State v. Leach

148 S.W.3d 42, 2004 Tenn. LEXIS 741, 2004 WL 1977627
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 8, 2004
DocketM2001-01421-SC-DDT-DD
StatusPublished
Cited by344 cases

This text of 148 S.W.3d 42 (State v. Leach) 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. Leach, 148 S.W.3d 42, 2004 Tenn. LEXIS 741, 2004 WL 1977627 (Tenn. 2004).

Opinions

OPINION

JANICE M. HOLDER, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court,

in which FRANK F. DROWOTA, III, C.J., and E. RILEY ANDERSON, and WILLIAM M. BARKER, JJ. joined.

In this capital case, the defendant, Robert L. Leach, Jr., was convicted of two counts of first degree premeditated murder, two counts of first degree felony murder, one count of especially aggravated robbery, and one count of aggravated rape. The trial court merged the felony murder convictions with the premeditated murder convictions. The jury imposed sentences of death for the two murder convictions. The trial court imposed two consecutive [47]*47sentences of twenty-five years for the especially aggravated robbery and aggravated rape convictions, which were ordered to run consecutively to the two death sentences. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Leach’s convictions and sentences. On automatic appeal under Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-13-206(a)(1), we designated the following issues for oral argument:1 1) whether the evidence is insufficient to support convictions for premeditated murder and felony murder; 2) whether the trial court erred in prohibiting Leach from presenting a witness to discredit the testimony of Joseph Walker; 3) whether the trial court committed reversible error in instructing the jury to consider evidence of Leach’s attack on Dorianne Brown to “complete the story”; 4) whether the death penalty is precluded in this case under Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), because aggravating circumstances were not set out in the indictment; and 5) whether the sentences of death are disproportionate or invalid under the mandatory review of Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-13-206(c)(l). Having carefully reviewed these issues and the remainder of the issues raised by Leach, we conclude that they do not warrant relief. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The State’s proof at trial showed that Leach arrived by bus in Nashville in June 1999. Leach had left Missouri to pursue a career in music and to avoid revocation of his parole on a Texas burglary conviction. By early July 1999, he was working as a server at a Denny’s restaurant in south Nashville and living at a nearby Econo Lodge hotel.

Around 3:00 a.m. on July 8, 1999, Leach forced his way into the room of Dorianne Brown, an Econo Lodge employee who lived at the hotel, and started to choke her. When someone knocked on the door, Leach pulled out a knife and told Brown not to say anything. After the person at the door left, the telephone rang and distracted Leach. Brown ran out of the room to the hotel office and asked for the police to be called. When the police arrived, Leach was gone.

Around 7:00 a.m. that same morning, Louise Howard telephoned her sister, Sarah McBride, a sixty-nine-year-old widow who lived about a mile from the Econo Lodge. McBride’s cousin, seventy-year-old Jean Poteet, was staying with McBride. As a result of a stroke suffered at birth, Poteet had diminished mental capabilities and her right hand and right leg were partially paralyzed. Poteet wore a leg brace from her knee to her ankle. McBride indicated on the telephone that there was a man in her kitchen drinking coffee while he waited for his sister to pick him up. Howard told McBride, “Sarah, get that man out of the house, and put him on the patio.” McBride responded, “Okay. I’ll call you later.” Howard left to go shopping. When Howard returned, she was unable to reach McBride by telephone and went to McBride’s house around 1:00 p.m. The garage door was up, and McBride’s 1982 Dodge truck was missing. The back door to the house was open. Howard went inside and discovered the bodies of Poteet and McBride.

Poteet’s wig and a pair of scissors were on the kitchen floor next to the table. A trail of blood led from the kitchen to the [48]*48doorway of the master bedroom where Poteet was lying face down with her blouse pulled up and knotted around her throat. A pair of black jeans was next to Poteet’s head. McBride was lying on her back on the bed. She was naked from the waist down, and her legs were open and bent up over her body. A belt was tightened around her neck. Both women had been stabbed and showed signs of blunt trauma to the head.

Dr. Bruce Levy, the Davidson County Medical Examiner, was called to the scene by the police and performed autopsies on the victims the following day. Dr. Levy determined that both women died as a result of ligature strangulation. Dr. Levy opined that the ligature had been placed around Poteet’s neck in the kitchen and that she had been dragged to the bedroom while she was still alive. Congestion in her upper chest and face indicated that someone was sitting on her lower chest or abdomen when tying the ligature around her neck. Poteet had defensive wounds and also had suffered blunt force injuries to her face. She had been hit at least twice with enough force to cause bleeding to her brain. Like Poteet, McBride had suffered defensive wounds and had two sets of paired puncture wounds consistent with her being stabbed with scissors. McBride also had suffered multiple blunt force injuries to her head, including a laceration over her left eyebrow. Her nose, the bone between her eyes and brain, her breast bone, and three of her ribs had been broken. She suffered a laceration to her vaginal wall. Dr. Levy determined that McBride had been sexually assaulted and had died during the attack. Bruising on her ankles indicated that her legs were held during the rape.

The police investigation showed that someone had rummaged through the house. Chest drawers were pulled out, closet doors were open, a mattress had been moved, and jewelry boxes lay open. Bloody footprints were on the floor in the entrance hall and living room. A pair of socks was found in the sink in the bathroom off the master bedroom. A pair of men’s underwear was later retrieved from the sewer line running from the toilet. McBride’s purse and jewelry were missing as was the Dodge truck.

Forensic testing showed that Leach’s left palm print was on a wall in McBride’s house and that Leach’s fingerprints were on a coffee mug on the kitchen table. After Leach’s arrest, it was determined that bloody footprints from the floor in McBride’s house matched Leach’s tennis shoes and that sperm on the vaginal swab from McBride matched Leach’s DNA.

Around 8:00 p.m. on July 8, Leach appeared in the area of Greenville, Missouri, driving McBride’s truck. Leach went to the home of a friend, Harold Winberry, and announced that he had just come from Nashville. Leach, Winberry, Winberry’s wife, and her sister, Becky Allen, went to the Friendly Tavern in Greenville, where they drank, danced and socialized until 2:00 a.m. Leach and Allen slept together that night and the next. Leach gave Allen a pair of McBride’s earrings. Leach also stayed at the home of his aunt, to whom he offered McBride’s leaf blower. During this time, Leach behaved normally, -visited with other people, played his guitar and sang, and showed off the Dodge truck, claiming it was his own vehicle.

After Leach’s identification had been confirmed by fingerprint evidence, Detective Mike Roland of the Nashville Police Department contacted Leach’s sister, Cathy Watson, who lived in Missouri. Watson in turn contacted Leach, who called Detective Roland on July 13.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
148 S.W.3d 42, 2004 Tenn. LEXIS 741, 2004 WL 1977627, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-leach-tenn-2004.