State v. Carter

890 S.W.2d 449, 1994 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 425
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee·Decided July 13, 1994·Published·Cited by 20 cases

Opinion

OPINION

SUMMERS, Judge.

The appellant, James L. Carter, appeals from the judgment of the lower court holding that he can be retried for first-degree murder after the declaration of a mistrial. We granted the appellant’s application for interlocutory appeal to determine whether a subsequent prosecution for the same charge is prohibited by the double jeopardy provisions of the state and federal constitutions.

We find that appellant can be retried. We modify the judgment of the lower court as to the use of aggravating circumstances should appellant be convicted and a death penalty phase ensue.

Appellant was indicted for first-degree murder. Prior to trial, problems arose con *451 cerning the appellant’s failure to provide notice of an alibi defense. There were several motions and counter motions in this regard. The record also reveals that on February 11, 1993, the prosecution served formal notice pursuant to Rule 12.3 of the Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure that it intended to seek the death penalty. The defense was informed that the state would rely on the aggravating circumstances of T.C.A. § 39-13-204(i)(2) (prior violent felony) and T.C.A. § 39 — 13—204(i) (5) (heinous, atrocious, or cruel murder). The state subsequently filed an amended notice informing appellant that it would rely upon T.C.A. § 39 — 13—204(i)(7) (felony murder) as an additional aggravating circumstance. Before the trial actually began, however, the court ruled that the prosecution had not timely filed the amended notice of aggravating circumstances, and could not use the felony murder aggravator.

The trial commenced on March 1, 1993. By March 4, the court had begun hearing the testimony of witnesses. On that day, the state announced that it had found a new witness by the name of Gerald Speed. The state explained that Speed, who was in the Shelby County jail, had notified the District Attorney’s office that he wanted to talk to them. Interviewed on that day, Speed indicated that he witnessed the appellant and another man enter and leave the victim’s residence on the day of the murder.

On March 5, the prosecution informed the trial judge and defense counsel that through other information received from Speed, it had recovered a .380 pistol belonging to the victim. The state believed that the pistol was the murder weapon. It asked the court’s permission to have a ballistics test performed on the handgun and to allow Speed to testify at trial. In addition, the state announced that Speed had identified Michael Carrick as the man who entered the victim’s apartment with the appellant. Car-rick may have temporarily had possession of the .380 pistol on the day of the murder. Apparently, Carrick was already under subpoena by both the state and the defense.

During this series of developments, we learn that Speed and Carrick were represented by the Public Defender’s office on other criminal charges. Because the appellant was also represented by the Public Defender’s office, both sides agreed that independent counsel should be appointed to represent the two men.

The appellant’s attorneys complained to the court about all of the new developments. They argued that the large amount of newly-discovered evidence during the trial phase of the proceedings was the result of prosecuto-rial neglect. The prosecution denied neglect and advised the court that the appellant had a recently discovered alibi witness which had just been revealed to the state. Counsel for the appellant then informed the court that on March 1,1993, an additional alibi witness had been discovered. The state expressed much concern about not having been informed of this witness.

About this time during the proceedings, one of the court officers announced that there was a bomb threat in the building. The record is not clear as to whether the jury was informed of the bomb threat.

As a result of the potential new witnesses and evidence, as well as the other matters before the court, the trial judge, sua sponte, declared a mistrial. The judge ruled as follows:

To give the State and the Defense an opportunity to get their cases ready for trial and to bring all witnesses before the Court, it appears a witness has been untimely given to the State and also a witness has been untimely given to the Defense. And there is newly discovered witnesses and evidence that have been turned up during this trial.
The Court will now declare a mistrial. The Court is disappointed in counsel for filing documents late and evidence coming in at a late hour in this case. And we’ll now reset the trial—
The trial court later entered an order filed on March 18, 1993, that stated:
The Court finds sua sponte because of newly discovered evidence and witnesses; that all parties will be prejudiced and a mistrial is declared in the interests of justice.

*452 In April of 1998, the trial judge conducted a hearing on the appellant’s motion to dismiss the indictment on the ground of double jeopardy. An investigator with the District Attorney’s office testified that on March 4, 1993, Ms. Dorothy Boone informed the prosecution that her nephew, Gerald Speed, wanted to talk to personnel from the District Attorney’s office. The investigator spoke with Speed who told him that he had information regarding the ease. Speed expressed concern about his safety in jail and stated that he was afraid of the appellant. He also stated that he saw the appellant and Michael Carrick enter and leave the victim’s apartment on the day of the murder. The investigator testified that Speed gave him information that allowed him to recover a handgun which was later determined to be the murder weapon. After the testimony, the trial judge denied the motion to dismiss the indictment. The court found that the granting of the mistrial was “manifestly necessary” because of the unique circumstances involved. The court continued its findings:

The Court remembers that the State appeared to have other pertinent evidence brought up during the trial, and also the defendant filed an amended notice of alibi witnesses somewhere right before the trial got started.
It appears to the Court that neither the defense nor the State were prepared to go forward after the jury was sworn, although some witnesses were heard and presented. Witnesses were placed on the record, and it appeared that this caused the Court some concern because the witnesses possibly needed some direction from an attorney, so the Court appointed lawyers to represent these witnesses due to the fact that they — that the time was needed for these lawyers to properly represent these witnesses, in the fact that they might be stating matters that would possibly put them in some jeopardy with the law.

We have entertained this appeal based upon the trial court’s refusal to dismiss the indictment. Appellant contends that his retrial for first-degree murder is barred by double jeopardy.

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State v. Carter, 890 S.W.2d 449, 1994 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 425 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1994).

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