State v. Stookey

850 P.2d 1167, 119 Or. App. 487, 1993 Ore. App. LEXIS 604
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedApril 21, 1993
DocketCR91072; CA A72760
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 850 P.2d 1167 (State v. Stookey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Stookey, 850 P.2d 1167, 119 Or. App. 487, 1993 Ore. App. LEXIS 604 (Or. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

LEESON, J.

Defendant appeals from a conviction of murder. ORS 163.115. The issues are whether the murder victim’s fiance should have been excluded from the courtroom before he testified; whether the trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion for a new trial; and whether the court imposed an unauthorized sentence.

On December 12, 1990, McMinnville police officer Sawyer visited defendant, who was living in a trailer parked on forest land in Yamhill County, near the Flying M Ranch. The following day, defendant removed the trailer from the site. In January, 1991, Sawyer returned to the area and, while there, smelled a foul odor and found a place where something had been buried. Sawyer thought that the odor might have been caused by the burial of chemicals used to manufacture drugs, so he took a sample of the soil. An analysis of the sample was shown to Detective Henry, who determined that it did not contain drug-manufacturing chemicals. Henry and Sawyer went to the site and unearthed the body of a woman who was later identified as June Cross of Tacoma, Washington. A medical examiner determined that Cross had been killed by ligature strangulation, caused by a rope that was still around her neck. Some shovels were found near the grave, which was 50 yards from the site that had been occupied by defendant’s trailer. Defendant identified the shovels as belonging to him. During the execution of a search warrant, a rope was found in defendant’s trailer. A criminalist testified that the rope taken from Cross’ neck and the rope found in defendant’s trailer had, at one time, been part of the same piece of rope. Various pieces of identification and personal items, including a prescription bottle bearing the victim’s name, were found near the body. At trial, the state produced evidence that defendant had a relationship with Cross, that he had purchased the trailer but had registered it in Cross’ name because he had recently declared bankruptcy, and that Cross had subsequently returned to Tacoma to live with Nield, her fiance.

At trial, defendant moved to exclude all witnesses from the courtroom. The state opposed the motion as it applied to Nield. After informing the court that Nield was not present, but would be arriving later to testify, the state [490]*490described Nield as “the man who the victim was living with at the time she was killed,”1 and submitted that he “may fall [under] the term ‘victim,’ someone who was psychologically affected by the crime.” The trial court accepted the state’s position and granted defendant’s motion except as to Nield. Defendant assigns error to that ruling.

OEC 615 provides:

“At the request of a party the court may order witnesses excluded until the time of final argument, and it may make the order of its own motion. This rule does not authorize exclusion of * * * (4) the victim in a criminal case.” (Emphasis supplied.)

ORS 131.007 supplies the relevant definition of “victim.” It provides, in part:

“As used in [OEC 615] * * *, except as otherwise specifically provided or unless the context requires otherwise, ‘victim’ means the person or persons who have suffered financial, social, psychological or physical harm as a result of a crime and includes, in the case of a homicide, a member of the immediate family of the decedent * * (Emphasis supplied.)

Given that the murder victim’s fiance was not a “member of the immediate family of the decedent,” the question is whether he is a “victim” within the meaning of OEC 615. The only basis on which the court could have determined that Nield was a “victim” was the state’s representation that Nield had been living with the victim before she was killed. The bare assertion of their living arrangement, without more, does not indicate that Nield suffered the type of harm to which the statute is addressed. Because the trial court did not have adequate grounds for determining that Nield was a ‘ ‘victim, ’ ’ it erred in allowing him to remain in the courtroom.

The decisive issue is whether the trial court’s error was prejudicial to defendant. Because of the likelihood that a witness will be influenced, either consciously or unconsciously, by hearing the testimony of others, and because of the difficulty of showing actual influence, we “assume prejudice unless the record affirmatively reflects the contrary.” State v. Bishop, 7 Or App 558, 565, 492 P2d 509 (1972). In [491]*491Bishop, the defendant was prejudiced because the testimony of the non-excluded witnesses was cumulative and corroborative, and therefore strengthened the state’s case. In State v. Dickenson, 9 Or App 357, 497 P2d 374 (1972), the non-sequestered witnesses offered corroborative and cumulative testimony, but, because the defendant’s testimony did not differ substantially from those witnesses’ testimony, we held that the record evidenced a lack of prejudice to the defendant. See also State v. Cetto, 66 Or App 337, 340, 674 P2d 66, rev den 296 Or 712 (1984). In State v. Roberts, 47 Or App 323, 326, 614 P2d 139 (1980), we found no prejudice where the witness’ testimony was limited to a matter that was unrelated to the matters about which prior witnesses had testified.2

In this case, when the judge ruled that Nield could be present in the courtroom during the trial, Nield had not yet arrived. The record does not show whether Nield entered the courtroom in time to hear any of the witnesses who testified before him. However, even assuming that he was present during the testimony of the nine witnesses who took the stand between the time that the court ruled on defendant’s motion to exclude witnesses and the time that Nield testified, the record affirmatively shows that defendant was not prejudiced thereby. The witnesses who testified at the relevant time included a forensic pathologist, a detective, an investigating officer, two witnesses for the defense (called out of order), a criminalist, a probation officer, a co-worker of the victim and the victim’s work supervisor. Both the co-worker and the supervisor testified that, near the beginning of December, 1990, Cross had taken a few days off work to buy a pickup and to see her children in Oregon, but that she had not returned.

Nield then took the stand. He identified himself as Cross’ fiance, described her appearance, explained that she had taken the bus to Oregon on December 7, 1990, and recounted the clothes that she was wearing on that day, the luggage that she took with her and some of the contents of [492]*492that luggage. He also testified that the woman pictured in the autopsy photographs was June Cross. The only cumulative testimony offered by Nield related to the fact that Cross had travelled to Oregon in early December — a fact that was not at issue at trial. The remainder of Nield’s testimony was unrelated to the testimony provided by the prior witnesses. Nonetheless, defendant argues that Nield’s testimony was prejudicial because Nield was the only witness who positively identified the body as that of Judy Cross. That argument fails because the identity of the victim was conceded. In closing argument, defense counsel remarked, “That was June Cross, and I think they proved that.

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Related

State v. Larson
911 P.2d 953 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1996)
State v. Booth
862 P.2d 518 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1993)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
850 P.2d 1167, 119 Or. App. 487, 1993 Ore. App. LEXIS 604, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-stookey-orctapp-1993.