State v. Knapp
| Decision Date | 09 March 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 3106,3106 |
| Citation | 114 Ariz. 531,562 P.2d 704 |
| Parties | STATE of Arizona, Appellee, v. John Henry KNAPP, Appellant. |
| Court | Arizona Supreme Court |
Charles C. Diettrich, Phoenix, for appellant.
John Henry Knapp, appellant, was convicted of two counts of murder in the first degree by a jury on November 19, 1974. He was sentenced to death, on both counts, by the trial judge on January 6, 1975. The review of the judgment and sentence by this court is mandatory pursuant to A.R.S. §§ 13-1711 and 12/-120.21(A)(1), and 17 A.R.S. Rules of Criminal Procedure, rule 31.2(b).
On November 16, 1973, there was a fire at the Mesa, Arizona, home of the appellant. After completely extinguishing the blaze, one of the firemen at the scene noticed an oily film on top of the water remaining in the bedroom. He called it to the attention of several other firemen at the scene. A complete investigation into the fire's cause was launched, and it was determined that the fire was caused by the use of a flammable liquid accelerant, and was not an ordinary combustible fire.
He lived there with his wife, Linda Knapp, and his two natural daughters, Linda Louise, three years old, and Iona Marie, two years old. The fire was almost completely confined to the children's bedroom; their bodies were burned beyond recognition.
On November 27, 1973, a coroner's inquest was held and it was there determined that the fire had been purposefully started by some person or persons unknown. It followed that the death of Linda Louise and Iona Marie had resulted from a criminal act, to wit, arson.
The police investigation after the fire had focused immediately on the only other occupants of the Knapp home, the appellant and his wife, Linda. The two were questioned extensively on November 19, 1973, at the Mesa police substation. Although their statements were not inconsistent with each other, nor with statements they had made the day of the fire, they were inconsistent with the way the police and David Dale believed the evidence showed that the fire was ignited. It was on the 19th that both suspects were first read their Miranda rights. Appellant signed a card with those rights on it, acknowledging he had been advised thereof.
On November 20, 1973, Linda Knapp left Arizona with her natural father and went to Nebraska where she remained until just before appellant's first trial in August, 1974. Appellant was not advised that Linda was going until after she had left, nor was any explanation given him for her departure.
Between November 20 and 27, appellant, staying at the home of his in-laws because his house had been sealed and secured by the State to preserve evidence, was served with a subpoena to appear at the inquest. A subpoena was left there for Linda Knapp also, but she never received it. Appellant was advised by the officer who delivered the subpoenas, however, that if Linda did not appear for the inquest she was subject to arrest.
Although he appeared for the inquest, appellant was not called to testify. After it was over, he was advised of its conclusions. He immediately approached the justice of the peace who had conducted the inquest and requested that an attorney be appointed to represent him. The request was refused because the justice indicated that he had no authority to appoint counsel until appellant was charged with some crime.
The same evening, while again at the home of his in-laws, both of whom were out for the evening, appellant was approached by several officers of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department. In charge was Sgt. Robert Malone, who asked appellant if he would accompany them to the Knapp residence for the purpose of re-enacting the events of the morning of the fire as best appellant could recall them. Appellant agreed to go, and was driven there in an unmarked police car by the officers.
Upon their arrival at the Knapp residence, appellant was again advised of his Miranda rights. At this point he told Malone of his earlier request to the justice of the peace for appointed counsel and of that judge's refusal. Malone later testified at a voluntariness hearing with regard to this:
MALONE (referring to a police report): Again, referring to that same paragraph, it says that Sgt. Malone then advised Mr. Knapp if he wanted an attorney we would get one appointed for him immediately. . . .
According to Malone, Knapp replied that he would answer police inquiries, but only those he had personal knowledge of; that is, he could not answer any questions in his wife's behalf.
After going through appellant's story and demonstration again (regarding discovery of the fire) at the Knapp residence, Malone took him back to the Mesa substation for the express purpose of interrogating him further. Malone still wished to clarify some of appellant's statements which remained inconsistent with the way police believed the fire began.
Either on their way to the substation or shortly after their arrival there, the police offered appellant some food, but he refused it. During a questioning period of some three hours there, appellant obtained soft drinks from a machine, unaccompanied, was allowed to use a rest room facility, unaccompanied, and was able to smoke cigarettes as he pleased.
It was pointed out to appellant during this interrogation that the police believed the fire to have been purposefully set, that the children themselves had been excluded (by fingerprint analysis and the fact that no fuel container was found in the room), and that left only appellant and his wife as possible perpetrators. Asked point-blank if his wife was capable of having started this fire, appellant answered she was not. He was then advised that that left him as the only suspect. It was Malone's testimony that, at first, appellant denied starting the fire, but eventually said that it was possible he had done it, but if he did, he didn't remember doing it. At this point, appellant began complaining about spots that were part of the floor tile in the room. It was this incident that precipitated the actual confession.
Officer Malone testified that when appellant began complaining about the spots, Malone placed a solid color chair in front of appellant and told him to look at that instead. Malone then began questioning appellant in the following manner:
He said that he used water.
It was . . . in a Coleman fuel can.
Out of the hall closet.
By fire. By lighting it.
After giving this version of what happened, appellant was advised that Malone didn't believe the part of his story about the spots. Appellant then told Malone he had found a letter from Linda to her natural father in Nebraska which asked the father for money so that Linda could leave appellant and go there. Because he loved her and didn't want to lose her, appellant told Malone, and because he felt the loss of their children would bring them closer together, he killed the children. Further, appellant said he was tired of seeing his children hungry and cold, and that now they wouldn't be cold anymore.
At least once prior to or during the interrogation and confession, appellant was crying, pulling his hair out and complaining of a severe headache. He was also offered aspirin at one point during the evening, but refused it, saying he would get prescription medicine for the headache when he returned to the home of his in-laws. It was Malone's testimony that appellant turned his emotions off-and-on during the interrogation, and that although he tried to appear irrational, Malone believed it was an act. Circumstances surrounding the situation bore out Malone's theory. There were spots on all the floors in the building, but it was only during this incident that appellant complained of them. Appellant's emotional outbursts were limited to this period of the evening and during the rest of the time he was calm, cooperative and rational.
The trial judge, after hearing the testimony at the voluntariness hearing, decided the confession was given voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently and allowed its introduction at both the first and second trials of this matter, with the appropriate instructions to the jury.
The first trial resulted in a mistrial due to the...
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State v. Robinson
...of first-degree murders and warrants a finding that the murder was committed in an especially depraved manner."); State v. Knapp , 114 Ariz. 531, 543, 562 P.2d 704, 716 (1977) (dousing defendant's "own two infant daughters" with lighter fluid and igniting their bedroom "falls squarely withi......
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Cochran v. State
...recognized that "the burden of establishing mitigating circumstances must realistically rest with the defendant (State v. Knapp, 114 Ariz. 531, 562 P.2d 704 (1977); State v. Richmond, supra [114 Ariz. 186, 560 P.2d 41 (1976), cert. denied, 433 U.S. 915, 97 S.Ct. 2988, 53 L.Ed.2d 1101 (1977)......
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Lewis v. Jeffers
...Gretzler, the Arizona Supreme Court's application of the (F)(6) circumstance was based principally on its decision in State v. Knapp, 114 Ariz. 531, 562 P.2d 704 (1977), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 908, 98 S.Ct. 1458, 55 L.Ed.2d 500 (1978), in which the court recited dictionary definitions of ea......
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Walton v. Arizona
...limitations on the scope of the (F)(6) factor. The Arizona Supreme Court attempted to define the statutory terms in State v. Knapp, 114 Ariz. 531, 562 P.2d 704 (1977), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 908, 98 S.Ct. 1458, 55 L.Ed.2d 500 (1978). The court there stated: "The words 'heinous, cruel or dep......