State v. Cauthern

778 S.W.2d 39, 1989 Tenn. LEXIS 451
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 25, 1989
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 778 S.W.2d 39 (State v. Cauthern) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Cauthern, 778 S.W.2d 39, 1989 Tenn. LEXIS 451 (Tenn. 1989).

Opinion

OPINION

PONES, Justice.

This is a direct appeal of a death penalty case. Defendant Ronnie M. Cauthern and a co-defendant Brett Patterson were indicted for felony murder of Patrick Smith and his wife Rosemary Smith during the perpetration of first degree burglary, and aggravated rape of Mrs. Smith. The jury found both defendants guilty of the two murders, first degree burglary and aggravated rape. At the guilt phase the jury sentenced Patterson to life imprisonment and Cauthern received the death penalty. Patterson’s appeal is pending in the Court of Criminal Appeals. This case is the direct appeal of Ronnie Cauthern.

The Smiths were both captains in the U.S. Army stationed at Fort Campbell Kentucky. They lived in a split-level home in Clarksville, Tennessee, that they had purchased shortly after assignment to the nearby base. Both were nurses. When neither of them reported to their duty stations on the morning of 9 January 1987 and telephone calls to their home received no answer, two persons from the base went to their home, observed broken glass in the rear door, and both cars in the garage. A 911 call was made and the police arrived promptly and discovered the body of Patrick Smith lying face down on the bed in the master bedroom, facing 90 degrees counter clockwise from his sleeping position, and wrapped in the top sheet. He had been strangled to death, apparently with a length of 880 military cord. The bed was broken and tilted indicating a violent struggle had taken place. His wife’s nude body was found on the floor. A scarf was tied around her neck and a small vase had been inserted into the scarf. She died of strangulation, the vase was obviously used to twist the scarf and reduce the circumference. Both had massive hematoma of the neck area. Mrs. Smith’s nightgown and buttons torn from it were found in the room. Semen was apparent on the gown and a comforter from the bed. Sperm was found in the vaginal vault. Tests revealed the presence of PGM Type 1 secretions. The forensic serologist testified that the PGM Type 1 from the swab “was consistent with Cauthern, as well as Rosemary Smith.”

The police found the telephone line had been cut near its entry into the outside wall of the house. A shoe print was found on the back door that matched Patterson’s shoe. In a statement that he gave police he admitted kicking the back door once or twice, but said it would not open so they obtained a hammer and broke the pane of glass nearest the door knob to gain entry. The house was ransacked, chest of drawers open, luggage and clothing scattered about. In the master bedroom, the police found a piece of paper upon which was written defendant Cauthern’s name, address and telephone number. Rosemary Smith’s sister testified she was familiar with both her sister’s and her brother-in-law’s handwriting and the information about Cauthern was not written by either of them. The cumulative evidence in this record establishes that defendant and the Smiths had been acquainted for approximately a year at the time of the murders, that he had performed some work on Patrick’s Mercedes and perhaps some additional work at their home, although he said in one of his statements that he had never been inside their home until the evening of 8 January 1987.

*41 As far as this record shows the investigation of these murders did not focus on Cauthern and Patterson until James Phillip Andrew telephoned the Clarksville Police and asked to speak to an officer he had seen on T.V. news in a segment reporting on the double murder. That call was made at about 11:00 a.m. Monday morning 12 January 1987. A meeting with Andrew was arranged and as a result of the information he gave police, defendant and Patterson were arrested that afternoon.

Andrew was in the U.S. Army stationed at Fort Campbell. He was living in a trailer located in a mobile home park in Oak Grove, Kentucky, which he shared with Joe Denning and another man. Joe Denning was acquainted with defendant and Patterson and Andrew became acquainted with them through Denning. Andrew testified that defendant and Patterson came to the trailer to see Denning about 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. on Friday morning, 9 January, that after being awakened by their arrival he went back to sleep and neither heard nor saw anything relevant to the Smith murders. Andrew went to work at the base as usual that day and saw defendant again that night at the trailer and later at Rockvegas. It was not until Saturday afternoon at the trailer when they started to get “high” smoking marijuana that defendant began telling Andrew about his role in the Smith murders. Andrew did not believe him until defendant went to his car trunk and brought a box into the trailer containing credit cards, identification cards in the names of Patrick and Rosemary Smith, clothing and other items of personal property taken from their home.

Defendant gave several statements to the police, one of which was recorded on tape, transcribed and introduced at trial. Although he admitted participating in a robbery of the Smith premises, he denied that he “planned” anything or raped or murdered anyone. He claimed that he had had sexual relations with Mrs. Smith twice before and that she invited him to come to the Smith house and knock on the back door that Thursday evening. His statement to the police contained numerous contradictions and discrepancies. The “statement” he gave Andrew on Saturday afternoon while high on marijuana more closely coincided with proven events than any version that appears in this record. We quote from that part of Andrew’s testimony, as follows:

A He said that him and Patterson went to the Smith’s house — see, I didn’t know the names then.
Q Was the name at that time not in the murder report in the paper?
A They weren’t in the newspaper, there were no names and he said how they broke into the house, they kicked the door and they broke the window in the door, they opened the door, went in and they said they were sleeping and they woke up and Mr. Smith — you know, kept saying — what do you want and he said — Ronnie said that Patterson had jumped Mr. Smith and Ronnie had told Mrs. Smith to get in the closet. While he was doing that, they were trying to strangle — said they was trying to strangle Mr. Smith and Ronnie took Mrs. Smith in another room and said he had raped her then and went back in to help Patterson with Mr. Smith, and they said they couldn’t get him down and they had to use a strap or belt, I don’t know, to strangle him, and when they got him down, they both went in and then they raped her and then Ronnie killed Mrs. Smith—
Q Ronnie killed who?
A Mrs. Smith.
Q Did he tell you how he killed Mrs. Smith?
A Yes.
Q Tell the ladies and gentlemen of the jury what he told you as to how he did that?
A Okay, he first tried to strangle her, he couldn’t do it, and then he grabbed the scarf, wrapped it around her neck and put a vase in it like a tourniquet and turned it until she strangled.
Q Did he talk to you about the sexual—
A Yes.
Q What did he tell you about that?
*42

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Rice v. Crowell
W.D. Tennessee, 2022
State of Tennessee v. Antonio Toomes
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2020
State of Tennessee v. Joseph Woodruff
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2020
State of Tennessee v. Mattie Florence Sweeney
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2018
State of Tennessee v. Thomas Paul Odum
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2017
Randy A. Rice v. State of Tennessee
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2017
State of Tennessee v. Nathan Bernard Lalone
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2017
Ronald Cauthern v. State of Tennessee
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2017
State of Tennessee v. Jonathan Alajemba
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2014
Ronald Cauthern v. Roland Colson
736 F.3d 465 (Sixth Circuit, 2013)
State of Tennessee v. Perry Avram March
395 S.W.3d 738 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2011)
State v. Downey
259 S.W.3d 723 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 2008)
State of Tennessee v. Demario Tabb
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2007
State v. Vann
976 S.W.2d 93 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1998)
Brimmer v. State
29 S.W.3d 497 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 1998)
State v. Cauthern
967 S.W.2d 726 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1998)
State v. Hall
958 S.W.2d 679 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1997)
State v. Keen
926 S.W.2d 727 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1996)
Harris v. State
947 S.W.2d 156 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 1996)
State v. Nichols
877 S.W.2d 722 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1994)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
778 S.W.2d 39, 1989 Tenn. LEXIS 451, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cauthern-tenn-1989.