State v. Riley

649 P.2d 1273, 199 Mont. 413
Montana Supreme Court·Decided September 9, 1982·No. 81-474·Published·Cited by 66 cases

Opinions

MR JUSTICE HARRISON

delivered the opinion of the

Court.

Sherry Riley and three codefendants were convicted of deliberate homicide following a jury trial in the Fifteenth Judicial District, State of Montana, in and for the County of Roosevelt. Riley was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment with ten years suspended. From that judgment she appeals.

The fact situation relating to the death of five-year-old James Gill has been stated in a recent opinion of this Court, State v. Powers (1982), Mont., 645 P.2d 1357, 39 St.Rep. 989. Only those facts specifically applicable to Sherry Riley, the appellant here, will be set forth in this opinion.

Appellant, her husband Arthur, and Norma Phillips, were tried jointly. Charges against Norma Phillips were dismissed at the close of the State’s case. The jury found Arthur Riley not guilty.

Appellant and her husband were members of a religious group known as the River of Life Tabernacle, which originally was based in Wapato, Washington. James DeLorme, the leader of the church, appointed various persons as “ministers” and “counselors” to assist him in church matters. DeLorme traveled much of the time leaving church operations in the hands of Arthur Riley and the appellant, who served as a “women’s counselor.” Members of the church lived communally, sharing food and responsibilities for the community. Often several families would occupy the same dwelling.

It was within this framework that church leaders exerted substantial control over the lives of the members. The leaders established rules regarding members’ work, living conditions and expenditures of money. Members were expected [417] to contribute a percentage of their income to the church and to make special contributions for other items needed by the church leaders.

The leaders of the church established a policy on child discipline that evolved from a desire to recruit members. DeLorme determined that well-behaved children would make a good impression on potential converts, and in the fall of 1979, the church began a policy of strict discipline for chidren of church members. During this period, De-Lorme had a group of ten children of church members living at his house because he was dissatisfied with their parents’ compliance with his discipline policies. Testimony indicated that he used a spatula and electric cord to discipline the children.

Evidence also was introduced that members would compete with each other in carrying out the discipline policies in an attempt to please DeLorme. Testimony showed that adult members, including DeLorme and the appellant, sat around in a circle and placed a number of small chidren in the center. Whichever adult a child went to was expected to spank the child and place him back in the center of the circle. Children as young as five months were subjected to this treatment.

Appellant was a central figure in the enforcement of the church discipline policy. She told Pat Lewis, one of the mothers, that Lewis had no authority over her own children and was not to discipline them. Appellant served as disciplinarian when DeLorme was away and undertook the job of disciplining the Lewis children as well as other children of the commune. Beatings were inflicted on the children with a blue-green fiberglass stick or with an electrical cord and thereafter the children often were hosed down with cold water. James Gill was one of these chidren.

The appellant disciplined James on several occasions, both with the fiberglass stick and the electrical cord because he refused to eat. According to the testimony of Pat Lewis, appellant hosed James down after one beating and made him [418] stand in mud for “an hour or so.” Another witness, Tak-keal, testified that he saw the appellant beat James for “a couple of hours” for refusing to eat and that afterwards James was bruised and appeared unconscious. These incidents occurred prior to the move of the commune to Montana in the fall of 1980.

James Gill was, throughout his short life, a sickly child. He suffered from sickle cell anemia, an hereditary circulation disorder. This condition was known to the church leaders, including the appellant. Dr. Kenneth Mueller, who testified at the trial as an expert in pediatrics and forensic pathology, stated that the disease was “relatively moderate” and that the child would not have died of that disease alone. However, he testified that as a result of the beatings about 20 percent of the child’s blood volume seeped from broken blood vessels into the surrounding tissue. This blood loss produced a shock-like effect which, in combination with the sickle cell disease, led to James Gill’s death.

In the late fall of 1980, the church moved from Wapato, Washington, to Glasgow and Poplar, Montana. The Rileys, the Gills and several other members moved into three units of a motel in Glasgow. They stayed at the motel until sometime in December. Then they gave up two of the units and moved those families, including the Gills, to Poplar where they occupied mobile homes. The appellant and her family kept one unit until January 2, 1981.

Richard Dick, a church member, testified that during the period they were all together in Glasgow he observed the appellant and Don Howtopat beat James with an electrical cord and a stick and that this beating seemed to weaken James.

Appellant testified that after her husband moved their trailer to Poplar sometime in mid-December she spent part of the time in Poplar and part in Glasgow. During this period, James Gill lived at their trailer part of the time. She also testified that during this period that James lived with them, she did not spank him. The appellant was in Glasgow [419] most of the time from January 2, 1981, to January 11, 1981, but on Thursday, January 8, she was in Poplar to attend church services. According to her testimony, she saw James in church and he appeared to be perfectly normal. After church, she returned to Glasgow and did not return to Poplar until Sunday, January 11. She learned of James Gill’s death Saturday morning.

The appellant testified that on January 9, the day James died, she drove from Glasgow to Fort Benton, Montana, to get one of the church members out of jail. She denied that she had left the children in the charge of Robert Powers, a defendant in the earlier case. This testimony was controverted by the State through the testimony of Ronald Wilson, a deputy sheriff of Roosevelt County, who testified that shortly after the boy’s death Powers told him that the appellant had told him on Thursday night, January 8, to return to the Riley trailer and take care of the chidren.

Seven issues are presented for consideration:

1. Is the Information, as amended, sufficient to properly charge the appellant with the offense of deliberate homicide?

2. Was probable cause sufficiently established in the County Attorney’s supporting affidavits to permit the court’s granting of leave to file an Information?

3. Is the jury verdict finding the appellant guilty of deliberate homicide supported by sufficient evidence?

4. Did the trial court err in allowing evidence of other crimes, wrongs and acts of the appellant and of individuals not parties to this action and in denying appellant’s motion to limine to exclude such evidence?

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State v. Riley, 649 P.2d 1273, 199 Mont. 413 (Mo. 1982).

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