ct. 1749, 90 L.Ed.2d 123 (1986) that the holding of Bullington does not compel this result, or even apply in this situation.

In Poland, the Court recognized that Bull-ington

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Bowie v. State
1995 OK CR 4 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1995)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1995 OK CR 4, 906 P.2d 759, 66 O.B.A.J. 162, 1995 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 3, 1995 WL 15696, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bowie-v-state-oklacrimapp-1995.