State v. Clarke

379 P.3d 674, 279 Or. App. 373, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 895
CourtDeschutes County Circuit Court, Oregon
DecidedJuly 7, 2016
Docket10FE1357SF; A152453
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 379 P.3d 674 (State v. Clarke) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Deschutes County Circuit Court, Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Clarke, 379 P.3d 674, 279 Or. App. 373, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 895 (Or. Super. Ct. 2016).

Opinion

SERCOMBE, P. J.

Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for murder, ORS 163.115, for intentionally beating the victim to death with a baseball bat. Defendant contends that the trial court erroneously admitted prior act evidence that (1) defendant threatened the victim with a baseball bat between seven and 10 days before the murder and (2) that, about a month before the crime, defendant sat on the front porch of his home for several hours ruminating about whether to kill his ex-girlfriend, while holding a baseball bat. The state responds that the evidence was properly admitted. We agree with the state and, therefore, affirm.

Defendant and the victim were roommates; they argued frequently, and the greatest source of animosity between them was the victim’s relationship with defendant’s ex-girlfriend, Sisson. After defendant and Sisson broke up, Sisson became close friends with the victim and often came over to their apartment to spend time with the victim. The victim ignored defendant’s requests to not allow visits by Sisson. As a result, defendant became angry with Sisson and the victim and felt disrespected by their association. The victim told defendant that he had been intimate with Sisson.

Defendant’s hostility to Sisson and the victim grew. Defendant would sometimes say that he missed Sisson. At other times, he stated that he would rather she were dead and that he wanted to kill her. Defendant wrote in his journals in graphic detail about killing her.

For about two or three weeks before the murder, defendant repeatedly stated that he wanted to kill the victim, and he talked about beating the victim with a baseball bat “nonstop.” During that time, defendant also expressed a general desire to kill a person with a baseball bat. Defendant speculated that, if someone wronged him, hitting that person in the head with a bat would make him feel better. Defendant further said that he would love to hit someone in the head to hear the sound of a head “splitting open from a baseball bat.” Defendant also asked a friend to paint a mural of “blood spatter” on his bedroom door so he could [376]*376“lay on his bed” and see “what it would look like after he had bashed somebody with a baseball bat.” Defendant kept two baseball bats in his apartment, and he nearly always had at least one nearby.

On the night of the murder, defendant’s neighbor, Welch, heard shouting coming from the downstairs apartment. The person shouting said, “mother-fucker,” “white ass mother-fucker,” “back-stabber,” “you took everything I have,” and “you took my girl.” Welch also heard “thrashing and strikes” and the shouter saying, “yeah, yeah” with intensity in between the sound of the strikes. Welch called the police to report the disturbance. Police officers responded, but left without entering defendant’s apartment. After the police left, Welch decided to investigate because the fight had “sounded pretty rough.” He entered defendant’s apartment and discovered the victim lying on the ground with a large wound on the back of his head and blood splattered on the wall. Welch again called the police. The victim died on the way to the hospital. The cause of death was “multiple blunt force blows to the head.”

Defendant was implicated in the crime by both physical and circumstantial evidence. The baseball bat was discovered in the bushes along a route that defendant habitually walked. Shortly after the crime, a person matching defendant’s description was recorded on a security camera on that route near the location where the bat was discovered. The victim’s blood was on the bat and the jacket, pants, and shoes that defendant was wearing on the night of the murder. Defendant had a bruise on his left leg, which was consistent with swinging a blunt object with his right hand. Although Welch did not initially identify defendant as the person he heard shouting, at trial he testified that he was about 85 to 90 percent sure that the voice that he heard was defendant’s. Finally, while detained before trial, defendant confessed to three other inmates in the Deschutes County jail.

Prior to trial, the court determined that evidence of two prior acts by defendant was admissible. Defendant assigns error to those determinations. First, in a pretrial hearing on the state’s motion in limine, the state offered [377]*377testimony from Hodgkins, defendant and the victim’s onetime roommate, and Richmond, an acquaintance of defendant, that defendant threatened the victim with a baseball bat seven to 10 days before the victim was killed. According to those witnesses, one night, while defendant, the victim, Hodgkins, and Richmond were using drugs in defendant’s apartment, defendant suddenly began “wielding” a baseball bat at the victim. The victim retreated to his bedroom and pleaded with defendant to allow him to leave the apartment. Defendant asked the victim to come out of his bedroom. Defendant said, “This is how I get down,” and threatened to beat the victim with the bat while swinging it over his head. Defendant was very agitated, angry, and was “yelling at the top of his voice.” At one point, defendant swung the bat and hit the outside of the victim’s bedroom door. While he was swinging the bat, defendant shattered a light fixture over his head; after that, he calmed down and left the apartment with Richmond. Neither Hodgkins nor Richmond could recall exactly how the altercation started, but both stated that Sisson was the source of the tension between defendant and the victim.

In its motion in limine, the state argued that the evidence was admissible to show defendant’s “intent and lack of mistake,” “motive and plan,” and its “effect on the victim” under OEC 404(3)1 and OEC 404(4).2 In particular, the state argued that the evidence should be admitted under OEC 404(3) by application of the test in State v. [378]*378Johns, 301 Or 535, 725 P2d 312 (1986).3 At a pretrial hearing, the state also argued that the evidence was admissible under State v. Moen, 309 Or 45, 786 P2d 111 (1990), because evidence of prior threats by a defendant towards a murder victim are relevant to show the defendant’s “hostile motive” towards the victim. Further, the state emphasized that both the prior act and the murder involved the use of a baseball bat and that defendant “had an obsession with baseball bats ”

Defendant responded that the prior acts evidence was not admissible under Johns because Johns allows that evidence only when a defendant admits to committing the actus reus of the crime but denies a culpable mental state. Defendant asserted that he did not strike the victim with the bat. Defendant further disputed whether the evidence was relevant to show motive, because neither Richmond nor Hodgkins testified about the “basis for the argument” that led to defendant threatening the victim with the bat and, therefore, the state could not connect that evidence with any “particular motive” for the crime. Defendant also argued that the trial court could not admit the evidence without first determining that its probative value was not outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice under OEC 403.4

[379]*379The trial court ruled that the evidence was admissible, and explained its reasoning:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
379 P.3d 674, 279 Or. App. 373, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 895, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-clarke-orccdeschutes-2016.