Bridges v. State
| Decision Date | 23 August 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 32887.,32887. |
| Citation | 6 P.3d 1000,116 Nev. 752 |
| Parties | Sebastian S. BRIDGES, Appellant, v. The STATE of Nevada, Respondent. |
| Court | Nevada Supreme Court |
Morgan D. Harris, Public Defender, and Robert L. Miller, Deputy Public Defender, Clark County, for Appellant.
Frankie Sue Del Papa, Attorney General, Carson City; Stewart L. Bell, District Attorney, Brian S. Rutledge, Chief Deputy District Attorney, and David T. Wall, Deputy District Attorney, Clark County, for Respondent.
BEFORE THE COURT EN BANC.
The State charged appellant Sebastian Stephanus Bridges with the October 26, 1997, murder of Hunter Blatchford, and with related offenses. The State sought the death penalty for the murder. Bridges represented himself at trial pursuant to his own request, after the district court found him competent to proceed and capable of representing himself.
Bridges was subsequently convicted of: (1) first degree kidnapping (of Blatchford) with the use of a deadly weapon; (2) second degree kidnapping (of Bridges' wife, Laurie) with the use of a deadly weapon; (3) battery (of Laurie) with the use of a deadly weapon; and (4) murder with the use of a deadly weapon. After the penalty hearing, the jury sentenced Bridges to death for the murder, finding one aggravating circumstance: that the murder was committed during a kidnapping or attempted kidnapping with the use of a deadly weapon. The district court sentenced Bridges to terms of imprisonment for the other offenses. The district court entered the judgment of conviction on July 24, 1998.
This appeal followed. We affirm Bridges' conviction and sentence of death.
Laurie Bridges ("Laurie"), Bridges' wife, testified to events leading up to the murder of Hunter Blatchford. Laurie and Bridges were living together in California prior to May of 1997, when Laurie decided to leave Bridges and go to Las Vegas. She did not tell Bridges that she was leaving or where she was going.
While in Las Vegas, Laurie became involved in a serious relationship with Hunter Blatchford.1 Laurie avoided contact with Bridges out of fear; Bridges had threatened that if he ever found out that she was with another man, he would kill both Laurie and the other man.
Bridges eventually tracked Laurie down. On October 21, 1997, he confronted her at the residence she shared with Blatchford. Bridges had a gun, and he told Laurie that he had tried to kill himself but could not do it. During an emotional discussion, Bridges gave the gun to Laurie and suggested that she kill him; Laurie refused. Ultimately, Bridges asked Laurie to drive him to the apartment where he was staying, and she agreed.
At his apartment, Bridges pleaded with Laurie to give him another chance. Bridges then asked if they could at least be friends, and he gave Laurie his phone number. Subsequently, Bridges asked Laurie to drive him back to his car, which he had left near her residence.
In Laurie's truck, Bridges handed her a key that fit the ignition. Bridges said, "[J]ust remember wherever you go, whatever you do for the rest of your life I'll know where you are and what you're doing, and you can never get away from me." Bridges told Laurie that he had been secretly watching her and Blatchford for the last three weeks and that he knew their schedules.
Later that day, Laurie told Blatchford of her encounter with Bridges. Using the phone number that Bridges had given to Laurie, Blatchford called Bridges and spoke with him on at least two occasions. Blatchford and Bridges agreed to meet, together with Laurie, at Bridges' apartment. According to Laurie, the purpose of the meeting was "to bring closure to the whole thing ... so that everybody would know where they stood and what was what and end it."
At approximately 5:00 p.m. on October 26, the trio met at Bridges' apartment. They discussed why Laurie had left, and they discussed an offer by Bridges to buy Blatchford a new truck if Blatchford would allow Laurie to return and live with Bridges for two months. Blatchford refused. Additionally, Bridges offered Laurie $50,000 in cash that he claimed was her share of a business that he had liquidated.
Bridges ultimately informed the couple that he was leaving the next day, but that he had some of Laurie's belongings and other household items in storage. Laurie and Blatchford agreed to go with Bridges, in his car, to the supposed storage site. At that time, Laurie observed that Bridges was upset but that he did not seem threatening, and it appeared that he was going to accept the situation.
Bridges drove to a remote location where several trailers were sitting. It was getting dark by this time. The trio got out of the car, and Bridges directed Blatchford and Laurie to one of the trailers that Bridges claimed had his name on it. Bridges indicated that he would give them the key to the trailer, which he had left at his car, so all three returned to the car.
After Blatchford and Laurie got into the car, Bridges reached down near the driver's seat and pulled out a gun. The child safety locks in the car were engaged, so Laurie and Blatchford could not get out of the car. Bridges "turned very angry in his face and he said, now we're really gonna talk, now we're really gonna talk," and he pointed the gun at Blatchford. Blatchford responded, Then, Bridges fired one shot at Blatchford, hitting him in the abdominal region. Bridges told Laurie that it was her fault that a man had to die because of what she had done. Blatchford groaned and fell unconscious shortly after the shooting. Bridges began beating Blatchford over the head with the gun. Laurie put her hand up to stop Bridges from hitting Blatchford, and he struck her three times with the gun: once on each side of the head and once on the hand. Bridges handcuffed Blatchford and Laurie, and he placed cuffs on Laurie's legs.2 Bridges used garbage bags to cover Blatchford's body; he told Laurie that he did not want police to see the body. Afterwards, he drove with Laurie toward California.
Bridges exited the freeway at Nipton Road and stopped the car. He removed Laurie's leg-cuffs. Using a shovel taken from the trunk of his car, Bridges dug a grave for Blatchford. Before placing the body in the grave, Bridges removed the handcuffs and garbage bags from the body. Bridges also decided to remove Blatchford's clothes, apparently to expedite the decomposition process. He then covered Blatchford's body with dirt and rocks. Before they left the site, Bridges removed Laurie's handcuffs.
Bridges and Laurie left the gravesite, and Bridges drove back toward Las Vegas. Bridges told Laurie that she must never tell anyone what had happened and that, if she told, she would be implicated. Laurie responded that she would not tell, and she asked Bridges to let her go. He indicated that he did not trust her and that he would take her to his apartment to stay with him. At one point, Bridges asked Laurie whether it would make her happy if he shot himself or turned himself in.
During the drive, Bridges began "fiddling" with the gun. Bridges indicated that the gun was jammed, and Laurie warned him that the gun might discharge if he tried to fix it while driving. Bridges pulled his car off the road and tried to fix the gun. Then, a policeman pulled up, exited his car, and approached Bridges' car. Bridges gave the gun to Laurie, telling her to place it between her legs.
Officer Kenneth M. Twiddy testified concerning the following events. At approximately 9:48 p.m., Twiddy observed Bridges' car parked at the shoulder of the road. He stopped and approached Bridges to see if he needed assistance. Bridges told Twiddy that he had stopped so that a woman passenger could go to the bathroom. At one point during the conversation, Twiddy pointed his flashlight inside the car and observed Laurie, who was shaking and appeared frightened. Twiddy also observed what appeared to be blood on the passenger seat, console, door, and driver's seat, and he observed ammunition on the floor of the car. Twiddy called for back-up, and he ordered Bridges to step out of the car and approach Twiddy's police car.
After Bridges had exited the car, and while Twiddy was speaking with him, Laurie emerged from the driver's side and came toward Twiddy. Laurie yelled that Bridges had murdered her friend. Twiddy searched Bridges for weapons and found a pair of handcuffs in Bridges' back pocket. In addition, Twiddy noticed blood on Bridges' pants and shirt, and dirt on his hands, arms, and nails, and on his shoes.
After back-up arrived, the investigation continued. Bridges waived his rights pursuant to Miranda3 and spoke with police about what had happened. Bridges eventually admitted to shooting Blatchford, but he claimed that it was an accident. Bridges told police that he had wanted to take his wife and Blatchford to California so that they could see a priest. Bridges stated that, at gunpoint, he ordered Blatchford to place handcuffs on his wrists. According to Bridges, the gun accidentally discharged. Bridges admitted that he had buried the body in the desert.
A search of the passenger compartment of Bridges' car resulted in the discovery of several items, including: (1) a Colt .45 pistol and a holster; (2) .45 magazines and cartridges; (3) a pin used for assembling/disassembling the gun; (4) a bag containing two rolls of duct tape and a box of 42-gallon plastic trash bags (as well some of the ammunition noted above); (5) a bank bag containing $50,000 in cash; (6) two sets of handcuffs and a set of leg-cuffs; and (7) a plastic bag containing latex gloves, white nylon ropes, black nylon cords, a black shirt, a black stocking cap, a pair of black gloves, and a box of envelopes. A search of the trunk yielded several additional items, including: (1) a stun gun; (2) a shovel; and (3) a black plastic...
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