Manning v. Commonwealth

23 S.W.3d 610, 2000 Ky. LEXIS 46, 2000 WL 426360
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedApril 20, 2000
Docket1999-SC-0196-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 23 S.W.3d 610 (Manning 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
Manning v. Commonwealth, 23 S.W.3d 610, 2000 Ky. LEXIS 46, 2000 WL 426360 (Ky. 2000).

Opinion

GRAVES, Justice.

Appellant, Alan David Manning, was convicted in the Warren Circuit Court on one count of first-degree manslaughter for the death of Earl Manning, and one count of being a first-degree persistent felony offender. The evidence consisted of a statement Appellant made to his common law wife, Lunell, and of circumstantial evi *612 dence from shell casings. He received a life sentence and appeals to this Court as a matter of right. We affirm.

Appellant is the victim’s adopted son. He and his common law wife, Lunell, and her son, Scotty Roddy, were living on Earl Manning’s farm. Appellant was to inherit the farm upon the death of Earl Manning. However, on November 22, 1998, Earl Manning offered to sell the farm to Allen Martin.

On November 23,1998, at approximately 9:30 p.m., Appellant arrived at friends, Kenneth and Carolyn Posten’s residence. Appellant asked the Postens if shooting someone in the forehead and in each temple would be sufficient to cause death. The Postens said it probably would, and Appellant mumbled that is what he would do. Appellant thereafter drove to the victim’s home and killed him. Later, Appellant described in detail to his common law wife, Lunell, how he grabbed the victim by the shirt collar and threw him to the ground. Appellant then shot him in the head three times. When Appellant heard some gurgling, he shot the victim in the head two more times. Appellant then stabbed the victim five times in the chest. Appellant stated that he heard the knife blade hit the floor while he was stabbing the victim.

The following day, November 24, 1998, Roddy, Appellant’s stepson and the victim’s step-grandson, returned to the residence and discovered the victim. Because the phone lines had been cut, Roddy went across the street and had a friend phone 911.

Ronnie Freels, a Kentucky State Police forensics expert, testified that the shells found at Appellant’s residence and the shells found at the victim’s residence, near the body, were fired from the same gun. He further stated that the victim was killed with the same gun that was test fired at Appellant’s residence.

I. PRIOR INCONSISTENT STATEMENT

Appellant confessed to his wife, Lunell Manning, that he murdered Earl Manning. His wife subsequently repeated everything Appellant told her to Detective Cliff Meeks of the Bowling Green Police Department. Prior to trial, defense counsel, who also represented Lunell, moved to preclude her testimony because of the marital privilege. The trial court ruled that the marital privilege was unavailable in the absence of a valid marriage. Defense counsel then moved in limine to preclude calling Lunell because she intended to assert her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. The trial court ruled there was also no Fifth Amendment privilege since Lunell was not incriminating herself by testifying about what Appellant told her regarding the victim’s death.

When Lunell testified at the hearing on Appellant’s in limine motions, she denied any memory of what Appellant told her, or giving a statement to Detective Cliff Meeks. Her video statement to Detective Meeks was played and Lunell stated that she still didn’t recall the conversation and that the video did not refresh her recollection.

At trial, Lunell similarly testified that she could not recall what Appellant had told her regarding the death of the victim. Additionally, Lunell stated that she only vaguely remembered speaking with Detectives Meeks and Bratcher. Lunell didn’t deny her statements, but claimed that she just did not remember them. Lunell testified that at the time she gave her statement she had failed to take her medicine for several days, and could remember neither Appellant’s confessing to the killing nor her giving an interview to the police. After the Commonwealth laid a foundation pursuant to KRE 613, the video of her statement to the detective was admitted at trial as a prior inconsistent statement. United States v. Owens, 484 U.S. 554, 108 S.Ct. 838, 98 L.Ed.2d 951 (1988).

*613 An accused’s Sixth Amendment right to confront the witnesses against him is a fundamental right which is made obligatory on the states by the Fourteenth Amendment. Dutton v. Evans, 400 U.S. 74, 91 S.Ct. 210, 27 L.Ed.2d 213 (1970). The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment envisions a personal examination and cross-examination of the witness, in which there is not only an opportunity to test the recollection and sift the conscience of the witness but also to compel the witness to stand face to face with the jury in order that they may look at him and judge by his demeanor whether his testimony is worthy of belief. Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 100 S.Ct. 2531, 65 L.Ed.2d 597 (1980). However, the constitutional right of confrontation does not prohibit the introduction of all hearsay evidence. Dutton, supra.

The Court of Appeals specifically addressed this issue in Wise v. Commonwealth, Ky.App., 600 S.W.2d 470 (1978), which involved an assault in a tavern in Louisville. The evidence came primarily from out-of-court statements given to the police by two nineteen-year-old girls. At trial, the witnesses had a lapse of memory, and the trial court allowed the prior statements by the witnesses to be admitted as evidence. On appeal, the Court of Appeals held that the statements were properly admitted. Id. at 472. Citing Jett v. Commonwealth, Ky., 436 S.W.2d 788 (1969), the Court determined that the prior statements were admissible as substantive evidence, reasoning that no person should have the power to obstruct the truth-finding process of a trial and defeat a prosecution by saying, “I don’t remember.” Id. The Court concluded that it is within the trial court’s discretion to admit the contradictory evidence. Id. See also Brock v. Commonwealth, Ky., 947 S.W.2d 24 (1997) (Prior inconsistent statement can be used not only to attack the credibility of declar-ant, but also as substantive evidence); Newkirk v. Commonwealth, Ky., 937 S.W.2d 690 (1997) (Out-of-court statements by alleged ten-year-old victim of rape and sodomy to investigating police officers and the doctor who examined the victim at the hospital were admissible in view of the victim’s inability to recall specific details during her testimony at trial).

Here, the trial court was correct in admitting the video of Lunell’s prior inconsistent statement, as the Confrontation Clause was satisfied by the opportunity for cross-examination of Lunell at trial.

II. INDIVIDUAL VOIR DIRE

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Bluebook (online)
23 S.W.3d 610, 2000 Ky. LEXIS 46, 2000 WL 426360, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/manning-v-commonwealth-ky-2000.