State v. Skelton

795 P.2d 349, 247 Kan. 34, 1990 Kan. LEXIS 132
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedJuly 13, 1990
Docket63,121
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 795 P.2d 349 (State v. Skelton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Skelton, 795 P.2d 349, 247 Kan. 34, 1990 Kan. LEXIS 132 (kan 1990).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Allegrucci, J.:

This is a direct appeal from a jury verdict which found defendant, John A. Skelton, guilty of aggravated burglary (K.S.A. 21-3716), aggravated kidnapping (K.S.A. 21-3421), rape (K.S.A. 21-3502), and aggravated criminal sodomy (K.S.A. 21-3506). The jury did not reach a verdict on a second count of aggravated criminal sodomy, and the State dismissed this count at sentencing.

The defendant raises five issues on appeal: (1) His identification was tainted by suggestive pretrial procedures; (2) the evidence seized from his car was inadmissible; (3) the trial court failed to suppress evidence seized from defendant’s house; (4) there was insufficient evidence to support the aggravated burglary conviction; and (5) the State’s use of peremptory challenges violated defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights. The determination of those issues necessitates a detailed recital of the facts.

On June 20, 1988, a burglary occurred at A.E.’s residence in Sedgwick County, Kansas. Shortly thereafter, A.E. installed a security system. Living with A.E. were his wife and 29-year-old *35 daughter, K.E. On July 28, 1988, A.E.’s wife left the house for work at about 7:20 a.m. As A.E. left at approximately 7:30 a.m., he noticed a dark Monte Carlo or Grand Prix with a chrome strip at the bottom being driven slowly near his house. As the cars passed, the drivers had eye contact. It appeared to A.E. that the driver of the other vehicle was slouched down in his seat. The driver was a white male with fairly long, dark hair. The license plate was an older-model Sedgwick County tag that A.E. thought began with an “R.” Defendant’s license tag was an older-model Kansas tag numbered S 56484.

K.E. activated the newly installed alarm system when she left for work at about 7:50 a.m. on July 28, 1988. As she approached her car, a man jumped out from behind the comer of the house and knocked her to the ground. When she struggled and screamed, he told her that he had a knife and showed it to her. When she asked what he wanted, he demanded money. Initially, K.E. saw the man face to face in the sunlight, but then he kept behind her. He told her that they were going into the house. As they entered, the security alarm sounded audibly, and an operator for the security alarm company spoke with K.E. on a speaker phone. K.E. intentionally gave a wrong code word twice, prompting the operator to increase the listening capacity and to call the police.

The assailant again demanded money, and K.E. dumped the contents of her purse but had only change. He took her into a bathroom, and she saw him in the mirror. He saw himself too, seemed surprised, and asked if she gave the right password. She told him “no” and urged him to leave because the police would arrive soon. He forced her to leave with him through the front door.

They walked over a small bridge and, while crossing a dirt field, K.E. started screaming. The man knocked her to the ground and hit her several times. When she agreed to “be good,” he let her up and took her to an area with trees and grass. He ordered her to lie face down in the grass. When she did so, he ripped off her blouse, tied her hands behind her back with her bra, lifted her skirt, ripped off her underpants, and inserted a finger into her vagina. At trial, K.E. testified that he also inserted *36 a finger into her rectum, but she was uncertain in prior statements to the police about this conduct and the jury did not reach a verdict on Count 5, charging anal sodomy.

The man unzipped his pants and laid on top of K.E. but did not obtain an erection. He knelt in front of her and ordered her to lick his penis. When she refused, he hit her several times in the back of the head. K.E. pretended to be unconscious. He lifted her head by her hair and attempted to put his penis in her mouth. Although she kept her teeth clenched, he put his penis in her mouth and rolled it around on her gums. He again crawled on top of her, but he never obtained an erection and eventually left.

K.E. remained on the ground with her eyes closed, then stood up and saw her assailant walking west across the field. She ran to her house and told Wichita police officer Raymond Fletcher, who had responded to the call from the security company, that her assailant was still in the area. She described the man as a white male in his 20s, approximately 5'11", of muscular build with neck-length dark or black hair and a tattoo. In a statement to police, K.E. indicated that whenever she tried to look at her assailant, he would shove her face back down. At trial, K.E. testified she saw his face on three occasions: (1) when they first entered the house and she pointed out the alarm; (2) in the mirror when he pushed her against the bathroom vanity; and (3) over her shoulder when he was tying her hands together with her bra.

K.E. and Officer Fletcher got into his police car and followed a black Pontiac Bonneville or Parisienne that had just pulled out of a field heading north. A chase ensued with speeds up to 118 m.p.h. Officer Fletcher lost the vehicle as it headed east on 21st Street. Officer Phillip Gleason, who had arrived at the A.E. residence just as the car chase began, followed Officer Fletcher to 21st Street. He turned east onto 21st Street and observed a black car about one-half mile in front of him. Gleason saw the vehicle at 119th Street and then saw a dark vehicle turn south onto Sheffield. Gary Smarsh, a construction worker in the area, flagged Gleason down and reported that a black, four-door Pontiac had driven past him at a high rate of speed, left the blacktop road, and drove into a wheat field.

*37 Photographs of tire tracks found in another field north of the residence were compared with photographs of tires on defendant’s car. The tracks exhibited family characteristics similar to three of the tires. These characteristics did not exclude these tires as a possible source for the tracks, but individual characteristics were not available that would conclusively show the tracks were made by the tires on defendant’s car. Later, A.E. and a witness to the high-speed chase observed defendant’s car while it was parked in front of defendant’s residence on N. Perry. Both testified that the car, a black Pontiac Bonneville, was similar to the one they had observed the morning of July 28.

Wichita police detective Richard Fesler interviewed K.E. on July 28. Following that interview, another police officer told Fesler that John Skelton was a possible suspect in the attack on K.E. On July 29, Fesler drove by Skelton’s residence and saw his car parked in the driveway. It was clean, but some vegetation was hanging underneath it. On July 30, Fesler saw Skelton’s car in the parking lot of the Bubba-Rock Club, which is a nightclub where Skelton was employed. This time, Fesler took samples of the green and brown vegetation from three places underneath the vehicle.

On July 29, Fesler showed K.E.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
795 P.2d 349, 247 Kan. 34, 1990 Kan. LEXIS 132, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-skelton-kan-1990.