Corbett v. State
| Decision Date | 23 August 2017 |
| Docket Number | No. 08-15-00300-CR,08-15-00300-CR |
| Parties | STATEN WILLIAM CORBETT JR., Appellant, v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Appeal from 372nd District Court of Tarrant County, Texas
(TC # 1411307R)
Even charitably described, this case involves the torture murder of a putative member of the Aryan Brotherhood. The State indicted Staten William Corbett Jr. for murder and felony tampering with evidence (the corpse). The jury found him guilty of murder and he pled guilty to the tampering charge. The trial court assessed sixty years for the murder and a concurrent twenty years on the tampering charge. Finding no error, we affirm.
FACTUAL SUMMARY
This case arises from the death of Earnest Ray Lackey. On August 2, 2012, his badly decomposed body was found in a wooded area of Tarrant County.1 The bound and gagged body was wrapped in a blanket. Forensic analysis showed at least four incised injuries with a bladedinstrument to the neck area. Four ribs were fractured, as was the seventh cervical vertebra, likely from blunt force trauma. The coroner ruled the death a homicide. The stab wounds to the neck area were lethal injuries, but the blunt force trauma to the ribs could also have caused serious bodily injury or death.
The investigation quickly led police to events some three weeks earlier at a property occupied by Ronnie Wayne Freeman. Those events provide an uncomfortable glimpse inside the subculture of methamphetamine users and the Aryan Brotherhood. On the morning of July 12, 2012, the decedent, Earnest, and several other admitted meth users Amber Miller, Jennifer Dalton, and Appellant -- needed to find a place to stay. They contacted Wayne. Earnest and Appellant were partners with Wayne in the drug trade; Wayne sold meth that Earnest and Appellant secured for him.
Earnest, Amber, Jennifer, and Appellant arrived at Wayne's property sometime during the afternoon of July 12. Two other persons were already at the trailer, Cindy Allen and Jimmy Riddle (Jimbo). Everyone was either smoking or injecting meth. The State developed the events of that evening and the next morning from the testimony of Wayne, Amber, Cindy, and Kasie Crosby who arrived sometime later. We set forth summaries of each witness's testimony. The astute reader will quickly discern that their accounts are notably different. The jury below was tasked with deciding whether the differences were from the haze of admitted drug use, foibles of memory, or perhaps some desire to exculpate themselves or implicate others.
Ronnie Wayne Freeman
Wayne, who himself has an extensive criminal history, was also under indictment for Earnest's murder and was awaiting trial. He waived his privilege against self-incrimination and testified without any promise of a plea bargain.
At the time of these events, Wayne was living at a property comprised of two house trailers situated side by side and joined by a porch. He sold meth and marijuana out of the property. The trailer had white supremacist graffiti etched on many of its walls.2 Another symbol on the wall denoted membership in the Aryan Brotherhood. The Aryan Brotherhood is a white supremacist organization that arose out of the prison system, and is linked to narcotic sales, prostitution, weapons manufacture, and contract killings. Mason v. State, 905 S.W.2d 570, 577 (Tex.Crim.App. 1995); see also Dawson v. Delaware, 503 U.S. 159, 173 n.1, 112 S.Ct. 1093, 117 L.Ed.2d 309 (1992)(Thomas, J., dissenting). Appellant and Jimbo were members of the Aryan Brotherhood. Wayne denied being a member, but rather claimed he was a "friend of the family." He also admitted to being a "prospect" at one time, but he had "dropped his flag" which means he left the gang. A gang expert testified that both Appellant and Jimbo have tattoos identifying them as associating with white supremacist groups, such as the Aryan Brotherhood. Wayne's tattoos were not indicative of gang affiliation.
Sometime after arriving at the residence, Appellant and Earnest borrowed a car from Wayne to obtain more drugs. They returned many hours later accompanied by Kasie Crosby. Upon seeing Kasie, Wayne became upset because he understood that she was to be killed as a snitch. When they first arrived, Wayne head-butted Appellant and had him sit on the couch in the living room. Earnest tried to diffuse Wayne's anger by giving him a soda. But Wayne slashed the plastic bottle with a switchblade and told Earnest to sit as well.3 Wayne sent Kasie to a back bedroom on one side of the trailer to stay with Cindy. By this time, Wayne had also told Amber and Jennifer to stay in the middle bedroom.
Wayne then told Appellant and Earnest that this "ain't happening," referring to killing Kasie. Appellant responded, "Word's come from -- down from the top," and said, "it's supposed to happen." When Wayne insisted that it would not, Appellant and Jimbo tried to call someone on the phone. Wayne, Jimbo, and Appellant then began discussing why Kasie had to die. Wayne turned the conversation to Earnest. He questioned why Earnest always acted "shady," why he would not give out his phone number, or why he took photos of the drug scales. He then asked Earnest to recite the motto for the Aryan Brotherhood which is referred to as the "fourteen words."4 Earnest began stuttering and could not get the words out.
At that point, Appellant dove across the couch and hit Earnest several times in the mouth. Wayne claimed that he tried to pulled Appellant off, but Appellant and Jimbo began a "beat-down" on Earnest, described as a form of "discipline," where the victim is not supposed to fight back. When inflicting discipline, the intent is to cause pain including the breaking of bones. When the beat down began, Wayne told the group in the living room that it was none of his business, and he retreated to the bedroom with Kasie and Cindy. He turned some music up but could feel the fight going on through the subfloor of the trailer. He also heard some occasional screams.
After a time, he left the bedroom and saw that Appellant and Jimbo were still beating on Earnest who was hog-tied, laying on the floor on his stomach. Jimbo then told Wayne to "come get some," at which point Wayne pulled Earnest's pants down and burned him on the buttocks with a hot soldering iron.5 Wayne then claimed to have smoked some pot and gone to sleep.
By the time Wayne awoke, Earnest was wrapped in a blanket with a foot sticking out. Wayne shot at the wrapped body with a BB gun. He also kicked Earnest hard and got no reaction. Wayne told Appellant and Jimbo "to get rid of that." Wayne backed his car up to the house and put a shower curtain in the trunk. Jimbo and Appellant then loaded the body in the trunk. Appellant claimed he had a place to put the body and left. Wayne instructed Appellant to clean Earnest's fingernails in case he had scratched anyone, and to bring the blanket back to burn.
Amber Miller
Amber was Earnest's girlfriend. She also knew Appellant as a member of the Aryan Brotherhood. Amber recalled the group went to Wayne's sometime in the early afternoon and all smoked meth.6 Later that afternoon, Earnest and Appellant left to pick-up Kasie. Amber got sleepy and Jimbo took her to the middle bedroom "because they were going to have company." Cindy took her cell phone. Someone turned the music up. She believed someone drugged her with something other than meth.
She awoke to hear Earnest scream, "I'm a bro, I'm a bro, I'm a bro."7 From the bedroom, she heard a swishing sound, like something swinging through the air, and people running in the hallway. She also recalled the sound of fighting, as if someone were being thrown around. Wayne was screaming, and another person was squealing like they were being raped. Finally, she heard Appellant state, "You know you like it; take it like a man," followed by Wayne yelling some more.
She passed out and Jimbo woke her in the morning saying they had to leave. As she walked out, Amber saw a modest amount of blood by a reclining chair in the living room.Wayne had blood on his hand and his clothes. Appellant had some splattered blood on his hat and clothes. Amber and Appellant stayed together for the next several days. During that time, she asked him whether Earnest was dead and he said no, Earnest was in a safe place where nobody could hurt him but he could not take her there because it was not safe. Appellant told her to tell anyone who asked that he took Earnest to the bus station and that Earnest went to North Carolina.
In another bizarre twist, Amber was staying at her own trailer in another part of rural Tarrant County on the day Earnest's body was discovered. A woman identified as Winter Lee, who also was affiliated with the Aryan Brotherhood, and Jimbo were at the trailer. Winter confronted Jimbo, stating, She told him that he had 48 hours to bring Earnest's remains to surface or he would be "laying in a gutter next to him." Jimbo immediately got in touch with Appellant, and then left with Winter. An hour later Winter called 911 and reported the body's location, which was within walking distance of Amber's trailer.
Kasie Crosby
Kasie had been dating Appellant about two months before the murder. Appellant and Earnest picked her up on July 12, and they went to buy meth. When they first arrived at Wayne's trailer, Wayne grabbed Appellant by the throat and said, "You brought a snitch to my house." She was taken to the back bedroom and told not to say a word by Jimbo. When she asked what was going on, Jimbo took her outside and told her Appellant intended to kill her based on rumors she was a snitch. They were waiting for a call to confirm the rumor Jimbo then took her into the back bedroom with Cindy. By that time, Wayne was in the hallway watching both the back bedroom and living room, waiving a large deer hunting knife around and "just acting schizzed...
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