State v. Hutchison
| Decision Date | 06 June 1994 |
| Citation | 898 S.W.2d 161 |
| Parties | STATE of Tennessee, Appellee, v. Olen "Eddie" HUTCHISON, Appellant. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Charles Burson, Atty. Gen. and Reporter, Rebecca L. Gundt, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
John Eldridge, Knoxville, Charlie Allen, Oneida, for appellant.
On this direct appeal, we review the conviction and death sentence of the defendant, Olen "Eddie" Hutchison, for the first-degree murder of Hugh Huddleston. Hutchison was also convicted of conspiracy to take a life and solicitation to commit first-degree murder. The State's proof showed that he bought a large insurance policy on the victim's life, intending to hire others to kill the victim in order to collect the proceeds. The defendant was tried jointly with Chip Gaylor, the victim's trusted "friend," who conspired with Hutchison to lure the victim on a fishing trip so that others could drown him. On direct appeal, Hutchison challenges his conviction and death sentence. We uphold the trial court's judgment of conviction.
The record establishes that the victim in this case, Hugh Huddleston, died by drowning while on a fishing trip at Norris Lake in Campbell County. The State's evidence showed that defendant Hutchison and several other men had conspired to kill Huddleston in order to collect almost $800,000 in life insurance proceeds and other benefits.
Huddleston, a bachelor in his mid-forties, had what was described by witnesses as a father-son relationship with Hutchison's co-defendant, Chip Gaylor. In 1984, Huddleston made Gaylor, then 19, the sole beneficiary of his will, under which 95% of the estate would not pass to Gaylor immediately but would be held in trust for distribution to him at the ages of 25 and 30. Huddleston also made Gaylor the beneficiary of an insurance policy and other of his employment benefits, all of which amounted to over $289,000 in value.
The chief prosecution witness was Richard Miller, one of the conspirators and an acquaintance of the defendant and of Gaylor and Huddleston. He told how, during the year before Huddleston's death, he, the defendant, and Gaylor, then 26, were sitting around talking when the defendant mentioned "how much money he could make if he took insurance out on somebody and then had them killed." Gaylor remarked that he would pay the defendant $100,000 to kill someone but that his "insurance policy" was not good until he was 30. The defendant responded that that was too long to wait.
About a week later, the defendant asked Gaylor to have Huddleston sign some "insurance papers" under the pretense of a tax write-off. According to Miller, Huddleston would do almost anything Gaylor asked. Huddleston signed the papers, and that evening Miller and Gaylor returned them to the defendant, who indicated that he would get back in touch with them. Shortly afterward, the defendant had Gaylor get Huddleston's signature on a promissory note representing a fictitious debt of $25,000 to defendant. The insurance policy was to be security for the alleged debt. At Gaylor's prompting, Huddleston signed the note in Miller's presence, and Gaylor witnessed his signature. Two other men, M.C. Curnutt (an insurance agent and an alleged co-conspirator) and Charles Boruff, also signed as witnesses after the note's execution. The defendant also informed Gaylor that a nurse would be coming to perform a physical examination on Huddleston. The examination was performed, and an insurance policy was issued on Huddleston's life with $250,000 coverage--$500,000 in the event of accidental death. The defendant was the sole beneficiary of this policy and furnished the money with which the premiums were paid.
Once the "paper work" had been done, the defendant offered Gaylor $10,000 to kill Huddleston. Gaylor declined because he had an obvious motive. When Miller also refused to kill Huddleston, the defendant said he would get someone else. The defendant then spoke with Phil Varnadore, one of his "men," 1 who agreed to "get his boys to do it" for $25,000 to $50,000. After initially discussing killing Huddleston on a hunting trip, the defendant and Varnadore decided to drown him during a fishing trip, since Huddleston could not swim. Wilbur Hatmaker was designated to be the killer. Hatmaker and Miller scouted out locations for the drowning on Norris Lake, and eventually a suitable spot was located. Hatmaker instructed Miller to have Huddleston there by 8:00 p.m. the next evening.
Gaylor arranged a fishing trip with Huddleston for that day, but only Miller showed up. The two men went to Norris Lake and rented a pontoon boat. Sometime after dark, Hatmaker and John Rollyson appeared in a separate boat. Acting on the pretense they were friends of Miller, the two joined Huddleston and Miller in fishing from the pontoon boat. According to plan, Miller left to get bait in another boat he had brought on the trip. Rollyson testified that after Miller left, Hatmaker pushed the victim into the water and wiped the boat with a rag. Hatmaker had promised Rollyson $12,500 for the killing, to be paid in 90 days. (The insurance policy provided for payment in 90 days.) When Miller returned to the boat, Huddleston was gone, as were Hatmaker and Rollyson. Miller reported Huddleston's disappearance and his body was discovered later that day in 15 feet of water. There were no obvious signs of violence on the body, but the pathologist later noted a deep bruise in the victim's scalp behind his right ear, which was apparently caused by a blunt object--possibly from striking his head on the boat, or being struck by a boat paddle or a fist.
The defendant and Gaylor filed claims to collect the insurance. When the company refused to pay because of the district attorney's investigation into the circumstances of the victim's death, Gaylor sued the insurance company in federal court, claiming that Hutchison was responsible for Huddleston's death and should not be awarded the insurance proceeds. Hutchison then filed a cross-claim in the federal suit.
While the defendant was incarcerated on these charges, he wrote several letters to Miller and Varnadore communicating with them about the case and tacitly urging them to keep quiet. These letters were produced at trial. The defendant's cell mate, Keith Wilson, who had forwarded some of defendant's letters to Miller, testified that the defendant had told him that the others involved "knew better than to say anything" and that "[i]f they did, they would end up the same way as the other guy." The defendant had remarked that he had the money to get something done from jail and "all he had to do [was] make a phone call." He also said that "as long as everybody kept their mouth shut, then they would be found not-guilty, they couldn't prove nothing."
The defendant maintained that the $25,000 loan and subsequent use of the insurance policy as collateral had been a legitimate business deal between Huddleston and the defendant, who had loaned money to the victim in the past. The defendant, who testified, maintained his innocence of any involvement in Huddleston's death.
The jury rejected the defendant's claim, finding him guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to take a life, and solicitation to commit first-degree murder. Despite the defendant's contention on appeal that the evidence is insufficient to support the jury's verdict, we find, to the contrary, that the proof is legally sufficient to support the convictions.
To corroborate the testimony of co-conspirators Miller and Rollyson, State investigators testified that in searching the defendant's home, they had found a recently purchased life insurance policy on Hugh Huddleston's life, naming the defendant as the sole beneficiary. The defendant had claimed, implausibly, to have been unaware of the policy. The accomplices' testimony was further corroborated by Hutchison's comments to his cell mate and his letters to Varnadore and Miller. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, we conclude that a rational trier of fact could readily have found the elements of the crimes charged beyond a reasonable doubt. Tenn.R.App.P. 13(e); Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
Hutchison alleges that the trial court erred by refusing to sever his trial from that of his co-defendant, Chip Gaylor. The court admitted evidence that Gaylor had sued in federal court to collect the proceeds from the victim's life insurance policy, and had labeled the defendant as the murderer in his complaint. The State introduced the complaint for identification during its cross-examination of Gaylor, in order to impeach his testimony that he knew nothing about the victim's death. Hutchison argues that the court's failure either to exclude the evidence or to sever his case prejudiced his defense.
Under Tenn.R.Crim.P. 14(c), a defendant may request severance if his co-defendant's out-of-court statement refers to the defendant, but is inadmissible against him. The trial court must either exclude the evidence or delete references to the defendant in order to hold a joint trial; otherwise, the court must sever the defendants' trials. A motion to sever is discretionary with the trial court, and the court's decision will not be reversed unless it clearly prejudiced the defendant. State v. Coleman, 619 S.W.2d 112, 116 (Tenn.1981).
In this case, Gaylor's complaint was admissible impeachment evidence against him, but inadmissible hearsay as to this defendant. Thus, the trial court should have excluded the complaint or severed the trials. Viewing the facts in light of the standard set forth in Coleman, however, we conclude that the defendant was not unfairly prejudiced by the wrongful admission of the complaint. The complaint, filed long after Hutchison's indictment, cast...
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