Bosse v. State

• Decision Date: 16 October 2015
• Docket Number: No. D–2012–1128.,D–2012–1128.
• Citation: 360 P.3d 1203
• Parties: Shaun Michael BOSSE, Appellant, v. The STATE of Oklahoma, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma

360 P.3d 1203

Shaun Michael BOSSE, Appellant, v. The STATE of Oklahoma, Appellee.

No. D–2012–1128.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma.

Oct. 16, 2015.

Gary Henry, Chief Capital Counsel, Mary Bruehl, Bobby Lewis, Capital Counsel, Okla. Indigent Defense System, Norman, OK, counsel for defendant at trial.

Greg Mashburn, District Attorney, Susan Caswell, Lori Puckett, Assistant District Attorneys, Office of District Attorney, Norman, OK, counsel for State at trial.

Michael D. Morehead, Appellate Defense Counsel, Jamie D. Pybas, Division Chief, Homicide Direct Appeals Div., Okla. Indigent Defense System, Norman, OK, counsel for appellant on appeal.

E. Scott Pruitt, Attorney General of Oklahoma, Thomas L. Tucker, Assistant Attorney General, Oklahoma City, OK, counsel for appellee on appeal.

OPINION

SMITH, Presiding Judge.

¶ 1 Shaun Michael Bosse was tried by jury and convicted of Counts I, II and III, First Degree Murder in violation of 21 O.S.Supp.2009, § 701.7(A); and Count IV, First Degree Arson in violation of 21 O.S.2001, § 1401(A), in the District Court of McClain County, Case No. CR–2010–213. For each of Counts I–III, the jury found that Bosse knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person, that each murder was heinous, atrocious or cruel; and that each murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest or prosecution. In accordance with the jury's recommendation the Honorable Greg Dixon sentenced Bosse to three sentences of death (Counts I–III), and thirty-five (35) years imprisonment and a fine of $25,000.00 (Count IV), to run consecutively. Bosse appealed from these convictions and sentences and raises fifteen propositions of error in support of his appeal.

¶ 2 On July 23, 2010, Katrina Griffin, her eight-year-old son Christian and her six-year old daughter Chasity were found dead in a mobile home near Dibble, where they lived on the same rural property as her father and stepmother, Ginger. Katrina, a single mother, had a seizure disorder and received Social Security disability payments. At the time of her death, she did not drive and she did not have a job. A few months before her death, after receiving SSD payments, Katrina bought furniture, televisions and a laptop computer for the trailer. She spent a lot of time online on her laptop, and she and the children watched movies and television and played video games at home. Katrina put her initials, KRG, on many of her possessions, including video games and movies. Katrina and Bosse met online in early July 2010. Bosse visited Katrina at the trailer several times before her death and stayed overnight at least once. Bosse met Katrina's stepmother, Ginger. One weekend when the children visited their father, Bosse stayed overnight and met Katrina's cousin, Heather Molloy, and Heather's boyfriend, Henry Price. Katrina told Molloy that her relationship with Bosse was the best she'd been in.

¶ 3 On the evening of July 22, 2010, while Bosse was visiting, Katrina realized some of Christian's video games were missing. Katrina asked Ginger whether Christian had left any games there, and Ginger said he'd taken them home. Katrina talked to her mother, Rebecca Allen, several times that night, beginning at about 10:00 p.m. Katrina said Bosse was with her and the children. Katrina told Allen that she thought Price had taken the games. Katrina tried several times to call and text Molloy without success. Katrina told Allen that Bosse was driving her to Molloy's house, and one text message to Molloy said that Katrina had come over and banged on the door. Eventually Katrina called the McClain County Sheriff's Office. About 11:50 p.m., Deputy Cunningham arrived to take a missing property report. Katrina, the children, and Bosse were there.

Katrina told Cunningham that about fifteen video games were missing, and she thought they had been gone since Molloy and Price visited the previous Saturday. Sometime between 12:30 a.m. and 1:00 a.m., Katrina phoned Allen, saying the deputy had left and she was going to bed.

¶ 4 Ginger Griffin left for work on July 23rd at around 7:00 a.m. She looked at Katrina's trailer, but saw neither smoke nor Bosse's truck. At 8:55 a.m. a neighbor, Daryl Dobbs, drove by and saw smoke coming from the top of Katrina's trailer, near the back door. Dobbs called 911 and reported the fire, drove to the trailer, and honked his horn. He tried to open the storm door, but it was jammed, so he walked around the trailer hitting the walls and windows, without response. Dobbs looked into the windows, but could not see anything; it was pitch black. The back door was locked. Dobbs used a garden hose to spray water on the trailer roof above the back door. Later, Dobbs opened the front screen door and banged on the closed front door. There was a small hole, about the size of a golf ball, in the window to the left of the front door. Neither the front nor back doors were damaged, and there was no smoke from the doors or windows, other than a trickle from the small hole in the front window. Dobbs disconnected the trailer's propane tank and turned off the electricity.

¶ 5 The Dibble police chief, Walt Thompson, responded to the 911 call shortly after 9:00 a.m. He saw smoke coming from the west roof line, near the middle of the trailer. The windows were unbroken, but he could not see inside because the trailer was filled with black smoke. Thompson broke a window at the trailer's far southeast corner, leaned inside, and shouted, but nobody responded. The front door opened when it was touched, and the men on the porch were forced back by heat and heavy black smoke. Both men noticed the smoke was heavier and darker than each one had seen rising from the back of the trailer. Soon flames began to roll out the front door. By this time, they were aware that Katrina and the children might be inside. Dibble volunteer firemen Bill Scott and Mark Palmore arrived, and fought their way through the front door. In heavy smoke, they cleared the two bedrooms and bathroom on the trailer's north end, before running low on oxygen. Washington volunteer firemen Derek Cheek and Gary Bolster, in turn, entered the trailer and began to search the south side through thick black smoke. They extinguished small flames in the living room, kitchen and utility room. The master bedroom door was shut and warm to the touch. The door had a hole in it, which appeared to have been there before the fire started. When Cheek opened it, they saw the bodies of Katrina and Christian on the floor. Heat was building up, and the two had to retreat before finishing their search for Chasity. While there were no flames as they left, within fifteen minutes flames appeared. It took firefighters an hour and a half to contain the fire. They focused on suppressing the flames nearest the victims, to preserve what they could of the crime scene.

¶ 6 When firefighters reentered the trailer, the fire had burned significant parts of the master bedroom, including the wall to the closet. The walls in the south part of the trailer were burned, the trailer was filled with charred debris, and the floor decking was saturated with water. The bodies of Katrina and Christian were charred and covered in debris. The fire began in the love seat on the living room's west wall. The State's experts testified it could have burned for at least four hours before Dobbs saw smoke at 8:55 a.m., smoldering until the front door opened to reignite the flames.

¶ 7 Chasity's body, severely charred, was in the closet of the master bedroom, underneath a pile of debris. A chair had been put under the outside knob of the closet door, preventing it from being opened from the inside. Chasity was burned from the waist down—her legs were charred to the muscle and bone was exposed. She had a laceration to her right cheek and blunt force trauma on the right side of her skull. The autopsy showed soot in her stomach and lungs.

¶ 8 Significant blood spatter was on the walls near Christian's body. His head was partially wrapped in a blanket. He wore underwear and unbuttoned, unzipped jean shorts. He had been stabbed five times in the neck and chest; there was a defensive stab wound on his right forearm, and he had blunt force trauma over his right eyebrow.

¶ 9 Katrina was clothed in a T-shirt, shorts and underwear; her shirt was pulled up over her torso and her hands crossed as if she had been dragged. When found after the fire, her legs were laying over Christian's, and her body was covered in debris. Her body had been partially burned, and there was some indication that it might have been covered with a sheet. She had eight stab wounds to her neck and abdomen, and blunt force trauma to the right side of her head. Her face was charred and her glasses were attached to her burned hair. She had defensive incised wounds on her right palm. Although Katrina was left-handed, her right hand held a knife with the blade pointing backwards, facing her body. Blood on this knife was consistent with Katrina's blood. A pocketknife with a broken blade was found underneath Katrina's body. The pocketknife belonged to Christian, and Katrina kept it in her bedroom.

¶ 10 The cause of death for both Katrina and Christian was multiple stab wounds. Neither victim had soot in their noses or mouths, suggesting they were dead before the fire. The cause of death for Chasity was smoke inhalation and thermal injury.

¶ 11 As investigators put out the fire and began working at the crime scene on the morning of July 23, Katrina's family members told police that she and Bosse were dating, and authorities began looking for him. Bosse shared an apartment in south Oklahoma City with his mother, Verna. Bosse left the apartment on July 22 at about 8:00 p.m. At about 6:00 a.m. on July 23, Verna saw Bosse getting ready to leave. He left between 6:15 and 6:30 a.m., went to OCCC, and logged in to a computer at about 7:30 a.m.

¶ 12 At about 2:30 p.m., McClain County Sheriff's...