State v. Hamilton

Citation335 N.W.2d 154
Decision Date15 June 1983
Docket NumberNo. 67906,67906
PartiesSTATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Reed Wayne HAMILTON, Appellant.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Iowa

John C. Wellman, Polk County Offender Advocate, Des Moines, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Atty. Gen. and Shirley Ann Steffe, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

Considered by REYNOLDSON, C.J., and UHLENHOPP, McGIVERIN, LARSON, and SCHULTZ, JJ.

LARSON, Justice.

This defendant appeals from his convictions of first-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter, Iowa Code sections 707.1-.2 and 707.4. The trial court erred, he claims, in admitting evidence he contends was "tainted fruit" of a confession which had been suppressed by an earlier court order, in denying his motions for mistrial based on alleged misconduct by the prosecutor, and in submitting a felony-murder instruction. We affirm.

I. The Facts.

On the afternoon of January 25, 1978, Nick Pappas, Jr., and Cathy Larson, his financee, were found shot to death in the Pappas home in Des Moines. The following day, January 26, Reed Hamilton was observed in a car outside his residence in West Des Moines, acting "strangely" and clad only in a bathrobe, despite severely cold weather. West Des Moines police went to Hamilton's residence to investigate, following a citizen's report of the incident. Hamilton told them several armed men had come to his house and threatened to retaliate against him for the death of Nick Pappas, Jr., the brother of one of them. The officers' investigation failed to reveal any evidence of these "intruders," however, their interest had been piqued by Hamilton's mention of the murder victim, Pappas, and by a quantity of marijuana discovered by them. They had also noticed an empty handgun holster in Hamilton's residence.

Hamilton was arrested for drug possession and taken into custody. Upon questioning by Des Moines police officers, Hamilton admitted being at the Pappas home on the day of the killings, but denied his involvement. He said he had purchased some marijuana and left before anyone was shot. He stated he first went to his home, which was shared by his fiancee, Diane Nystrum, then to a local store, then to his mother's home. One of the officers present at the interrogation told Hamilton he did not believe this account and said it conflicted with statements taken from other persons, including Diane Nystrum. The defendant then said that he "needed help." The officer responded that the officers "would help him if they could," and at this point, according to the later order of suppression, the confession became "tainted" by the suggestion of help. Hamilton then gave a complete statement of his involvement in the killing of Pappas and Larson. In this version, he stated he had shot the victims and that he had taken approximately ten pounds of marijuana and one ounce of cocaine from the Pappas home; that he took the marijuana to his mother's home where he placed it in a suitcase and hid it in the basement, then he went to "a river" to dispose of the gun and, while walking on the ice, fell in.

Hamilton moved to suppress the statement on the ground it was not voluntary. After an evidentiary hearing, Judge A.B. Crouch suppressed that part of the statement which was given after the promise of help. The court refused, however, to suppress the part of the statement which preceded the offer of help. This order began a long series of legal battles. Hamilton petitioned for a writ of certiorari, claiming the court should have gone further and suppressed all custodial statements by him as violative of his rights under Miranda. The State applied for discretionary review, arguing that none of the statements should have been suppressed. These applications were granted, consolidated for argument, and presented to the court of appeals, which upheld the rulings.

Back in district court, the matter proceeded to trial, resulting in a first-degree murder conviction in the death of Cathy Larson and a voluntary manslaughter conviction as to Pappas. On appeal, this court reversed and remanded on an issue not involved in this appeal. State v. Hamilton, 309 N.W.2d 471 (Iowa 1981). This appeal follows his convictions of both crimes at the second trial.

II. The "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree" Argument.

Hamilton contends that testimony of seven of the State's witnesses had been "tainted" by his suppressed confession and it was error to allow them to testify at trial. This issue may be resolved summarily as to some of the witnesses; others will require analysis of the "fruit of the poisonous tree" doctrine.

A. The procedural issues. One witness whose testimony is challenged was James Rowley, a police investigator and night supervisor at the jail where Hamilton was being held. He testified that at approximately 4:30 a.m. on the morning following the confession, he took Hamilton to the first floor of the jail to make the customary telephone call, which had apparently been overlooked earlier. The basis of Hamilton's objection to Rowley's testimony is not clear. Rowley did not relate the substance of the telephone call, nor did he relate, except in chambers in the absence of the jury, a spontaneous statement by Hamilton that he was in a "mess" for having killed the two victims. There is no showing that the mere fact a telephone call was made could have been the "fruit" of that confession. We reject Hamilton's argument as to this witness.

We also summarily dispose of the "tainted fruit" argument as it pertains to two other prosecution witnesses: Officer Gerald Limke and former assistant county attorney Robert Burnett. Limke testified, on rebuttal, that Maxine Hamilton had told Officer Haviland, in their presence, that Hamilton had admitted the killings in his early morning telephone call from the jail. No objection was made to Limke's testimony. As to Burnett, the only objection was that it was hearsay. In neither instance was error preserved on the "tainted fruit" grounds now urged, and we will not consider them.

B. Other challenged evidence. Other testimony claimed to be tainted by the confession included that of Hamilton's mother, Maxine Hamilton, who testified the defendant borrowed a handgun from her "a month or so at least" before the shooting and that on the day of the shooting he brought a suitcase (later established to contain marijuana) to the basement of her home. She also testified about a late telephone call from Hamilton, in which he had admitted killing Pappas and Larson and had asked her to remove the suitcase from her basement. She testified she took the suitcase to the home of a friend, Ann Morrison, but later retrieved it and delivered it to the police, at Hamilton's request.

Witness Paul Lincoln, who was living with Hamilton's mother at the time of the killing was also challenged as a witness on the same ground. He testified that on the evening of the killing, the defendant arrived at the residence and went to the basement. After the defendant left, Lincoln went down to the basement where he looked inside a suitcase and saw two green bags containing a substance that looked like "some kind of tobacco" and had a "strange smell." Lincoln's testimony also confirmed that Maxine Hamilton had received a telephone call from the defendant and that he and Maxine then took the suitcase to the home of Ann Morrison.

Similar objections were raised as to the testimony of Ann Morrison, the temporary custodian of the suitcase. She testified that at approximately 5:00 a.m. on January 27, she received a phone call from Maxine Hamilton. Shortly thereafter, Maxine Hamilton arrived at her apartment and asked her to keep a suitcase; Maxine retrieved it later that day.

The testimony of investigator Edwin Kracht is also claimed to be a fruit of the defendant's tainted statements. He testified regarding the amount of time which elapsed and the number of miles driven on a route to various points starting at the victims' home. At the trial, the defendant claimed that Kracht's testimony was nothing more than a retracing of the route he had told the police about during their illegal interrogations of him and therefore was inadmissible.

Of all of these challenged witnesses, only one, the defendant's mother, was actually identified by the defendant in his statement. He argues that the testimony of the other witnesses (except Kracht) is nevertheless tainted, because the police discovered them only through their contacts with defendant's mother. Since her testimony was tainted, he argues, so is the testimony of the others. If this is so, that the testimony of all of these witnesses rises or falls with that of Mrs. Hamilton, then the issue must be resolved against the defendant as to all of them, because we conclude Mrs. Hamilton's testimony was not tainted by the confession.

III. Legal Principles.

Nearly seventy years ago the United States Supreme Court enunciated the exclusionary rule in order to discourage disregard for constitutional guarantees, requiring the suppression at trial of evidence discovered as a result of illegal government activity. Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, 34 S.Ct. 341, 58 L.Ed. 652 (1914). Later, the concept was expanded to include other, indirect, evidence "tainted" by the original illegality. Silverthorne Lumber Company v. United States, 251 U.S. 385, 40 S.Ct. 182, 64 L.Ed. 319 (1920). In Nardone v. United States, 308 U.S. 338, 341, 60 S.Ct. 266, 268, 84 L.Ed. 307, 312 (1939), the graphic phrase "fruit of the poisonous tree" was conceived by Justice Frankfurter to illustrate the concept. While the "fruits" doctrine is applied most frequently in fourth amendment cases, it is applicable in cases involving the fifth amendment. See, 3 W. LaFave, Search and Seizure § 11.4, at 613-14 (1978).

The purpose in excluding such evidence is twofold: to deter lawless police conduct and to protect the integrity of the judiciary. Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 599-600, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 2259-60, 45 L.Ed.2d 416, 424-25...

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  • Hamilton v. Nix, 84-2089
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)
    • January 12, 1987
    ...for the deaths of Cathy Larson and Nick Pappas, Jr. The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed both convictions on direct appeal. State v. Hamilton, 335 N.W.2d 154 (Iowa 1983). Hamilton then petitioned under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254 for a writ of habeas corpus. He alleged that (1) key prosecution witnesses......
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    ...action, our court stated that the exclusion of tainted evidence also "protect[s] the integrity of the judiciary." State v. Hamilton, 335 N.W.2d 154, 158 (Iowa 1983). Our conclusion that the exclusionary rule provides a remedy for the constitutional violation finds support in decisions from ......
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