Neuschafer v. State
| Decision Date | 27 August 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 14807,14807 |
| Parties | Jimmy NEUSCHAFER, Appellant, v. The STATE of Nevada, Respondent. |
| Court | Nevada Supreme Court |
Ronald F. Cauley, Gardnerville, Linda Edmiston, Reno, for appellant.
Brian McKay, Atty. Gen., Dan Reaser, Deputy Atty. Gen., Carson City, for respondent.
A jury convicted appellant Jimmy Neuschafer of the first degree murder of Johnnie Johnson a/k/a Willard Taylor. 1 At the penalty hearing, the jury found that the homicide had been committed under three aggravating circumstances and no mitigating circumstances. The jury returned the penalty of death. On appeal, Neuschafer raises three assignments of error, none of which warrants reversal of the judgment of conviction or the sentence. Having perceived no error, we conclude that Neuschafer was fairly tried, convicted and sentenced, and we affirm.
In August 1981, Neuschafer and Johnnie Johnson were housed in the "S" wing of Unit 5 in the Nevada State Prison (maximum security) in Carson City. The "S" wing was designated close custody. Inmates housed in the "S" wing could not leave the wing and inmates from other sections of the prison could not enter it. Regulations for the "S" wing, effective in August 1981, permitted only two men to be out of their cells and in the wing common areas at one time. Cells in the "S" wing were locked and unlocked by remote control. Guards were stationed in the glass walled control room. They could see parts of the wing directly and other parts through video cameras. Guards communicated with inmates in the wing by intercom.
Johnnie Johnson was the wing porter for the "S" wing. The wing porter keeps the wing clean, serves meals and passes out supplies to the inmates. The wing porter is permitted to be out of his cell all day. Other inmates, one at a time, are released from their cells for an hour or two a day. Thus, in the "S" wing during the first part of August 1981, only one inmate besides Johnnie Johnson was allowed out of his cell at any given time.
At 7:30 a.m. on August 18, 1981, Johnnie Johnson was released from his cell. Ten minutes later Neuschafer was released from his cell. Inmate Frederick Heimrich, who was housed next to Johnson's cell, testified that Neuschafer helped Johnson serve breakfast that morning. Then Heimrich heard Neuschafer and Johnson argue over "somas." Neuschafer was prescribed somas, pain pills, for headaches. Apparently, Johnson had paid Neuschafer for some somas but Neuschafer refused to give them to Johnson. Heimrich heard them argue for some time, then he heard Johnson enter Johnson's cell and Neuschafer follow him.
Inmate Gregory Barren said that he, too, heard Johnson and Neuschafer enter Johnson's cell. Barren then heard a thud against the wall and the squeak of bed springs in Johnson's cell. According to Barren, when Neuschafer returned to his own cell, he told Barren he had killed Johnson.
Heimrich testified when Neuschafer came out of Johnson's cell he hung a blanket over the doorway. At 9:30 a.m. Neuschafer had himself locked into his cell. Neuschafer told the guard to release Heimrich. After Heimrich was released, he took a note to Johnson. Johnson was lying on the floor of his cell. Heimrich testified that he thought Johnson was asleep since inmates often sleep on the floor. Heimrich further testified that around 11:00 a.m., Neuschafer told him to report Johnson as a "man down." A man down means an inmate is sick or injured in his cell. Heimrich informed the prison guards over the intercom that there was a man down.
Responding to the report, the guards entered the wing and removed a blanket from over the doorway of Johnson's cell. They found Johnson lying on the floor, tightly wrapped in a sheet from his neck to his ankles. A noose made of braided strips of bed sheets was around his neck. The noose or ligature was so tight that the skin was bulging on either side of it: a guard had to use a pocket knife to cut it off. A criminologist testified that the strips of sheet making up the portion of the ligature around Johnson's neck were made of cotton and were consistent with the torn cotton sheets found in Neuschafer's cell. The sheets in Johnson's cell were polyester and cotton.
The guards attempted to resuscitate Johnson. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Carson City. Johnson died the next day due to a shortage of oxygen to his brain caused by the ligature around his neck. A pathologist testified that there was blood in Johnson's spinal cord indicating that his neck had been snapped back with some force.
At 5:45 p.m. on August 18, 1981, inmate Douglas Robinson gave a note to a correctional officer, Sonya Turek. Robinson testified that Neuschafer had given him the note with instructions to give it to the authorities. The note read: At 8:51 p.m. that same day, inmate Barren handed another note to Turek. Barren testified that he had written a note to Neuschafer asking what had happened to Johnson. Neuschafer wrote back after ripping off the top of the paper with Barren's question on it. Barren delivered to Turek what Neuschafer had written: A questioned documents expert testified that both notes were written by Neuschafer. The contents of these notes were read into evidence without objection.
At 6:45 p.m. on August 18, 1981, Neuschafer was interviewed by Rick Ricards and Ed Forrest, members of the prison staff investigating Johnson's death. Neuschafer was advised of his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). He requested an attorney. No attorney was provided, and the interview continued. Neuschafer made an incriminating statement. The defense successfully moved to have this statement excluded at trial.
Following this interview, Neuschafer was placed in solitary confinement. Between August 18 and August 21, 1981, Neuschafer sent a note to the prison authorities. When questioned under oath, Neuschafer could not recall whether or not this note had contained a request to talk to investigators about the murder. Ricards set up an interview between Neuschafer and Detective Michael Efford of the Carson City Sheriff's Department. Ricards was told that Neuschafer wanted to talk to the police. Efford had also been told that Neuschafer had asked to talk to him. Efford was not told that Neuschafer had been previously interviewed and had requested an attorney. At the interview on August 21, 1981, Efford read Neuschafer his Miranda rights. Neuschafer indicated that he understood them and proceeded to give another incriminating statement. This statement was read into the record at trial over objections by defense counsel.
The jury found Neuschafer guilty of first degree murder. At the penalty hearing, the State presented evidence that Neuschafer had been convicted in May 1976 of raping and murdering two teen-aged girls. Neuschafer was serving the first of two consecutive life sentences without parole that he received for that conviction when Johnson was killed. After the penalty hearing, the jury returned a verdict finding three aggravating circumstances: that the murder was committed by a person under a sentence of imprisonment; that the murder was committed by a person who was previously convicted of another murder; and that the murder involved torture, depravity of mind or mutilation of the victim. The jury found no mitigating circumstances and sentenced Neuschafer to death. Neuschafer appeals from the judgment of conviction and the death sentence.
Neuschafer suggests that the admission of his August 21, 1981 statement was in violation of the rule enunciated by the United States Supreme Court in Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 68 L.Ed.2d 378 (1981). In Edwards, the Court held that an accused who has asserted his right to consult counsel during police questioning "is not subject to further interrogation by the authorities until counsel has been made available to him, unless the accused himself initiates further communication, exchanges, or conversations with the police." 451 U.S. at 484-85, 101 S.Ct. at 1884-1885. The Court reversed Edwards' conviction because he had not initiated the second interrogation which resulted in a statement admitted against him at trial.
Neuschafer contends that the facts of the case at bar reveal a clear violation of the Edwards rule which requires reversal of his conviction. We do not agree. Neuschafer requested an attorney during the August 18, 1981 interview with prison investigators. No attorney was provided between August 18 and August 21, 1981. The record is unclear whether Neuschafer initiated the communication which lead to the August 21, 1981 interview. Evidence suggests that Neuschafer requested to speak to authorities regarding the Johnson murder in a note he wrote and gave to prison employees before August 21, 1981. In Oregon v. Bradshaw, 462 U.S. 1039, 103 S.Ct. 2830, 77 L.Ed.2d 405 (1983), the Supreme Court emphasized that Edwards required a two-part inquiry into the admissibility of statements obtained after an accused has requested an attorney. First, the court must determine whether the accused initiated contact with police and second, whether an accused who had initiated contact also validly waived his...
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