U.S. v. Collins

• Decision Date: 15 October 1982
• Docket Number: No. 81-3662,81-3662
• Citation: 690 F.2d 431
• Parties: 11 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1455 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Curtis L. COLLINS, Defendant-Appellant. Summary Calendar.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 431

690 F.2d 431

11 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1455

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Curtis L. COLLINS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 81-3662

Summary Calendar.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Oct. 15, 1982.

William F. Wessel, Court-Appointed, New Orleans, La., for defendant-appellant.

John Volz, U. S. Atty., Louis Moore, Jr., Michael Schatzow, Asst. U. S. Attys., New Orleans, La., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Before GEE, RANDALL and TATE, Circuit Judges.

RANDALL, Circuit Judge:

Curtis Collins appeals his jury conviction for first degree murder and assault. He contends that his conviction should be reversed because (1) the government failed to prove him sane beyond a reasonable doubt; (2) there was insufficient evidence of premeditation to convict him of first degree murder; (3) the trial court erred in refusing to give an instruction to the jury on manslaughter as a lesser included offense; (4) the trial court abused its discretion in excluding testimony concerning defendant's mental state; and (5) prosecutorial comments concerning the result of a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity prejudiced defendant at trial. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

I. PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND.

Curtis Collins was indicted for first degree murder in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1111(a)(b) (1976) and for assault in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 111 (1976). ¹ At his arraignment he pled not guilty; he subsequently filed notice of a defense based on mental condition. The trial was continued after the defense filed a motion to have the defendant committed for a psychiatric examination. When the defendant returned from this evaluation, the court determined that Collins was competent to stand trial. At trial, a jury convicted Collins of first degree murder and assault, after receiving instructions which included a charge concerning the lesser included offense of second degree murder. The court sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment on Count I and to a five year concurrent sentence on Count II.

The historical facts of this case are undisputed. On November 24, 1980, Curtis Collins entered the main post office in New Orleans, Louisiana and shot and killed Adrienne Wharton, an employee of the United States Postal Service, with a .30 caliber carbine. Collins, a probationary employee of the Post Office, believed that Wharton, a supervisor, was responsible for lowering his rating for an unexcused absence from work. He was afraid that he would probably lose his job as a result.

At trial, the government introduced two witnesses who saw Collins enter the building. Neither man saw a gun, but persons who met Collins inside the post office observed that he seemed to be concealing an automatic rifle. Collins questioned a number of people concerning Wharton's whereabouts and apparently argued with his immediate supervisor about the unsatisfactory rating. Shortly thereafter, Collins was seen to shoot Wharton repeatedly, emptying the clip of his carbine into her body after she was already obviously dead.

As he was fleeing the scene of the shooting, Collins confronted Robert L. Jones, a security guard employed by the Post Office. When Jones ordered Collins to stop, Collins fired his weapon at Jones, wounding him above his right eye.

There was conflicting testimony from both lay and expert witnesses at trial about whether the defendant was legally insane.

II. SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE OF SANITY.

Collins contended that he was insane when he committed the crime and that he was therefore absolved of criminal responsibility. Once the issue of insanity has been raised, the government has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was sane at the time of the alleged crime. United States v. Andrew, 666 F.2d 915, 918 (5th Cir. 1982); United States v. Davis, 592 F.2d 1325, 1329 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 442 U.S. 946, 99 S.Ct. 2894, 61 L.Ed.2d 318 (1979); United States v. Fratus, 530 F.2d 644, 648 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 846, 97 S.Ct. 130, 50 L.Ed.2d 118 (1976); Brock v. United States, 387 F.2d 254, 257 (5th Cir. 1967).

This circuit has essentially adopted the American Law Institute standard for defining lack of mental capacity to commit a crime:

(1) A person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct as a result of mental disease or defect he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. (2) As used in this Article, the terms "mental disease or defect" do not include an abnormality manifested only by repeated criminal or otherwise antisocial conduct.

Blake v. United States, 407 F.2d 908, 916 (5th Cir. 1969) (en banc). An accused may, however, have a mental disorder of deficiency and still be mentally competent to be held legally responsible for his crime. United States v. Kohlmann, 491 F.2d 1250, 1252 (5th Cir. 1974).

We have never defined the quantum of evidence necessary to constitute sufficiency for purposes of submitting the issue of sanity to the jury; instead, each case must be decided on its own facts, with careful attention to the weight of evidence presented on both sides. Andrew, supra, at 918; Fratus, supra, at 648. Where the evidence raises an issue as to the defendant's sanity at the time of the commission of the crime, the case is properly submitted to the jury, which is charged with assessing the criminal responsibility of the accused. Kohlman, supra, at 1252. We must uphold the jury verdict if, taking the view most favorable to the government, there is substantial evidence to support it, Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S.Ct. 457, 469, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942), and we must be particularly wary of disturbing a jury verdict on the question of the defendant's sanity. Burks v. United States, 437 U.S. 1, 17 n. 11, 98 S.Ct. 2141, 2150 n. 11, 57 L.Ed.2d 1 (1978); Andrews, supra, at 918.

This case essentially involved a battle of the experts. The two government experts agreed that the defendant had serious psychological problems, but both testified that Collins' disturbed mental condition was not of such a magnitude as to make him legally insane. Dr. James R. Leach, Chief of Forensic Psychiatry at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, who testified as an expert in the field of psychiatry, observed defendant for several months and concluded that defendant was a paranoid personality, perhaps with antisocial tendencies. Dr. Leach made it clear, however, that this is not a psychosis. He testified that in his expert opinion the defendant, on November 4, 1980, was responsible for his conduct, knew right from wrong, and could conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.

Dr. Rene G. Culver, an expert in the field of psychiatry, interviewed the defendant twice. While Dr. Culver found that Collins exhibited various behavioral deficiencies and diagnosed him as an antisocial personality with paranoid traits, he testified that a psychotic person could still be criminally responsible for his conduct. Dr. Culver was also of the opinion that on November 4, 1980, the defendant appreciated the nature of the consequences of his actions and had substantial capacity to conform to the norms of society.

The defense relied on evidence of a battery of psychological tests performed by Dr. Charles Moan, a clinical psychologist, and on the opinions of the psychiatric experts, Drs. Gunther Perdigao and Marvin Miller, that Collins was not legally responsible for his actions on November 4, 1980. The doctors based their opinions in part on Collins' personal and family history of mental illness, his erratic work history, his previous attempts to take his own life, his reactions to the events leading up to Wharton's death and his beliefs regarding both the persecutions and sexual advances of Wharton.

In addition to the opinions of the medical experts, the defense introduced lay testimony from the defendant's wife and mother, and Caulfield, an attorney who had represented him on previous occasions. Each of them testified that before the murder, the defendant was acting nervous and agitated. The government introduced substantial evidence from lay witnesses describing Collins' conduct before, during, and after the murder on November 4, 1980, which indicated that the defendant was not acting abnormally. The defendant's friend, Daniel P. Patin, stated that the defendant appeared to be "uptight" about losing his job, but that he was coherent. Another postal employee, Louis L. Blossom, recalled that the defendant seemed normal when he saw him jogging by.

Medical personnel at the Pendleton Memorial Methodist Hospital, who treated Collins shortly after the shooting for a gunshot wound inflicted by Officer Jones, did not notice anything particularly unusual about his behavior. Technician Tuggle explained that the defendant appeared a little nervous and asked for a cigarette. Tuggle and Nurse Legendre testified that Collins stated that he had just killed his supervisor and that he had been shot by a security guard. Ms. Tuggle also stated that the defendant lucidly supplied the information required by the emergency room admission form, including his name, address, social security number, birthday, doctor's name, wife's name, insurance number and other information. Legendre recalled that the defendant appeared logical and oriented and that he was not ranting or raving.

Thus, the jury, in addition to psychiatric testimony, heard testimony of lay witnesses, who observed Collins at the time of the killing. Under our decisions in United States v. Andrews, 666 F.2d 915 (5th Cir. 1982) and United States v. Davis, 592 F.2d 1325 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 442 U.S. 946, 99 S.Ct. 2894, 61 L.Ed.2d 318 (1979), such lay testimony, particularly when bolstered by the opinions of the...