State of Iowa v. Cornell Miller

874 N.W.2d 659, 2015 WL 10436019
CourtCourt of Appeals of Iowa
DecidedAugust 19, 2015
Docket14-1202
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 874 N.W.2d 659 (State of Iowa v. Cornell Miller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State of Iowa v. Cornell Miller, 874 N.W.2d 659, 2015 WL 10436019 (iowactapp 2015).

Opinions

McDonald, j.

Cornell Miller was convicted of delivery of a controlled substance as a habitual offender, in violation of Iowa Code sections 124.401(l)(c) and 902.8 (2013), and involuntary manslaughter as a habitual offender, in violation of Iowa Code sections 707.5(1) and 902.8. On appeal, Miller challenges only his manslaughter conviction, claiming there is insufficient evidence to support the conviction. Miller also challenges the district court’s refusal to give his requested jury instruction on causation.

I.

On September 11, 2013, Miller sold three doses of heroin to Trisha Delong and Dan Hansen. Delong and Hansen were in a romantic relationship and cohabited. According to Delong, she and Hansen went to Miller’s residence to purchase the heroin, and they returned to their residence to consume the heroin. They combined the three doses of heroin into two doses and consumed them intravenously. Delong admitted she injected the heroin into Hansen’s arm. After ingesting the heroin, Hansen and Delong both passed out. When Delong awoke, she noticed Hansen was still passed out. She tried to wake him, but he was non-responsive. She contacted 911 emergency services. Paramedics responded to the home and transported Hansen to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Dr. Dennis Firchau conducted the autopsy. The autopsy revealed Hansen was in extremely poor health, suffering from several medical conditions, including obesity, the narrowing of his coronary arteries, an enlarged heart due to hypertension, a congenital abnormality of his heart valve, and a malignant tumor on his kidney. Toxicology results showed Hansen had blood ethanol level of .043. The results also showed metabolites of heroin in Hansen’s system. Dr. Firchau testified he would have opined Hansen’s cause of death was heart disease if there had been no heroin present in Hansen’s system. Ultimately, Dr. Firchau opined Hansen died from combined alcohol and heroin intoxication. Dr. Firchau explained Hansen’s alcohol intoxication alone “most likely” would not have caused his death. He was never asked during trial whether Hansen would have died from heroin overdose in the absence of alcohol.

During the course of the investigation into Hansen’s death, Delong identified Miller as the person from whom she and Hansen had purchased the heroin that night. The police executed a search warrant on Miller’s residence and discovered items consistent with narcotics distribution. Miller was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter and delivery of a controlled substance.

At trial, Miller argued that Delong’s injection of heroin into Hansen’s arm was an intervening and superseding cause of Hansen’s death, and Miller requested an instruction on the same. The district court declined to give the requested instruction. Miller’s counsel then requested that if his intervening-cause instruction was not given, then no additional instruction on causation be given. The district court granted Miller’s request and did not give any in[662]*662struction defining causation. The jury-found Miller guilty as charged. At sentencing, Miller stipulated to the habitual offender sentencing enhancement. The district court sentenced Miller to serve an indeterminate term of incarceration not to exceed fifteen years. This .appeal followed.

II.

Miller first contends there was insufficient evidence to prove he acted recklessly. “[W]e review challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence for correction, of errors at law.” State v. Edouard, 854 N.W.2d 421, 431 (Iowa 2014). “In reviewing challenges to the sufficiency of evidence supporting a guilty verdict, courts consider all of the record evidence viewed in the light most favorable to the State, including all reasonable inferences that may be fairly drawn from the evidence.” State v. Sanford, 814 N.W.2d 611, 615 (Iowa 2012) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). We will uphold a verdict if it is supported by substantial evidence. See id. “Evidence is considered substantial if, when viewed in the light most favorable to the State, it can convince a rational jury that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable, doubt.” Id. But “[e]vidence that raises only ‘suspicion, speculation, or conjecture’ is not substantial evidence.” State v. Thomas, 561 N.W.2d 37, 39 (Iowa 1997). “Inherent in our standard of review of jury verdicts in criminal cases is the recognition that the jury [is] free to reject certain evidence and credit other evidence.” Sanford, 814 N.W.2d at 615 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

We begin our discussion with the' relevant statute and eases interpreting the same. Iowa Code section 707.5 provides that felonious involuntary manslaughter, as charged here, occurs “when the person unintentionally causes the death of another person by the commission of a public offense other than a forcible felony or escape.” Iowa Code § 707.5(l)(a). On its face, the statute appears to impose strict liability for the death of another caused by the commission of a public offense other than forcible felony or escape. In State v. Conner, 292 N.W.2d 682, 686 (Iowa 1980), however, the court held the legislature “intended to preserve the common law requirement of recklessness in its provisions for involuntary manslaughter.” Since Conner, our courts have contiriued to hold that l’ecklessness “is an additional element that must be proven to sustain a conviction for involuntary manslaughter.” State v. Torres, 495 N.W.2d 678, 681 (Iowa 1993); see also, e.g., State v. Ayers, 478 N.W.2d 606, 608 (Iowa 1991) (“The underlying public offense must be committed recklessly in order to form the basis of involuntary manslaughter.”); State v. Kernes, 262 N.W.2d 602, 605 (Iowa 1978) (“Culpable conduct should require proof of recklessness.”); State v. Hoon, No. 11-0459, 2012 WL 836698, at *3 (Iowa Ct.App. Mar. 14, 2012) (discussing recklessness element).

Our courts frequently have addressed the issue of what constitutes reckless conduct in the context of involuntary manslaughter. Two cases are worth discussing here. In State v. Caldwell, 385 N.W.2d 553, 556 (Iowa 1986), the defendant requested an .instruction defining recklessness as “conduct creating a high and unreasonable risk of death and ... that [the] defendant [was] aware of that risk.” The court rejected the argument, concluding it was sufficient to show the defendant appreciated or should have appreciated some risk of harm. See Caldwell, 385 N.W.2d at 556.

The court revisited the issue of recklessness in Torres. See 495 N.W.2d at 681-82. In that case, the defendant- physically [663]*663abused his wife. See id. at 679-80. During the altercation, he swept a glass lamp off the night stand. See id. at 679.

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Bluebook (online)
874 N.W.2d 659, 2015 WL 10436019, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-iowa-v-cornell-miller-iowactapp-2015.