State v. Taylor

8 P.3d 863, 129 N.M. 376
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 8, 2000
Docket20,686
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 8 P.3d 863 (State v. Taylor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Taylor, 8 P.3d 863, 129 N.M. 376 (N.M. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

OPINION

BOSSON, J.

{1} Charlie Taylor (Defendant) appeals the district court’s determination that he committed first degree murder, resulting in his confinement in a secure, locked facility for his natural life under the New Mexico Mental Illness and Competency Code (the Code). See NMSA 1978, §§ 31-9-1 to -1.5 (1993). Defendant argues that the State failed to produce sufficient evidence to support a finding of first degree murder. His argument proceeds along three fronts: (1) the State’s evidence was insufficient under a clear and convincing standard to support the district court’s finding of a deliberate murder; (2) State v. Rotherham, 1996-NMSC-048, 122 N.M. 246, 263, 923 P.2d 1131, 1148, precludes the district court from considering any state of mind evidence regarding an incompetent defendant, making it legally impossible to prove the specific intent required for first degree murder; and (3) the victim’s provocation lowered the culpability for the killing from murder to voluntary manslaughter. We reverse the district court on the sufficiency of the evidence to support first degree murder, but affirm on the remaining issues.

BACKGROUND

{2} Defendant stipulated that he shot his wife Rhonda on April 28, 1996, and that the shooting caused her death. Police arrested Defendant the next day. Within a week of his arrest, after filing a criminal complaint charging Defendant with an open count of murder, the district attorney filed a petition with the district court to determine Defendant’s competency to stand trial. See § 31-9-1 (determination of competency; raising the issue). Defendant was taken to Las Vegas Medical Center’s Forensic Unit (Medical Center) for evaluation, after which Defendant was determined not competent to stand trial. The parties stipulated that Defendant was dangerous and waived his rights to hearings under the Code, §§ 31-9-1.2 to -1.3, to determine his prospects of gaining competency within a year. The parties also agreed that Defendant would continue his confinement at the Medical Center for further treatment to address his competency and dangerousness. When the State realized that Defendant would not gain competency to stand trial within one year of the original finding of incompetency, it petitioned the district court for a hearing to determine the sufficiency of the evidence concerning the open charge of murder against Defendant, which the court granted. See §§ 31-9-1.4(A), -1.5 (hereinafter “Section 1.5 hearing”).

{3} At the Section 1.5 hearing, the details of the killing were reconstructed through the testimony of the medical examiner, the testimony of the law enforcement officers examining the crime scene, and statements Defendant had made to the investigating officers. The State offered all the evidence at the Section 1.5 hearing; Defendant rested his case without producing evidence or testifying. The Section 1.5 hearing yielded the following evidence.

{4} On April 28, 1996, Defendant, his wife Rhonda, and their eighteen-month-old daughter were at home. At some point during the day Rhonda hit their daughter. This behavior was not unprecedented; Rhonda had hit the child on previous occasions. Although, according to the testimony of one of the officers involved in Defendant’s arrest, Defendant described Rhonda’s behavior as disciplinary, he stated that her manner was abusive and indicated that slapping the “little girl” in the face was inappropriate. Defendant and Rhonda also had argued about the television program she had been watching.

{5} After Rhonda hit the child a third time, Defendant got a gun and shot her. He told the police that when Rhonda abused the child “she had the devil in her eyes,” her eyes had fire in them, and that he shot “the devil.” Defendant fired six shots, three of which hit Rhonda. One shot grazed the back of her neck, one hit her chest, and another hit her head from short range. The medical examiner testified that either of the latter shots could have caused Rhonda’s death. The three other shots included two that were lodged in the structure of the mobile home, and one that was a “targeted hit” on the television.

{6} After the shooting, Defendant drove with his daughter to the foothills of Cooke’s Peak north of Deming. Defendant eventually stopped his car, then wandered across the desert on foot with his daughter. Sometime during the night Defendant thought he smelled something burning, began to look for Rhonda, became confused, then lost his daughter. The next day, having abandoned his daughter in the desert, Defendant was stopped and arrested by police as he drove on U.S. Highway 180. When questioned about his daughter, Defendant told the police on one occasion that his daughter was “with Rhonda,” and on another that she was “with God,” yet he also expressed hope that they could find his daughter. Defendant became very emotional when discussing his daughter, but nevertheless assisted the officers in the search for her. A search team found the daughter alive and unharmed the next day.

{7} After the Section 1.5 hearing, the district court, sitting without a jury, found that the State had produced clear and convincing evidence that Defendant committed first degree murder. The court determined that Defendant’s killing of Rhonda “was willful and deliberate.” Because the parties had stipulated that Defendant was dangerous, the district court ordered that he be detained by the Department of Health in a secure, locked facility for the duration of his natural life. See § 31-9-1.5(D)(2) (setting the length of confinement to the maximum sentence he could have received in a criminal proceeding).

DISCUSSION

The New Mexico Mental Illness and Competency Code

{8} After the United States Supreme Court determined in Jackson v. Indiana, 406 U.S. 715, 92 S.Ct. 1845, 32 L.Ed.2d 435 (1972), that it was a violation of due process and equal protection for the state to hold incompetent criminal defendants indefinitely while awaiting restoration of their competency, New Mexico revised the Code in an effort to comply with Jackson. See Rotherham, 1996-NMSC-048, 122 N.M. at 252-53, 923 P.2d at 1137-38. The Code set up a procedure whereby the district court holds a factual hearing (the Section 1.5 hearing) to determine whether the incompetent defendant is dangerous and has committed a serious crime. If the court determines that the incompetent defendant is dangerous and has committed a serious crime, it criminally commits the defendant in a “secure, locked, facility” for a fixed period of time “equal to the maximum sentence to which the defendant would have been subject had the defendant been convicted in a criminal proceeding,” Section 31-9-1.5(D). At the Section 1.5 hearing, the incompetent defendant may not rebut the charge on the grounds of insanity or lack of mental capacity to form criminal intent. A Section 1.5 hearing is not an adjudication of criminal guilt; the hearing is to determine the maximum time the defendant can be committed for the public’s protection and treatment. See State v. Werner, 110 N.M. 389, 392, 796 P.2d 610, 613 (Ct.App.1990).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
8 P.3d 863, 129 N.M. 376, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-taylor-nmctapp-2000.