State v. Jump

269 N.W.2d 417, 1978 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 1013
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedAugust 30, 1978
Docket60533
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 269 N.W.2d 417 (State v. Jump) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Jump, 269 N.W.2d 417, 1978 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 1013 (iowa 1978).

Opinion

MASON, Justice (By special assignment).

Defendant, David Randel Jump, appeals from judgment imposing sentence upon his conviction by a jury of the crime of manslaughter asserting that his constitutional rights were violated by the admission into evidence of statements he alleges were made involuntary as a result of psychological coercion and that the court erred in failing to give an instruction to disregard any inference defendant was untruthful or guilty because he had been given a polygraph test.

A county attorney’s information was filed in the Shelby District Court January 3, 1977, charging defendant with murder in violation of section 690.1, The Code, 1976 (sic). January 10, defendant entered a plea of not guilty. February 8, defendant filed a motion to suppress the statements of several witnesses listed in the minutes of testimony attached to the information.

This motion contained the following charge:

“That the testimony of each of said witnesses was obtained illegally by an unlawful and illegal interrogation of the defendant in violation of his constitutional rights, and that said evidence consists of reputed statements made by the defendant which were involuntarily made without having been advised of his right of counsel and without the presence of counsel or any of the members of his family and after a prolonged interrogation during which the defendant was deprived of his liberty and confined in a place without access; that the part of said testimony relates to and is the direct result of information given by the defendant and received by others herein named involuntarily while under duress and in violation of his constitutional rights.”

After a hearing on this motion, it was overruled by the court.

February 28, defendant filed a motion to reopen the hearing on the motion to suppress for presentation of additional evidence. This motion was later amended to request permission to present further evidence. The court overruled this motion and the amendment thereto finding they would not change its original ruling and that they were untimely made.

Trial to a jury began March 1. During the State’s evidence, it introduced testimony of Ronald Mower, a B.C.I. agent, who had conducted a polygraph examination of defendant and had interviewed him after the examination. During the examination of this witness by the State and defendant, no mention was made of the polygraph examination or its results. The first testimony concerning this examination was raised when defendant was being questioned by his attorney.

March 7, after both sides had rested, the court acknowledged that on March 6 it had received a proposed instruction from de *419 fendant concerning the manner in which the jury should consider the results of the polygraph examination. The court noted it had not included this proposed instruction in its preliminary draft of instructions. It then granted defendant additional time in which to submit another proposed instruction. This proposed instruction and all previous exceptions to the instructions were then overruled by the court.

The next day the court furnished the attorneys with its final draft of its instructions. It pointed out it had not included either of defendant’s proposed instructions on the polygraph examination. Later defense counsel objected to the court’s refusal to give defendant’s proposed instruction. The court then noted both of defendant’s instructions had been timely submitted and that it had refused to give both.

March 9, the jury returned its verdict finding defendant guilty of manslaughter.

March 28, defendant filed a motion to suppress evidence, in arrest of judgment and for new trial. In this motion defendant contended his oral statements made to agent Mower and the evidence produced at trial as a result of these statements should have been suppressed because they were “ * * * involuntary and obtained by duress and in violation of defendant’s rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution and laws of the State of Iowa, * * He also stated therein the trial court had erred “ * * * in refusing to give defendant’s requested jury instruction concerning the inadmissibility of evidence regarding the results of defendant’s polygraph examination administered by BCI agent Ronald Mower.”

This motion was overruled by the court on the same day it was filed. Later that day after a sentencing hearing, the court sentenced defendant to the Men’s State Reformatory at Anamosa for a period of not to exceed eight years unless sooner released by law. The court also fined defendant the sum of $1,000.

The charge against defendant arose out of the death by stabbing of Kevin Dean Senyard. Kevin’s frozen body was found on December 14, 1976, by two boys at an abandoned farmstead approximately three miles northeast of Kirkman, Iowa. The boys discovered the body inside a shed when one of them peered into the shed through a broken out window in it. In order to reach the body the boys had to remove two boards and a tin box which were blocking the doorway.

After entering the shed and determining the victim was dead, the boys returned to their home and called the Shelby County Sheriff.

The sheriff, his deputies and the boys went to the shed. Photographs were taken of the entrance to the shed with the boards and tin box having been replaced by the boys, of the inside of the shed and of the body itself.

Later that day the sheriff enlisted the aid of the B.C.I. in the investigation. Over the course of the next few days the sheriff and the B.C.I. agents investigated the stabbing. This investigation led them to believe defendant was the last person seen with the victim.

December 20, a B.C.I. agent questioned defendant at the school he attended. Defendant stated Kevin Senyard and some other boys had pushed defendant’s pickup truck from a friend’s house a block away to his house when it would not start. Defendant then used his mother’s car to drop off the other boys and to drop off his mother at a special city council meeting. He then contended he dropped Kevin off at a local restaurant and went home. The investigator then asked defendant if he would consent to take a polygraph examination in reference to the statement he had just made. Defendant stated he would cooperate.

The next day defendant was asked to come to the courthouse for the examination. He arrived at the courthouse between 3:30 and 4:00 p. m. after he had taken his mother’s car for a safety inspection. During the course of the ensuing events, defendant’s mother arrived at the courthouse and asked *420 the officers if defendant could tell her where the keys to her car were so that she could use the car to go to a concert in which her daughter was playing. She was informed of the location of the keys and that an agent would take her son home when they were finished.

After defendant arrived at the courthouse, he was taken to a room near the sheriff’s office and introduced to B.C.I. agent Mower. Mower read to defendant the standard release form used by the B.C.I. and asked defendant to explain what each of his Miranda rights meant to him. This form also informed him he was free to leave the polygraph room at any time.

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Bluebook (online)
269 N.W.2d 417, 1978 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 1013, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-jump-iowa-1978.