Burdette v. Commonwealth

• Decision Date: 16 February 2023
• Docket Number: 2022-SC-0015-MR
• Parties: ROGER D. BURDETTE APPELLANT v. COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY APPELLEE
• Court: Supreme Court of Kentucky

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ROGER D. BURDETTEAPPELLANT v. COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKYAPPELLEE

No. 2022-SC-0015-MR

Supreme Court of Kentucky

February 16, 2023

On Appeal from Jefferson Circuit Court Honorable A.C. Chauvin JudgeNo. 19-CR-0516

Counsel for Appellant: Christopher Barrett Thurman Louisville Metro Public Defender

Counsel for Appellee: Daniel J. CameronAttorney General of Kentucky Christopher Henry Assistant Attorney General

OPINION

VANMETER, CHIEF JUSTICE

Roger Burdette appeals as a matter of right^[1] from the Jefferson Circuit Court judgment sentencing him to twenty-seven years' imprisonment for his convictions of murder, four counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence, and failure to give right-of-way to a stopped emergency vehicle.Burdette raises numerous issues in support of his request for a new trial, none of which mandate reversal of his convictions and sentence.Accordingly, we affirm.

I.Factual and Procedural Background

The sad facts of this case involve a fatal vehicular collision on the afternoon of Christmas Eve in 2018, which resulted in the death of Louisville Metro Police Detective Deidre Mengedoht.Det. Mengedoht had pulled over a pickup truck on I-64 for speeding, just under the Belvedere, and activated the flashing lights on her vehicle.The Belvedere is an elevated event space located on the Riverfront between 4th and 6th streets in downtown Louisville.The portion of I-64 under the Belvedere is a sort of tunnel, darkened by the overpass above.Due to the lack of a shoulder on that stretch of I-64, Det. Mengedoht's vehicle and the pickup truck were stopped in the right lane of the interstate.

Det. Mengedoht approached the pickup truck and obtained the license of the driver, Quintin Brady, who had three passengers in his vehicle: his daughter, his girlfriend (Jasmine Parks) and Parks's sister.Brady described the location of his pickup truck as being under the Belvedere from the front of his truck to the front windshield, but the rest of his truck was exposed.Det. Mengedoht returned to her vehicle, which was entirely exposed and not under the Belvedere tunnel, and about five minutes later, a 30,000-pound tanker truck driven by Burdette crashed into her vehicle.The force of the collision pushed her vehicle against a concrete wall, past Brady's pickup truck, causing her vehicle to ignite in flames.The occupants of Brady's truck were able to escape with no major injuries, but no one could get close enough to rescue Det. Mengedoht, as the area all around her vehicle was engulfed in flames.Det. Mengedoht died of smoke inhalation, thermal injuries, and blunt force injuries sustained in the collision.

At the time of the collision, Burdette was working as a commercial driver for Metropolitan Sewer District("MSD").He had been working all day and had just dropped off his last load of sludge at a treatment plant.When speaking to law enforcement officers at the scene, Burdette stated, "I was in the center lane - [inaudible] the slow lane, I'm sorry.And I start to switch over, and, last thing I know - I, I'm not even sure I hit the car first, but I think I did.But I was lookin' to get in the other lane.And when I looked up, too late."He further stated that "he saw [Det. Mengedoht] from pretty far back but didn't think she was that close."

When asked if he had anything to drink or had taken any medication, Burdette said that he took high blood pressure medicine and cholesterol medicine.Sergeant Michael Johnson observed that Burdette's eyes were bloodshot, his pupils appeared constricted, and he was very calm and nonchalant for someone who had just been in such a wreck.Sgt. Johnson testified that Burdette seemed a little slow and sluggish when responding, like he was not processing the information as fast as a regular person.To determine whether Burdette could safely operate a motor vehicle, Sgt. Johnson performed several field-sobriety tests.Based on Burdette's poor performance on these assessments, and Sgt. Johnson's observations of his demeanor, Sgt. Johnson suspected that Burdette might have taken some sort of narcotic analgesic and determined Burdette was "under the influence" while operating the truck.Several other witnesses at the scene testified that Burdette seemed to be unusually relaxed or emotionless, given that he had just been involved in a fatal collision.At trial, the defense presented proof that Burdette suffered from hearing difficulties and often reacted slowly as a result.

Based on the circumstances surrounding the collision, law enforcement obtained a warrant to draw Burdette's blood.Burdette was placed under arrest and charged with murder, four counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence, and failure to yield right-of-way to a stopped emergency vehicle.He was transported to Louisville Metro Department of Corrections("LMDC") for a blood draw.David McCarthy, a registered nurse working at LMDC, drew Burdette's blood pursuant to the search warrant and also conducted a routine intake assessment of Burdette in conjunction with him being booked into jail.The intake assessment form included a full medical and mental-health assessment and is performed on every inmate booked at LMDC.One of the questions on the intake assessment form is whether the inmate has ingested any drugs or medication.Burdette admitted to having consumed hydrocodone that day and that he takes it sometimes, without a prescription.

The testing performed on Burdette's blood indicated that Burdette had ingested two drugs - hydrocodone and clonazepam^[2] - both of which are controlled substances.Burdette did not have a prescription for either.^[3]Medical testimony presented at trial explained that both hydrocodone and clonazepam affect the central nervous system, which could adversely affect a person's fine motor skills and reaction time, make one appear extremely relaxed, and cause constricted pupils.Text messages retrieved from Burdette's cell phone were presented to the jury showing that he had sporadically contacted someone who is not a doctor to purchase prescription drugs during the two-year period preceding the collision.The exact type of pill he had been purchasing was unclear from the texts.The defense presented the testimony of three witnesses who interacted with Burdette on the day of the collision and who testified to the effect that he did not appear to be intoxicated.

An analysis of the reconstruction of the scene, based in part on the equipment download generated from Burdette's tanker truck, revealed that coming into the collision Burdette maintained a fairly constant speed of 55 m.p.h. Officer Kisling testified that he did not see lengthy periods on the brake prior to the collision, and an inspection of Burdette's tanker truck revealed the brakes were in working order.In Burdette's defense, James Sobek, an accident reconstructionist, testified that very little light seeped into the tunnel where Det. Mengedoht's vehicle was parked and that the lighting would have adversely impacted visibility.Sobek further explained that the curvature of the road could have made it more difficult to assess lane placement and distance ahead, and that Det. Mengdoht's vehicle was parked in an unexpected location for a stop.Sobek acknowledged that - per the video of the collision - Det. Mengdoht's flashing lights on her vehicle were activated at the time.Still, Sobek believed that Burdette need not have been doing anything wrong for the collision to have occurred.During trial, the jury was permitted to leave the courtroom and view the vehicles involved in the collision, which had been transported to a street adjacent to the courthouse.

A forensic examination of Burdette's cell phone revealed that at the approximate time his tanker truck collided with Det. Mengedoht's vehicle (2:15 p.m.), his cell phone was streaming a pornographic video of two individuals engaged in oral and vaginal sex.By extracting data from Burdette's phone, Detective Aaron Gabhart, a member of the Secret Service Cyber Fraud Task Force, was able to discover the actions that the phone's user - ostensibly, Burdette - had performed immediately prior to and during the collision.The jury heard evidence that approximately four minutes prior to the collision, Burdette had unlocked his phone, activated an internet browser, and began streaming a pornographic video from the website "xvideos.com."The phone received the first file at 2:12 p.m. and the last file at 2:16 p.m.; the final entry in the phone's log was 2:20 p.m., when Burdette manually closed the internet browser app. Det. Gabhart testified that the video from "xvideos.com" was in the foreground of the phone's screen during this period and contained sexual activity with very little audible dialogue.Det. Gabhart further testified the Burdette had visited "xvideos.com" several other times on the day of the collision: at 8:53 a.m., 10:02 a.m., 12:33 p.m., 1:08 p.m., and 1:36 p.m.

The Commonwealth argued to the jury that Burdette acted wantonly with extreme indifference to the value of human life because he was impaired and watching a pornographic video when he collided with Det. Mengedoht's vehicle.During closing argument, defense counsel argued that the Commonwealth failed to meet its burden of proving wantonness, and, if anything Burdette acted recklessly.Defense counsel stated: "Here's why: You heard from Mr. Sobek that clearly he missed something but you also heard from Roger."Defense counsel then played the body camera recording introduced by the Commonwealth through Sergeant Elisha Thompson, in which Burdette is heard saying, "Last thing I know, I'm...