State v. Cockrell

395 P.3d 612, 284 Or. App. 674, 2017 Ore. App. LEXIS 482
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedApril 12, 2017
DocketCR1101145; A154053
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 395 P.3d 612 (State v. Cockrell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Cockrell, 395 P.3d 612, 284 Or. App. 674, 2017 Ore. App. LEXIS 482 (Or. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

SERCOMBE, P. J.

Following a jury trial, defendant was convicted of three "counts of murder by abuse, ORS 163.115, and five counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment, ORS 163.205, primarily relating to the death of his three-year-old daughter, A.1 In his first eight assignments of error, defendant contends that the trial court erred when it denied his motions for judgment of acquittal on the murder by abuse and criminal mistreatment charges. In addition, in his twelfth and thirteenth assignments, defendant asserts that the trial court erred in its response to a question from the jury during deliberations. We reject all of those assignments of error without discussion. In his ninth through eleventh assignments of error, defendant asserts that the trial court erred in refusing to order the state to provide notes of a witness, Smith’s, grand jury testimony either before or after Smith testified at trial, and in refusing to conduct an in camera review of those notes. Finally, in his fourteenth and fifteenth assignments of error, defendant argues that the trial court erred in imposing sentences on two counts (Counts 4 and 6) that it had earlier ruled would merge into another count (Count 2). As explained below, we reject defendant’s ninth through eleventh and fourteenth and fifteenth assignments of error and, therefore, affirm.

I. BACKGROUND FACTS

A was found dead on Saturday, January 9, 2010. In the months before that, beginning in October 2009, A lived exclusively with defendant and his fiancée, Smith. The other children in the household were A’s younger sister, K, Smith’s young daughters E and J, and Smith and defendant’s child, C. During that time period, A’s mother saw her on only two to three occasions.

On January 9, based on a 9-1-1 call, emergency responders were sent to the home where defendant and Smith lived—an apartment under Smith’s parent’s house—having [677]*677been told that a child had jumped on another child’s head, and the child who had been jumped on was not breathing. Upon arriving at the scene, the circumstances did not appear to be consistent with the report they had received. A’s body was lying on the floor and the pajamas she was wearing had been partly unzipped. She appeared emaciated and had many bruises on her face and body. It soon became clear that A had been dead for some time and that efforts to revive her would be futile. A lead paramedic made a call requesting that law enforcement response be expedited and, after talking to a police officer about what they had observed at the scene, medical personnel left. As part of the criminal investigation that followed, police officers separated defendant and Smith, took initial statements from them, photographed the scene, and called in the medical examiner.

An autopsy was conducted the following day by Dr. Larry Lewman. Lewman determined that the cause of A’s death was physical and nutritional child abuse. He found in excess of 70 bruises on A’s body. A was also emaciated, weighing only 21.25 pounds—so little that her weight was well below the percentiles reflected on growth charts so that she was, essentially skin and bones. There was no food in her digestive tract and she had suffered from starvation. She was also dehydrated and blood vessels in both of her eyes had burst. According to the doctor, the “terminal mechanism”—that is, the immediate mechanism of A’s death—was bronchopneumonia and dehydration. In other words, A suffered from starvation that, in turn, compromised her system to such a degree that she ultimately succumbed to pneumonia.

On January 10, 2010, after the autopsy was performed, defendant and Smith were each interviewed by police. In her statement to police that day, Smith did not admit any culpability in A’s death, nor did she provide any explanation for it. She did tell officers that A was very slow to eat and had not wanted to eat or drink over the past several days. She also said that A and K had developed coughs over the past few days and that A had been throwing up, dry heaving, and had woken up with “goopy” eyes. The interview was terminated after approximately 30 minutes; at that point, an officer began to question Smith about [678]*678the discipline that had been used in the household and she invoked her right to counsel. After the interview, defendant and Smith were arrested and criminally charged in relation to A’s death. In December 2010, as part of an agreement to plead guilty to aggravated murder in relation to A’s death, Smith made another statement to police and agreed to give evidence before a grand jury and at trial. The state presented Smith’s testimony to the grand jury, which returned an indictment charging defendant with aggravated murder, murder by abuse, and first-degree criminal mistreatment.

Ultimately, Smith was one of the witnesses called by the state at defendant’s trial on those charges. Among other things, Smith explained that during her relationship with defendant she was addicted to opiates. She engaged in drug seeking behaviors, going to multiple doctors to obtain prescriptions for opiates and also purchasing prescription opiates from a drug dealer. She kept a pill crusher, which defendant knew about, in the bathroom and would crush the pills and snort them. According to Smith, defendant was well aware of her drug addiction.

According to Smith, in August 2009, defendant, Smith, and the children moved into the apartment under Smith’s parent’s home. They were expected to pay rent, but did not do so as neither of them was working for much of the time they lived in the apartment. Eventually, Smith’s parents insisted that they begin paying rent, and, in the middle of December 2009, defendant began working. He worked weekdays and had weekends and Christmas Day and New Year’s Day off; on days that defendant worked, Smith and the children would all ride in the car to drop defendant off at a public transit station around 6:00 a.m. Smith and the children would meet defendant at the public transit station to pick him up again at approximately 8:30 p.m.

Smith explained that A had issues with eating; A would sit with food in front of her and would take large amounts of time to eat small amounts of food and had to be monitored and told to eat, chew, and swallow. A was spanked or sent to a corner for not eating. A was on a nutritional supplement, as had been recommended by a doctor, when defendant and Smith first got together as a couple. However, they [679]*679did not continue purchasing and giving her that supplement over the course of the relationship. Although A’s eating trouble worsened in the months before she died, neither defendant nor Smith started her on the nutritional supplement again. Furthermore, through December and early January, both A and K lost significant amounts of weight. Smith did not monitor to make sure that A was eating.

Over the few weeks that defendant was employed, Smith essentially stopped taking care of the apartment. She did not do laundry or clean, and generally did not purchase food that had to be cooked. She also began helping her mother with her mother’s business several hours a night, going upstairs to her parents’ house when defendant was home—on weekends or around 8:30 on weeknights— leaving him alone with the children until she came back between midnight and 2:00 a.m. on weeknights.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
395 P.3d 612, 284 Or. App. 674, 2017 Ore. App. LEXIS 482, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cockrell-orctapp-2017.