Bloom v. People, No. 06SC597.

• Decision Date: 09 June 2008
• Docket Number: No. 06SC597.
• Citation: 185 P.3d 797
• Parties: Janine BLOOM, Petitioner v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Respondent.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

185 P.3d 797

Janine BLOOM, Petitioner v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Respondent.

No. 06SC597.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

June 9, 2008.

Douglas K. Wilson, Colorado State Public Defender, Anne Stockham, Deputy State Public Defender, Denver, Colorado, Attorneys for Petitioner.

John W. Suthers, Attorney General, Christine C. Brady, Assistant Attorney General, Appellate Division, Criminal Justice Section, Denver, Colorado, Attorneys for Respondent.

Justice EID delivered the Opinion of the Court.

Petitioner Janine Bloom appeals her conviction for knowingly causing the death of a child under twelve years of age by one in a position of trust.¹ Bloom argues that the trial court made two errors. First, she points to the fact that the trial court refused to declare a mistrial after one witness told the jury that another witness had failed a polygraph. Second, she points to the trial court's determination that she was competent to proceed even though no formal competency examination had been performed. Bloom contends that these two actions by the trial court violated her constitutional rights and constituted an abuse of discretion requiring reversal. The court of appeals affirmed Bloom's conviction. See People v. Bloom, No. 03CA1982, 2006 WL 2062459 (Colo.App. May 25, 2006) (not selected for official publication).

We now affirm the court of appeals. We hold that the reference to the witness's polygraph results did not violate Bloom's right to confront the witnesses against her or her right to trial by an impartial jury. We also hold that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying Bloom's motion for a mistrial based on the reference. With respect to the competency proceedings, we hold that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by finding Bloom competent to proceed. We further hold that the trial court's failure to obtain a formal competency examination did not render Bloom's competency hearing inadequate under the circumstances because other evidence established Bloom's competency.

I.

A.

Bloom's six-month-old son, Christopher, died in Bloom's Colorado Springs apartment on the morning of June 30, 2002. Bloom and a man named Jeremy Ellis were present in the apartment at the time. They called 911 at 9:19 a.m., and police and fire department personnel arrived around 9:30 a.m. The emergency responders found Christopher cold and stiff and lying about six feet away from a makeshift bed—composed of a comforter and a folded blanket—that was located in the center of the master bedroom. A black plastic bag was next to Christopher, and his diaper bag was located on a pile of clothes a few feet away.

Around the time of Christopher's death, Bloom had relationships with three men: Jeffrey McAllister, Ellis, and Josh Gouge. McAllister was Bloom's husband. Ellis was McAllister's friend, and the two served in the Army together. Gouge was Bloom's boyfriend before she met McAllister, and the two had a child together after Christopher's death. Bloom once threatened Gouge with loss of custody of his child if he did not stand by her during the investigation of Christopher's death.

Throughout the course of that investigation, Bloom provided inconsistent stories to the police. She told fire department personnel that she and Ellis awoke around 8:30 a.m. and that she checked Christopher and saw that he was okay. She then said that she checked Christopher again after smoking a cigarette and found him off his bed with the plastic bag covering his head and part of his body. However, when Bloom spoke with Detective Karl Herndon at the scene, she said that she checked on Christopher only once that morning, which was after she finished smoking.

Bloom also gave two videotaped interviews to the police, on June 30 and July 22, 2002. Ellis was interviewed on June 30th as well. Toward the end of the first interview, Bloom blurted out, "Our stories aren't corroborating, are they?" She then asked, "Has Jeremy [Ellis] been convicted of anything?" During the second interview, a detective confronted Bloom with the fact that babies do not suffocate in bags unless some force is applied. Bloom responded by changing her story and claiming that the plastic bag was farther up Christopher's body so that it just covered his head and his arms were holding the bag against his face.

Bloom also made some incriminating statements. She told Gouge that she "killed Christopher" because she "didn't see that black bag." She attempted suicide on the evening after she made this remark, and her suicide note, which was addressed to McAllister, Ellis, and Gouge, stated in part, "Please, some day maybe y'all can forgive me for killing our little boy." Bloom told McAllister, "I felt like I killed [Christopher]," and "I think I killed him." When McAllister later called Bloom to discuss the possibility of a divorce, Bloom responded, "I know I killed my baby. I know it was wrong. I'm not crazy, and no, I'm not giving you a divorce." Finally, Bloom speculated in her diary that she might go to jail for Christopher's death; in particular, she wrote in reference to her subsequent pregnancy, "I promise I'll take better care of this baby. I'll even go to classes. God, please don't let man hate or take our baby away from me, and please don't let man convict me for Christopher's death."

Ellis also gave two videotaped interviews to the police on June 30 and July 17, 2002. Ellis asserted the Bloom was innocent. He also stated that he never saw a plastic bag near Christopher, but when the interviewing detective told him that bags are easily printable, Ellis admitted that he might have moved the bag. (In fact, Ellis's fingerprint was found on the bag.) At one point, Ellis denied responsibility for Christopher's death and exclaimed, "I can't believe [Bloom's] trying to pin it on me.... No, no [she] is pinning this on me." During the second interview, Ellis made multiple changes to his story, including (1) revealing that he had a sexual relationship with Bloom and that he and Bloom had sex on the morning of Christopher's death; (2) stating that Christopher was cold, not warm, when first found; and (3) admitting that he moved the plastic bag before emergency personnel arrived. At the request of the police, Ellis took a polygraph test on the morning after the second interview, and he failed it.

Ellis later changed his story and accused Bloom of murdering Christopher. In September 2002, he told McAllister that on the morning of June 30th, Bloom showed him how she had used her hand to suffocate Christopher and then asked Ellis to help her coordinate their stories for the police. Then, on February 11 and 12, 2003, Ellis gave a written statement, signed under penalty of perjury, to the Army's Central Investigation Detachment.² Ellis wrote that Bloom suffocated Christopher with her hand, that she asked him to help cover up the crime, and that he obliged by giving a false statement to the police. Ellis's written statement was contrary to his first two videotaped interviews, but it was consistent with the fact that he had failed the polygraph that he took the morning after his second interview.

Ellis's written statement prompted new developments in the case. Although the coroner had originally concluded that Christopher's death was due to either SIDS or asphyxiation, he ruled out SIDS based on Ellis's written statement. Also based on that statement, Bloom was charged with knowingly causing the death of a child under twelve years of age by one in a position of trust.

B.

Bloom first appeared in court with counsel on March 4, 2003, for a pre-trial hearing. On May 12, 2003, defense counsel requested the court to order that Bloom be provided with Lexipro, an antidepressant, because she had a history of postpartum depression. In fact, Bloom's hospital had prescribed Lexipro, but the jail provided Prozac, also an antidepressant, instead. Bloom refused Prozac, purportedly because of its side effects. The jail never provided Lexipro, and Bloom never took Prozac.

At a suppression hearing on July 28, 2003, defense counsel stated for the first time that she did not believe that Bloom could make it through trial without Lexipro. On July 31, 2003, counsel filed a motion for a competency examination. Counsel argued that Bloom was not receiving treatment or medication for her depression and that Bloom consequently would "not [be] able to assist in her defense in a way that is meaningful." Counsel noted Bloom's history of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and postpartum depression, and she further stated that Bloom had been "extremely emotional throughout the trial proceedings," and that "[Bloom] completely had broken down" after a recent motions hearing. Counsel represented that it was "extremely difficult to discuss the plea agreement that has been offered, as well as the facts of the case and the preparation of the case" because "[Bloom] is not able to process all of that information due to her emotional and mental health state."

The trial court, Judge Kennedy presiding, denied Bloom's motion, stating, "It is your burden to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that she is incompetent, and you have not done sufficient assertion even to order a competency evaluation to the Court." The judge relied on his in-court observations of Bloom and his conversations with personnel at the jail where Bloom was being held. The judge then proceeded to set a date for a preliminary competency hearing.

The preliminary competency hearing was held on August 8, 2003. Defense counsel presented testimony from a nurse at the jail. The nurse stated that Bloom was receiving group therapy for depression, that she had complained about problems with other inmates in her ward, and that she had expressed fear for her safety and requested a transfer to another ward. The nurse attributed these problems to Bloom's "mood swings," and she noted that Bloom...