Morse v. State

120 A.3d 1, 2015 Del. LEXIS 373, 2015 WL 4689544
CourtSupreme Court of Delaware
DecidedAugust 6, 2015
Docket200, 2014
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 120 A.3d 1 (Morse v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Morse v. State, 120 A.3d 1, 2015 Del. LEXIS 373, 2015 WL 4689544 (Del. 2015).

Opinions

VAUGHN, Justice:

This appeal centers on Defendant-Below/Appellant Melvin L. Morse’s (“Melvin”) physical abuse of his step-daughter, A.M. Melvin’s abusive conduct spanned the course of at least two years and consisted of, inter alia, suffocating and “waterboard-ing” A.M. as. punishment for what he deemed to be misbehavior. Melvin was convicted in the Superior Court of Reckless Entjangering in the First Degree,1 Reckless Endangering in the Second Degree,2 Assault in the Third Degree,3 and three counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child.4 On appeal, Melvin raises two claims.5 First, he contends that the trial court abused its discretion by admitting evidence of other uncharged abusive acts against A.M. in violation of Delaware Rule of Evidence (“D.R.E.”) 403.6 Second, he contends that the trial court erred in allowing the jury to re-watch videotaped statements of A.M. and her younger sister, M.M., after the jury requested to view them during deliberations.7 - We find no merit to Melvin’s claims and affirm.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On July 12, 2012, Melvin, his wife, Pauline Morse (“Pauline”), then eleven-year old A.M., and her then six-year old sister, M.M., went to pick up food at Grotto Pizza. While at the restaurant, A.M. placed her hands on the glass cover of an ice cream display prompting Melvin to instruct her to wait in the car. Once they arrived home, Melvin told A.M. that she had to stay in the ear while the rest of the family went inside to eat dinner. Several hours [5]*5later, Melvin retrieved A.M. from the car by grabbing her ankle and dragging her across a gravel driveway, up concrete stairs, through the house, and into her room. Melvin then proceeded to hit A.M. repeatedly. The punishment ended with Melvin telling A.M. that the next day he was going to “punish[] [her] like [she’s] never been punished.”8 In fear of what Melvin meant by this threat, A.M. woke up early the next morning, packed a bag, and ran away to a friend’s house. Shortly thereafter, the friend’s mother contacted the police.

A.M. was taken to Beebe Hospital, where she was examined by medical personnel. According to the nurse who treated her, A.M. had a number of cuts and bruises on her body, particularly on her neck, back, right arm, and legs.9

Melvin was questioned at the police station. He admitted that he had dragged A.M., but claimed that he was merely trying to move her from the car into the house. He also claimed that it was Pauline who was responsible for disciplining the children and that he had not hit A.M. in years.

Pauline, A.M., and M.M. told a very different story. Both A.M. and M.M. were interviewed separately at the Children’s Advocacy Center (“CAC”). During their interviews, both girls described Melvin as a violent disciplinarian who focused his anger on A.M.10 A.M. explained that, among other inhumane punishments, Melvin would use a punishment technique that he referred to as “waterboarding.”11 Melvin would waterboard A.M. by picking her up, holding her face under a sink faucet, and running water over her nose and mouth so she could not breathe.12 Although Melvin, a pediatrician, reassured A.M. that she could last five minutes without oxygen, she said that she sometimes feared that he would forget to remove her from the water and kill her. A.M. also revealed that Melvin had on other occasions placed his hand over her mouth and nose, impairing her ability to breathe. M.M. stated in her CAC interview that Melvin would “clean[ ] [A.M.’s] hair by wa-terboarding.” 13

On September 25, 2012, Melvin and Pauline were charged with Assault in the Third Degree, four counts of Reckless Endangering in the First Degree, and five counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. The charges related to, inter alia, three instances of waterboarding and one of hand suffocation that all took place when A.M. was between ages nine and eleven. Pauline eventually entered into a plea agreement in which she pled guilty to multiple misdemeanors of endangering the welfare of a child and received a period of probation in exchange for testifying against Melvin.

Prior to Melvin’s trial, the State filed a motion in limine seeking to introduce evidence of Melvin’s other abusive acts against A.M. as well as evidence of Mel[6]*6vin’s abuse against A.M.’s older sister, S.M., who no longer lived with the family.14 Melvin opposed this motion, contending that the uncharged acts had no probative value and were highly prejudicial.

Prior to rendering its decision, the trial court held a hearing on the motion in limine during which both A.M. and M.M. testified. The court thereafter granted the State’s motion as to evidence of Melvin’s abuse against A.M. The court found that the uncharged acts of abuse against A.M. were material to an issue in the case, Melvin’s state of mind, and properly introduced to show “motive, opportunity, domination, plan, and intent.”15 The court further found that the evidence was “inextricably intertwined with the charges”16 because the “evidence support[ed] the notion that the charged acts were part and parcel of a punishment regime for [A.M.]’s major crimes as perceived by the defendant.” 17 Finally, the Superior Court found that the probative value of the evidence was not outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice and stated that it would give the jury an instruction as to the extent it could use the other abusive acts evidence.

The court denied, however, the State’s motion as to evidence of Melvin’s abuse of S.M. In so doing, the trial court stated: “The State advanced a theory that the defendant abused [S.M.] who was younger and later directed his abuse towards [A.M.] when [S.M.] became older and unavailable .... This evidence shall not be admitted.... The probative value ... is substantially outweighed by a danger of unfair prejudice.”18

At trial, the State presented testimonial evidence regarding Melvin’s other abusive acts against A.M. in order to establish Melvin’s punishment regime. . On four separate occasions, the trial court instructed the jury that the evidence of Melvin’s other abusive acts could only be used to determine his motive, opportunity, intent, domination, plan, and mental state. The instructions further stated that the jurors were not permitted to conclude that Melvin was a bad person or that he has a tendency to commit criminal acts.

Both A.M. and Pauline testified at trial and detailed Melvin’s regular abuse of A.M. They testified that A.M. spent a significant portion of her time at home being punished and that Melvin employed several forms of punishment in addition to “wa-terboarding.” These punishments included depriving A.M. of meals, force-feeding A.M., making A.M. stand for extended periods of time with her arms out, depriving A.M. of sleep, and trying to stick A.M.’s head in a toilet for forgetting to flush.

Melvin also restricted A.M.’s movements around the house, and installed bells on the door of her bedroom so that he would hear if she left her room.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
120 A.3d 1, 2015 Del. LEXIS 373, 2015 WL 4689544, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morse-v-state-del-2015.