United States v. Seay

60 M.J. 73, 2004 CAAF LEXIS 610, 2004 WL 1486992
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Armed Forces
DecidedJune 30, 2004
Docket03-0246/AR; Crim.App. 9900779
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 60 M.J. 73 (United States v. Seay) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Seay, 60 M.J. 73, 2004 CAAF LEXIS 610, 2004 WL 1486992 (Ark. 2004).

Opinions

Chief Judge CRAWFORD

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Contrary to his pleas, Appellant was convicted of conspiracy, premeditated murder, larceny, and kidnapping, in violation of Articles 81, 118, 121, and 1341. The convening authority approved the sentence of confinement for life, a dishonorable discharge, total forfeitures, and reduction to the lowest enlisted grade. The Army Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the findings and sentence in an unpublished opinion. This Court subsequently granted review of the following issues:

I. WHETHER THE MILITARY JUDGE ABUSED HIS DISCRETION IN NOT SUPPRESSING APPELLANT’S PRETRIAL STATEMENTS TO ARMY INVESTIGATORS.
II. IF APPELLANT’S PRETRIAL STATEMENTS SHOULD HAVE BEEN SUPPRESSED (ISSUE I), WHETHER THE REMAINING EVIDENCE IS LEGALLY SUFFICIENT TO SUPPORT FINDINGS OF GUILTY TO ALL CHARGES AND SPECIFICATIONS.
III. WHETHER PORTIONS OF APPELLANT’S STATEMENTS TO ARMY INVESTIGATORS WERE UNCORROBORATED, AND, IF SO, WHETHER THE MILITARY JUDGE ERRONEOUSLY PERMITTED THE PANEL MEMBERS TO CONSIDER THE PERTINENT PORTIONS OF APPELLANT’S STATEMENTS REGARDING THE CHARGE OF LARCENY.
IV. WHETHER THE EVIDENCE IS LEGALLY SUFFICIENT TO SUPPORT A FINDING OF GUILTY TO THE CHARGE THAT APPELLANT STOLE PFC CHAFIN’S WALLET.
V. WHETHER THE EVIDENCE IN THIS CASE IS LEGALLY SUFFICIENT TO SUPPORT A FINDING TO THE CHARGE THAT APPELLANT KIDNAPPED PFC CHAFIN.

For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the findings and sentence.

FACTS

On the evening of August 29, 1997, Appellant, PFC Jason Chafin, and Sergeant Darrell Shelton went to Appellant’s apartment near Colorado Springs, Colorado, after a fight occurred in the local barracks between Chafin and another man. After about 30 minutes—during which Chafin passed out from drinking, and then reawakened—the three left Appellant’s apartment in Appellant’s truck. Shelton drove the truck, with Chafin seated up front in the passenger seat and Appellant seated behind Chafin armed with a length of cord.

While driving, Shelton directed Appellant to wrap the cord around Chafin’s neck and attempt to strangle him. Appellant complied, but was unsuccessful in strangling Chafin, who jumped out of the truck and fled. Shelton ran after Chafin, caught him, and pinned him to the ground. Once Appellant reached them, Shelton handed Appellant the Gerber knife Appellant kept in his truck, and instructed Appellant to stab Chafin. Accord[75]*75ing to Appellant, Chafin asked him, “What have I ever done to you, Bo?” and Appellant whispered back, “Ask the Lord for forgiveness.” Appellant stabbed Chafin in the neck and ribs, and then passed the knife to Shelton, who stabbed Chafin a number of times.

Appellant and Shelton fled the scene, leaving Chafin’s body in a nearby field. They returned to the scene several days later to take Chafin’s wallet and its contents. Chafin’s skeletal remains were discovered by hunters four months later.

Upon watching the local media coverage of Chafin’s murder, Appellant’s wife, Wendy, realized that on the night of the murder, Chafin was in her apartment in the company of her husband and Shelton. With this recollection, Wendy became suspicious of her husband’s potential involvement in Chafin’s murder. Acting on her suspicions, Wendy contacted Detective Derek Graham of the Colorado Springs Police Department on January 6,1999.

Wendy told Graham that during the 1997 Labor Day weekend, there was a young man in her apartment whom she had not seen before and whom she subsequently realized was Chafin. She stated that Chafin was very drunk, and that Appellant and Shelton were very rude to him and began kicking him. After 20 to 30 minutes, Appellant, Shelton, and Chafin left the apartment. Appellant returned to the apartment several hours later, at which time Wendy overheard Shelton say something to the effect, “I can’t believe you did that.”

Over the next several months, she became suspicious because of various events. She overheard Appellant say to Shelton, “No, there hasn’t been anything on the news about it. There’s nothing in the paper about it.”

Wendy also described a telephone call between Appellant and his parents, during which she overheard Appellant stating that “he had done something very bad that was possibly going to get him the death penalty.” Wendy further noted to Graham that while she and Appellant watched a movie in which two detectives treated a suspect rudely, Appellant said to her, ‘You know if someone ever treated me like that, I would Ml them.” Wendy responded to the effect, ‘Well you know you can’t do that,” to which he replied, ‘Well, I already have gotten away with it.”

Finally, Wendy told Graham that Appellant on several occasions asked her to he to authorities if ever she were questioned, by saying that Chafin was not in their home on the night of the murder. He told her: “Do you remember that night that [Shelton] and I came home? It was just the two of us, you remember that?” Appellant also told Wendy that if the police were to ask about his knife, she should tell them he lost it.

A. First Questioning of Appellant

After speaking with Wendy Seay, Detective Graham went to Appellant’s residence. He told Appellant he was investigating the murder of Jason Chafin and asked if Appellant would “be willing to come to the police operation center for an interview.” Appellant agreed, and because Appellant’s car was out of commission, the police gave him a ride to the police station. Upon Appellant’s arrival at the station, the police informed him of his rights, which Appellant waived. When Graham indicated to Appellant that Shelton had been implicated in Chafin’s murder, Appellant invoked his right to silence. Graham accordingly terminated the interview and drove Appellant home. With Appellant’s permission, the police videotaped and audio-taped the interview.

B. Second Questioning of Appellant

After Detective Graham returned to his office, he decided to have Wendy make recorded “pretext phone calls” to Appellant, in the hopes of obtaining a confession. As a courtesy, Graham called Special Agent Chris Barone of the Army Criminal Investigations Command (CID) to inform him of Wendy’s implication of Appellant and the planned pretextual calls. Graham invited both Barone and CID Special Agent Martinez to observe the calls. Although Graham set the ground rules for the pretextual phone calls, Barone and Martinez offered some suggestions, which Graham accepted or rejected at his discretion.

[76]*76Pursuant to this plan, Wendy used a phone at the Colorado Springs Police Department office to call Appellant three times at his apartment, over the course of three hours. Despite Wendy’s persistent inquiries, Appellant did not confess to the murder. Instead, Appellant stated that he wanted to talk to Wendy face to face and during the telephone conversations, he made the following statements to her about obtaining a lawyer:

• You know what—you think I need to get a lawyer.
• Well, why can’t I just get a lawyer and not answer no more questions?
• Why don’t I just get a lawyer and not answer any more questions?
• I think I need to get a lawyer, Wendy.

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Bluebook (online)
60 M.J. 73, 2004 CAAF LEXIS 610, 2004 WL 1486992, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-seay-armfor-2004.