80 Hawai'i 318, State v. Knight
| Decision Date | 12 January 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 18017,18017 |
| Citation | 909 P.2d 1133,80 Hawaii 318 |
| Parties | 80 Hawai'i 318 STATE of Hawai'i, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John E. KNIGHT, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Hawaii Supreme Court |
David C. Schutter and Emlyn H. Higa of David C. Schutter & Associates, on the briefs, Honolulu, for defendant-appellant.
James M. Anderson, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, on the briefs, Honolulu, for plaintiff-appellee.
Before MOON, C.J., and KLEIN, LEVINSON, NAKAYAMA and RAMIL, JJ.
Following a jury trial, defendant/appellant John E. Knight appeals his conviction of murder in the second degree, in violation of Hawai'i Revised Statutes (HRS) §§ 707- 701.5 (1993) 1 and 706-656(2) (1993). 2 On appeal, Knight contends that: (1) the trial court committed reversible error when it refused to give the jury an instruction on reckless manslaughter; and (2) he was denied a fair trial due to prosecutorial misconduct. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm Knight's conviction.
On August 20, 1991, Knight was indicted for the second degree murder of William A. Rowe, a homosexual male. At trial, Knight maintained that his experimental homosexual encounter with Rowe caused him to "whig[ ] out big time" and that, the next thing he knew, he had slit Rowe's throat. The prosecution, on the other hand, essentially maintained that Rowe's death was the result of an attempted robbery, targeted at homosexuals, that had gone awry.
The testimony at trial revealed that in the late evening hours on August 10, 1991, Knight, a United States Marine, departed his barracks at the Kane'ohe Marine Corps Air Station bound for Waikiki. Soon after Knight arrived in Waikiki and parked his vehicle, Knight met Rowe for the first time. The two men decided to travel together--in Rowe's vehicle--to a Honolulu nightclub. On their way to the nightclub, they stopped at Rowe's apartment in Waikiki in order to allow Rowe to pick up some more money. At Rowe's request, Knight accompanied Rowe inside the apartment.
According to Knight, when they entered the apartment, Rowe offered him a beer, which he accepted. "[B]y this time," Knight testified, "I was starting to get the idea that [Rowe] was a homosexual...." Knight stated that his suspicion was soon thereafter "basically confirmed," and, upon learning of Rowe's homosexuality, Knight testified that he "start[ed] getting a little nervous." However, instead of leaving, Knight began to discuss homosexuality with Rowe. At trial, Knight testified that he was considering whether to experiment with homosexual conduct with Rowe:
Q. [By defense counsel] Did he proceed to make anymore remarks to you that suggested homosexual activity?
A. [By Knight] Yes.
Q. What did he say?
A. Asked me if I'd ever been with a man?
Q. What did you tell him?
A. No.
Q. Okay. Did you say anything else?
A. Yes.
Q. What did he tell you?
A. Told me it was quite a bit different, but just as gratifying than it is with a woman, and that he asked me if I'd like to try. I told him I wasn't sure.
Q. And how were you feeling at that time?
A. Strange.
Q. Did you want to, did you not want to?
A. Both yeah.
Rowe then prepared Knight an omelette, which Knight ate while the two men engaged in "small talk."
According to Knight, when he finished the omelette, Rowe, who was "being cool" and not "forcing" Knight, "touched [Knight's] shoulder [and] asked [Knight] if [he] was feeling better relax [sic] type of thing"; Knight "told him yeah."
Knight testified that he then accepted Rowe's invitation to join Rowe in the bedroom. Upon entering the bedroom, Rowe "sat down in [sic] his bed facing [Knight], told [Knight] to relax again, and he started fondling [Knight]." At that point, Knight removed his own shirt and allowed Rowe to pull his (Knight's) pants down, at which time Rowe again fondled Knight's genitals. Knight further testified that he "just felt sick[,] ... backed away from [Rowe], picked up [his] shirt[,] pulled up [his] pants[,] and walked out of the room." A few minutes later, Knight informed Rowe that he was leaving.
Knight then began to gather his belongings, which included his wallet, keys, handcuffs, and a twelve inch military-style knife with a six-and-a-half inch single-edged blade that Knight described as "a very impressive knife." When Rowe heard the handcuffs clink together, he asked to see them. Rowe fastened one handcuff around his own left wrist, and Knight secured the other handcuff to Rowe's right wrist. While handcuffed, Rowe knelt before Knight and again fondled Knight's genitals.
Q. [By defense counsel] What did you do?
A. [By Knight] I whigged out big time.
Q. How did you feel when he was doing that?
A. Sick. Just wanted him to stop. I just wanted him you know I wanted him to stop.
Q. Did you tell him to stop?
A. Nope.
Q. What did you do?
A. I freaked out. I blanked, and next thing I knew it was seen [sic] my hand come away from his neck with the knife.
(Emphasis added.)
On cross-examination, Knight further testified as follows:
Q. [By the prosecution] [W]hat happened next?
A. [By Knight] I had the knife in my right hand, my left hand was free. I pushed him away from me.
Q. Well, when did you slice his throat?
A. Just before that.
Q. So you were in front of him when you did that?
A. When I sliced his throat?
Q. Yes.
A. No.
Q. Off to the side ...?
A. Yes, he was ... on his knees facing me.
Q. And you were using the knife in your right hand?
A. Yes.
Q. And you sliced his throat from the beginning part back; correct?
A. Yes.
Q. [W]hen you sliced his throat, where was his hands?
A. They were in front of him.
Q. Doing what?
A. At that point, nothing was crystal clear[,] nothing was even clear.
Q. How many seconds was it not crystal clear for you?
A. I don't know.
Q. Approximately?
A. Five.
Q. Five seconds?
A. Yes.
(Emphasis added.)
The prosecution called, as witnesses, three of Knight's friends and fellow Marines to prove that Knight had: (1) schemed to rob homosexuals; (2) selected Rowe as his first victim; and (3) intentionally slit Rowe's throat.
First, Jason DeCesare testified that, on July 31, 1991, approximately eleven days before Rowe's murder, he and Knight went to see a violent movie. DeCesare stated that, on the way home from the movie, Knight "started talking about a way to make more money."
Q. [By the prosecution] How was he going to make more money?
A. [By DeCesare] He wanted to find a faggot, I guess and get to know him better and tie him up and rob him.... [O]ne person would help hold him at knife point.
Q. Where would that person hold him at knife point?
....
A. Throat....
....
Q. [A]fter holding a knife to somebody's throat, what would happen next?
A. One person would get his bank card and go to the machine while the other person held him and then come back.
Q. What would happen when he c[a]me back?
A. Just he wanted to beat him up severely and just leave him there and take off.
Second, Chris Little testified that Knight had told him, within hours after Rowe's murder, that "he [Knight] had got ... a faggot." Little testified:
Then he proceeded to try to prove to me. He kept telling me that he met the guy in a street in Waikiki, then they went to his place, and he said he told me he planned to rob him, and he said he was in the apartment, came out of the bathroom and that's when he the guy [sic] on the ground he said he asked for his wallet or something I guess that's what he said I'm not too sure about that.
He asked for the wallet or bank card or something, and then I asked him, I said well why did you kill him, he said it just happened so fast he didn't even realize. He said he had it there it was accident just boom next thing he knows the guy was dead.
....
He said the guy was laying on his belly on the ground and he had the knife on there when he was asking him for the bank ca[rd] or wallet he said after he got it, that's when he said he just blanked out it just happened.
Third, Mark Thomas Hulsey testified that, on August 14, 1991, a few days after Rowe's murder, Knight approached Hulsey with a scheme to make money. Hulsey stated that:
[Knight] said he went down to Waikiki, and saw this guy coming out of a bar and he thought he was gay [be]cause he was coming out of this gay bar he knew was gay, and he said he approached the gentleman, and picked him sort of picked him up asked him what time it was and sort of picked him up.
He then took the gentleman back to the person[']s apartment, and the guy asked [Knight] if he was hungry, and he said yeah, so he made [Knight] some eggs or an omelette, and they were drinking some beer, and he said the guy went over and sat down in the chair, and he came up behind him and pulled a knife out and held a knife to his throat and told him to stick his hands out in front of him, and the guy stuck his hands out in front of him hand cuffed him through the cuffs real hard on the wrists.
Threw him on the floor face down, put the knife to his throat and took the wallet out and took went through the wallet took out some kind of ATM or bank card and asked the guy what's the number to this card.
The guy didn't, he didn't want to tell him [sic] tell me or I'm going to cut your throat and the guy went ahead and told him, and he said if this is the number if this isn't the number I'm going to be back here in an hour to let you go. He said he put his knee in the guy's back and pulled his hair and just cut his throat.
Finally, Knight's own testimony indicates that he intentionally slit Rowe's throat. On the night of the murder, Knight had armed himself with handcuffs and what he termed "a very impressive knife." Knight then proceeded to Waikiki, where he "picked up" Rowe and accompanied him to Rowe's apartment. Knight testified that, at the moment he slashed Rowe's throat with his "very impressive knife," Rowe was kneeling before Knight, and his wrists were bound by Knight's handcuffs.
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