State v. Owens

597 P.2d 72
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedJune 29, 1979
Docket14416
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 597 P.2d 72 (State v. Owens) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana 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. Owens, 597 P.2d 72 (Mo. 1979).

Opinion

597 P.2d 72 (1979)

THE STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
Alfred Vernon OWENS, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 14416.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Submitted June 5, 1979.
Decided June 29, 1979.

*73 John L. Adams, Billings, Leonard Haxby (argued), Butte, for defendant and appellant.

Mike Greely, Atty. Gen., Sheri Sprigg, Asst. Atty. Gen. (argued), Helena, Harold Hanser, County Atty., Billings, for plaintiff and respondent.

HASWELL, Chief Justice.

Defendant Alfred Owens was convicted of the crimes of mitigated deliberate homicide and robbery in the District Court of Yellowstone County following a jury trial. Defendant appeals.

The information charged defendant Alfred Owens and his brother, L.D. Owens, with four counts: Count I charged the codefendants with deliberate homicide committed purposely or knowingly. Alternatively, Count II charged the codefendants with deliberate homicide while engaged in the commission of a felony. Count III charged the codefendants with robbery. Count IV charged the codefendants with aggravated kidnapping.

L.D. Owens pleaded guilty to Counts II and III. Counts I and IV were dismissed as to him.

Commencing May 8, 1978, defendant Alfred Owens was tried. The jury found him guilty of mitigated deliberate homicide, a lesser included offense of Counts I and II, and of robbery. It found him not guilty of aggravated kidnapping.

On June 14, 1978, defendant was sentenced. Some confusion resulted, as the court minutes state defendant was sentenced to 40 years on each count to run consecutively, while the judgment states the sentences are to run concurrently.

Defendant Alfred Owens appeals.

The facts leading to this appeal are as follows.

In late 1977 defendant Alfred Owens, his older brother, L.D. Owens, and his brother's girlfriend, Betty Shipes, left California heading for Texas. By a circuitous route, the trio arrived in Laurel, Montana, in the afternoon of November 27, 1977, and rented a motel room.

Sometime during the afternoon of their arrival, defendant, accompanied by his brother, purchased and signed for a box of.410 shotgun shells, ostensibly to do some bird hunting and target shooting. Neither defendant nor his brother purchased a hunting license. After dropping Shipes off at a laundromat near the motel, defendant and L.D. went to town where they started *74 drinking in various bars. About midnight, defendant, who estimated he had drunk a case of beer during the day, returned to the motel room to go to bed. L.D., after accompanying defendant back to the room, left again to go eat breakfast.

While out this second time, L.D. met Kenneth Olson and subsequently invited him back to the motel. Once there, after a short conversation, L.D. decided to rob Olson, and drew the shotgun on him. Apparently, it was the sound of L.D. loading the gun that woke defendant.

During the robbery Shipes, who was feigning sleep, heard defendant tell Olson that he had better do what L.D. said. After emptying Olson's pockets, L.D., defendant, and Olson left the motel room. There is some dispute over whether L.D. ordered defendant to accompany him or threatened him in any manner. According to Shipes, however, L.D. did not threaten defendant in any manner and merely said "let's go" before all three left.

The three left the motel room and got into Shipes' car. Defendant was driving with Olson on the front seat next to him and L.D. in the back holding the shotgun. Although L.D. initially indicated that he intended only to take Olson out somewhere and tie him up, defendant conceded that it soon became clear that L.D. intended to kill Olson.

After a running argument between defendant and L.D. while driving into the country, defendant stopped the car, got out, and began walking back to town. L.D. then drove the car a short distance, still holding the shotgun on Olson in the front seat next to him. L.D. then ordered Olson to get out of the car and to lie face down on the ground, and then shot him at least twice. Olson, shot in the back of the head and lower back, died within minutes.

L.D. turned the car around and on his way back into town picked up defendant. It is disputed whether, after L.D. had picked him up, defendant handed L.D. another shell, saying that they should shoot Olson again to be sure.

It is also disputed as to what happened next. Both defendant's and L.D.'s testimony at trial was internally contradictory and tended to be illogical in positing the next sequence of events. According to the reading of that testimony most favorable to defendant, he dropped L.D. off downtown where the latter got Olson's vehicle and drove it to the Yellowstone River. After ransacking the vehicle and stashing the stolen goods under some bushes, L.D. then drove it into the river and walked back to the motel. Upon arriving at the motel, L.D. got Shipes' car, drove back to the river alone, and packed the stolen goods in the trunk. He then returned to the motel where he met defendant who had been out walking to clear his head.

According to the testimony of the police officer arresting defendant, however, defendant told him that he had followed L.D. out to the river where they had both ransacked Olson's truck and then returned to the motel. L.D. too testified at trial (and in an earlier statement) that defendant helped ransack Olson's vehicle. As noted, both L.D.'s and defendant's testimony at trial tended to be unclear as to defendant's role in ransacking Olson's truck, especially on such points as L.D. walking the one and one-half or two miles back to town from the site where he drove the vehicle into the river, and how L.D. managed to drive Shipes' car back to pick up the goods when apparently defendant had one set of keys with him and Shipes had the other set in her purse.

In any event, both L.D. and defendant returned at the same time to the motel where they and Shipes packed up and left town, headed for Texas. En route, according to Shipes, defendant dictated to her a list of the rifles taken from Olson's truck which she took down on her California motor vehicle code book. This book was eventually introduced into evidence. Shipes further testified that defendant and L.D. periodically discussed the incident after they had left Montana.

Along the way the parties apparently pawned or sold various rifles and other *75 items taken from Olson's truck. Although defendant denied that he received any money from the sale of these items, he did concede "the money went into the gas tank and such as that." Defendant also admitted he wore Olson's wristwatch which L.D. had given him. The three stayed together until Kansas where, after L.D. and defendant had an argument, defendant separated from L.D. and Shipes. Significantly, Shipes testified that the reason defendant gave her for leaving was that he (defendant) was afraid he would hurt L.D.

Eventually L.D. was arrested in Texas and gave a statement implicating defendant, in order, he said at trial, to keep Shipes from incarceration. In this statement, which was used at trial to impeach his testimony, L.D. stated that defendant had, in fact, accompanied L.D. and Olson to the spot where the latter was shot and had ordered Olson to lie down just before L.D. shot him. L.D. further stated that while he, defendant, and Olson were driving out to the country, he and defendant had robbed Olson again, apparently getting his rings and watch. Shipes, incidentally, was never charged in this matter.

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Bluebook (online)
597 P.2d 72, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-owens-mont-1979.