State v. Smith

781 P.2d 666, 245 Kan. 381, 1989 Kan. LEXIS 162
Supreme Court of Kansas·Decided October 27, 1989·No. 59,988·Published·Cited by 49 cases

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

McFarland, J.:

Nathaniel J. “Yorkie” Smith appeals his jury trial convictions of three counts of first-degree murder (K.S.A. 21-3401), three counts of aggravated battery (K.S.A. 21-3414), four counts of aggravated kidnapping (K.S.A. 21-3421), two counts of attempted aggravated robbery (K.S.A. 2Í-3301 and 21-3427), two counts of aggravated sodomy (K.S.A. 21-3506 [Ensley 1981]), one count of theft (K.S.A. 21-3701 [Ensley 1981]), and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm (K.S.A. 21-4204).

The original appeal was dismissed as having been filed out of time. In a hearing on a K.S.A. 60-1507 motion, the district court found that the filing of an untimely notice of appeal constituted ineffective assistance of counsel and granted defendant the right to appeal under K.S.A. 22-3602.

The bizarre facts may be summarized as follows. On the morning of August 20, 1982, Undersheriff Ronald Bumstead, Jr., was visiting the Allen County Fairgrounds in Iola. The fair was in progress. Some boys advised Bumstead that there was a youth sitting in the nearby Neosho River who appeared to have something the matter with him. Bumstead investigated and found fifteen-year-old Gerald Short, who had been severely beaten. Short advised that he and his companion, 17-year-old Steven Mangus, had been abducted at gunpoint from a nearby park the preceding night by a black male. They were each beaten and sodomized. Short had passed out and did not know what had become of Mangus.

Later the same day, August 20, 1982, a county employee operating a road grader northwest of Iola found the body of Steven Mangus in a rock quarry. The boy had been beaten and shot with a .22 caliber gun. While officers were at the crime scene, a call was received from an Iola car wash that the blood-splattered automobile of Iola resident Adeline Fisk was located there. Officers photographed the vehicle and it was towed to a *384 secure place. That evening the tow truck driver and two friends went to the general area where the Mangus body had been found looking for clues. They found the body of Adeline Fisk. That victim had also been beaten and shot with a .22 caliber gun.

The following day the tow truck driver and friends continued their investigation of the area and found the body of Tom Walsh, an Iola resident who had been missing since late July. A minimum of 156 stab wounds had been inflicted upon Mr. Walsh. Defendant was subsequently indicted and arrested for a variety of crimes relative to the four victims. Pending theft and unlawful possession of a firearm charges were consolidated with the new charges for trial. Other facts will be stated as necessary for discussion of particular issues.

On appeal the defendant raises numerous claims of error.

FAILURE TO REVEAL EXCULPATORY EVIDENCE

In State v. Carmichael, 240 Kan. 149, 152, 727 P.2d 918 (1986), we discussed the prosecutorial duty to disclose exculpatory evidence as follows:

“A defendant has a constitutionally protected privilege to request and obtain from the prosecution evidence that is material to the guilt or innocence of the defendant. Suppression of such evidence is a violation of the defendant’s Fourteenth Amendment due process rights. Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87, 10 L. Ed. 2d 215, 83 S. Ct. 1194 (1963). Prosecutors are under a positive duty, independent of court order, to disclose exculpatory evidence to a defendant. To justify a reversal of a conviction for failure to disclose evidence, the evidence withheld by the prosecution must be clearly exculpatory and the withholding of the evidence must be clearly prejudicial to the defendant.”

In Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87, 10 L. Ed. 2d 215, 83 S. Ct. 1194 (1963), the United States Supreme Court held that “the suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to the accused upon request violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or punishment.”

In United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 104, 49 L. Ed. 2d 342, 96 S. Ct. 2392 (1976), the United States Supreme Court examined the “materiality” requirement of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, and concluded: “A fair analysis of the holding in Brady indicates that implicit in the requirement of materiality is a concern that the suppressed evidence might have affected the outcome of the trial.”

In United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 682, 87 L. Ed. 2d 481, 105 S. Ct. 3375 (1985), the court examined the standard of *385 materiality applicable to nondisclosed evidence in an exculpatory situation and determined as follows:

“We find the . . . formulation of the Agurs test for materiality sufficiently flexible to cover the ‘no request,’ ‘general request,’ and ‘specific request’ cases of prosecutorial failure to disclose evidence favorable to the accused: The evidence is material only if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A ‘reasonable probability’ is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome.”

In the disciplinary proceeding entitled In re Price, 238 Kan. 426, 709 P.2d 986 (1985), we stated:

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State v. Smith, 781 P.2d 666, 245 Kan. 381, 1989 Kan. LEXIS 162 (kan 1989).

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