Baze v. Com.

• Citation: 965 S.W.2d 817
• Decision Date: 27 March 1997
• Docket Number: 94-SC-627-MR,Nos. 94-SC-127-M,s. 94-SC-127-M
• Parties: Ralph Stephen BAZE, Jr., Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee/Cross-Appellant.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court (Kentucky)

Page 817

965 S.W.2d 817

Ralph Stephen BAZE, Jr., Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee/Cross-Appellant.

Nos. 94-SC-127-MR, 94-SC-627-MR.

Supreme Court of Kentucky.

March 27, 1997.

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing Nov. 20, 1997.

Larry H. Marshall, Marie Allison, Assistant Public Advocates, Department of Public Advocacy, Frankfort, for Appellant/Cross-Appellee.

A.B. Chandler, III, Attorney General, David A. Smith, Assistant Attorney General, Paul D. Gilbert, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Appellate Division, Frankfort, for Appellee/Cross-Appellant.

WINTERSHEIMER, Justice.

Ralph Baze appeals from a judgment based on a jury verdict which convicted him of the double murder of two police officers, Sheriff Steve Bennett and Deputy Sheriff Arthur Briscoe. He was sentenced to death for the murders.

Baze shot each of the officers three times in the back with an SKS assault rifle at a time when the officers were attempting to serve five felony fugitive warrants from Ohio on him. Sheriff Bennett was killed first when Baze shot him three times in the back from the cover of a large stump and brush pile near his secluded cabin. Baze then turned his attention toward Deputy Briscoe. Briscoe was pinned down by the semi-automatic rifle fire from Baze, and the officer crouched down and returned fire from across the hood of the police cruiser. Briscoe fired two full clips from his 9 mm. pistol as Baze was walking towards him firing from his 35 round banana clip as he proceeded. With his weapon empty, Deputy Briscoe turned and tried to run away. Before he could run ten feet, he was shot in the back twice. Baze pursued the officer, stood over him and fired his rifle into the back of the Deputy Sheriff's head.

Baze told police after his arrest, "I shot him in the back of the head. I understand I was killing the man. There was no doubt in my mind." Later, he voluntarily admitted, "You tell them that you have got the right man. I'm the one that killed them son of a bitches."

Sheriff Bennett and Deputy Briscoe were seeking Baze in order to serve fugitive warrants from Ohio on the twice convicted felon. The Ohio warrants were for felonious assault of a police officer with a deadly weapon, bail jumping, receiving stolen property and flagrant nonsupport.

Baze knew that Kentucky police were looking for him on the Ohio charges because the Sheriff and other officers went to his rural cabin and spoke to his wife in an effort to locate him. Baze went to Ohio for two weeks in the beginning of mid-January 1992. His wife had telephoned him in Ohio to warn him that "they had been looking for him, and, that Steve Bennett read me the warrants." Baze purchased an assault rifle and ammunition while in Ohio and returned to Kentucky on January 28 with the rifle. Baze testified that he was intending to leave to go to Florida. About mid-day on January 30, 1992, Deputy Briscoe drove to the Baze cabin. Baze was hiding inside the cabin and his wife told the Deputy that he was not home. A number of relatives were both inside and outside the cabin. Although he tried to escape through a trap door in the bedroom floor, Baze was ultimately confronted by the Deputy who showed him a list of the Ohio charges. Baze refused to be taken into custody because he said he did not want the inconvenience of having to wait eight months for his case to go to court. Briscoe left to get help. Baze then crossed the road and positioned himself behind the cover of a large stump and brush pile behind where the officers would park their cruisers if they returned. When they did return, Baze's wife walked out in front of the cabin and hollered at the officers, drawing their attention. Baze was behind them on the high ground with cover and the sun at his back and his SKS assault rifle. Baze fired at the officers while Sheriff Bennett was looking away in the opposite direction.

After he killed both officers, Baze picked up the empty pistol from the Deputy and removed the Sheriff's unfired revolver and put both of the side arms into his own blue bag. He then went into the woods and headed towards Estill County. Shortly after 8 p.m., Baze surrendered without incident at the home of former Estill County Sheriff Monty Parks. Sgt. Miller of the Irvine police arrested Baze and read the Miranda rights to him. Baze, without being questioned, told one of the arresting officers, "You tell them that you got the right man. I'm the one that killed them son of a bitches." Later, Baze confessed to Detective Patterson, Trooper Blevins and Richard Wilson of the Courier-Journal in a series of statements on January 30 and in February, 1992.

The trial lasted three weeks, from November 29, 1993 until December 20, 1993. Baze admitted that he had shot the officers but said it was done in self-defense and under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance. At the conclusion of the guilt phase, the jury deliberated three days. Following the guilt phase, the jury deliberated two days in the penalty phase to fix a sentence of death.

Baze, through appellate counsel, raises 35 assignments of error in this appeal. We have carefully reviewed all the issues presented by Baze and this opinion will concentrate on those questions which we believe are necessary to the resolution of this case. Allegations which we consider to be without merit, will not be specifically addressed here.

Right to Present a Defense

Baze argues that the trial court totally interfered with his right to present a defense. Baze claimed that he killed the two officers in self-defense and that his actions were inextricably interwoven with his in-laws' family feud which contributed to his extreme emotional disturbance.

The trial judge limited the amount of testimony regarding the family feud and excluded direct evidence of the feud because it did not directly involve Baze and the two police officers who were killed. The remainder of the feud evidence was allowed in by avowal. Baze contends that this ruling was erroneous and bases his argument on a statement in McClellan v. Commonwealth, Ky., 715 S.W.2d 464 (1986), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 1057, 107 S.Ct. 935, 93 L.Ed.2d 986 (1987), to the effect that "the commentary to KRS 507.030 explains that a reasonable explanation of extreme emotional disturbance is not limited to specific acts of provocation by the victim but may relate to any circumstance that could reasonably cause an extreme emotional disturbance."

Baze maintained that his family had been harassing him and his wife and that he had just gotten tired of being harassed by them. An analysis of the voluminous arguments relative to the family feud indicates that the feud did not involve Baze directly but rather his in-laws and his wife. In any event, the feud did not involve the murder victims. The trial judge correctly concluded that the details of the family feud were not relevant to the killings on January 30, 1992. The trial judge spent a considerable amount of time explaining why he was limiting the amount of evidence about a family feud that could be presented to the jury. Baze's daughter even testified that the feud did not involve Ralph Baze against any of his relatives and it was only "little stuff" between the kids fighting.

The presentation of evidence and the scope and duration of cross-examination is within the sound discretion of the trial judge. Moore v. Commonwealth, Ky., 771 S.W.2d 34 (1988). Here the trial judge did not abuse his discretion by limiting the amount of feud evidence presented to the jury. The constitutional rights of the defendant were not violated in any way.

Admonition

Baze contends that an admonition to the effect that his testimony was "legally irrelevant to support his defenses" was improper. Early in the trial, the trial judge admonished the jury that Baze's belief and action were "legally irrelevant" to support his defenses of self-protection and extreme emotional disturbance. Baze argues that he testified in his own defense, but that he was not given an opportunity to explain because the court told the jury that everything Baze stated was "legally irrelevant."

Baze was not denied the right to present a defense or a meaningful opportunity to present his defense as stated in Crane v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 683, 106 S.Ct. 2142, 90 L.Ed.2d 636 (1986). Baze was not denied his right to explain. He had sufficient opportunity to deny or explain all of the evidence against him. He was not denied his fundamental right to due process. Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U.S. 154, 114 S.Ct. 2187, 129 L.Ed.2d 133 (1994), which does not allow the execution of a person on the basis of information which he had no opportunity to deny or explain was not violated.

Baze testified that he first resisted Deputy Briscoe's attempts to arrest him on the Ohio charges because (1) Baze did not believe there were any such charges, and (2) Briscoe did not have a warrant. The exact wording of the trial judge's admonition was as follows:

... The jury is admonished that Mr. Baze's belief as to the existence or non-existence of criminal charges pending against him in the State of Ohio is legally irrelevant to the events that occurred on January 30. Further, the law is that a person may be lawfully arrested by a law officer, without a warrant, upon reasonable information that the accused stands charged in the courts of another state with a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year....

Baze asserts that this admonition effectively prevented him from explaining his actions. We do not agree. He fully explained that his actions were based upon his belief that the charges were false and that Briscoe needed a warrant to arrest him. The trial judge's admonition merely informed the jury that under the law, Baze's beliefs were either incorrect or irrelevant to any claim of justification. Baze did not deny that he knew Briscoe was acting under color of official authority. Therefor...