State v. Finch

46 P.3d 421, 202 Ariz. 410, 378 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 38, 2002 Ariz. LEXIS 84
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedMay 24, 2002
DocketCR-99-0551-AP
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 46 P.3d 421 (State v. Finch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona 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. Finch, 46 P.3d 421, 202 Ariz. 410, 378 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 38, 2002 Ariz. LEXIS 84 (Ark. 2002).

Opinion

OPINION

McGREGOR, Vice Chief Justice.

¶ 1 A grand jury charged Marcus Finch with fifty-six counts of armed robbery, kidnaping, aggravated assault, and attempted first degree murder for three robberies that occurred in Tucson on April 12, 24, and 28 of 1998. He was also charged with one count of first degree murder for the death of Kevin Hendricks that occurred during the April 28 robbery. The trial court consolidated all three incidents for a dual jury trial with Finch’s co-defendant, Keith Phillips. Finch’s jury convicted him of first degree felony murder, as well as most of the non-homicide counts. Following a sentencing hearing, Judge Bernard P. Velasco sentenced Finch to death on December 6, 1999. Appeal to this court is automatic and direct when the court imposes a sentence of death. Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) § 13-703.01 (2001). We exercise jurisdiction pursuant to Article 6, Section 5.3 of the Arizona Constitution, A.R.S. section 13^4031 and Arizona Rule of Criminal Procedure 31.2(b).

I.

A.

¶2 Around 1:30 a.m. on April 12, 1998, Finch and Phillips entered the Famous Sam’s restaurant on Silverbell and Grant in Tucson. Finch, who was carrying a sawed-off rifle, and Phillips, carrying a handgun, ordered two of the four restaurant employees into the cooler. When waitress Shelly Raab saw Finch, she dropped to her knees about one arm’s length away from him. Finch pointed *413 the sawed-off rifle at her chest, said, “Get in the cooler, bitch,” and shot her in the chest. Next, Finch grabbed Raab by the hair and dragged her into the cooler.

¶ 3 After taking the employees to the cooler, Finch and Phillips held office manager Beverly Rochon at gunpoint and told her to lead them to the money. Rochon gave them all the money she could find and went back into the cooler. Finch and Phillips left shortly thereafter.

¶4 Shelly Raab survived, but the bullet fragmented her liver, lung and stomach, caused her to lose her spleen, a kidney, and part of her pancreas. Raab’s injuries have left her with a permanent limp and frequent numbness in her legs.

B.

¶ 5 At 10:30 p.m. on April 23, 1998, Phillips came into the Firelight Lounge on Wetmore in Tucson and asked what time the bar closed. Jaimi Ramirez Gilson, the bartender, told him that she closed at 1:00 a.m. Two hours later, Finch walked into the bar and asked for a Killian’s Red beer. When Ms. Gilson stepped into the cooler to get the beer, Phillips came in the front door with a sawed-off rifle and shouted, “Everybody on the fucking floor or I’m going to blow your brains out.” Ms. Gilson tried to hide behind the bar but Finch, who had a handgun, grabbed her by the hair, dragged her to the cash register, and told her to open it. After taking the money, Finch dragged Ms. Gilson to the men’s restroom and threw her inside.

¶ 6 Meanwhile, Phillips took money from the customers and herded them into the women’s restroom when he learned there was no cooler large enough to hold them. As patron Bill Gilson was entering the women’s restroom, Phillips shot him once in the shoulder and once in the back. Gilson fell into the restroom, where other patrons assisted him. Finch and Phillips left the bar, and the police arrived shortly thereafter.

¶7 Bill Gilson survived, but one of the bullets collapsed his right lung. In addition, he lost his spleen and part of his liver and remained in a coma for three weeks.

C.

¶8 Around midnight on April 28, 1998, Finch walked into the Famous Sam’s located at Cardinal and Valencia in Tucson and asked Margaret Damron, the bartender, how much a Killian’s Red beer cost. When she answered, he told her he was going back to his car to get some change. When Finch returned, he sat down and ordered a beer. A few minutes later, Phillips walked through the front door with a sawed-off rifle and opened fire directly into the backs of customers seated at the bar. Phillips shot Ricardo Herrera in both arms and Mario Rodriguez in one arm. Finch, armed with a handgun, suddenly emerged from a restroom and told one patron, “Get down or I’ll fucking shoot you.” Finch then saw two customers, Preston Juan and Kevin Hendricks, fleeing out the back door. Finch followed them outside and shot Hendricks in the back twice. After returning to the restaurant, Finch forced several patrons into the walk-in cooler and Phillips held Damron at gunpoint until she gave him all the money from the restaurant office.

¶9 Shortly after midnight on April 28, 1998, Pima County Sheriffs Deputy Jeff Englander received a dispatch stating that shots had been fired at the Famous Sam’s on Cardinal and Valencia. When he arrived at the restaurant’s parking lot, he saw a gold Chrysler LeBaron speeding out of the lot. Englander pursued the LeBaron until it finally pulled over and stopped. Englander ordered Finch and Phillips out of the car and took them into custody. Inside the car Eng-lander found money, an empty gun holster on the driver’s side where Finch had been sitting, and a sawed-off rifle on the passenger side where Phillips had been seated. Deputy Thomas Adduci, who searched the LeBaron pursuant to a search warrant, found a .380 caliber handgun with a live round in the chamber and three more in the magazine as well as .22 caliber ammunition.

¶ 10 Some time after Deputy Englander took Finch and Phillips into custody, dispatch informed him that a mall security guard had found a body in the rear parking lot of Famous Sam’s. The parties stipulated it was *414 the body of Kevin Hendricks. Hendricks died of two gunshot wounds. One bullet entered the right side of Hendricks’ back, punctured his right lung, and exited below his collarbone. The other entered the upper part of the left side of his back and lodged in his left lung.

D.

¶ 11 Finch confessed to all three robberies. At trial, testifying before his jury only, he admitted participating in the robberies, shooting Shelly Raab and shooting Kevin Hendricks. Finch stated that he shot Hendricks twice in the back to prevent him from telling anyone that a robbery was taking place. Finch’s jury convicted him of several counts of attempted first degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault with serious physical injury, kidnaping, armed robbery, and one count of first degree felony murder.

¶ 12 Following a sentencing hearing, the trial court found that the State had proved beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of statutory aggravating factors under A.R.S. sections 13-703.F.5 (expectation of pecuniary gain) and 13-703.F.2 (prior conviction of a serious offense). 1 Furthermore, the trial court found that Finch failed to prove any statutory mitigation, and that the few proved nonstatutory mitigating factors did not warrant leniency. The court concluded that either of the two aggravating circumstances was sufficient in itself to outweigh the mitigating factors.

II.

¶ 13 Finch asserts that because officers continued to question him after he made a clear and unambiguous request for counsel the trial court should have excluded his confession. We will not reverse a trial court’s ruling on the admissibility of a confession absent clear and manifest error. State v. Eastlack, 180 Ariz.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
46 P.3d 421, 202 Ariz. 410, 378 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 38, 2002 Ariz. LEXIS 84, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-finch-ariz-2002.