Davis v. Com., 88-SC-755-MR

• Citation: 795 S.W.2d 942
• Decision Date: 06 September 1990
• Docket Number: No. 88-SC-755-MR,88-SC-755-MR
• Parties: Sheila DAVIS, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

Page 942

795 S.W.2d 942

Sheila DAVIS, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee.

No. 88-SC-755-MR.

Supreme Court of Kentucky.

Sept. 6, 1990.

Nick L. Pearl, Pearl, Musselwhite, Wheatley, Smith & Gohman, P.S.C., Radcliff, for appellant.

Frederic J. Cowan, Atty. Gen., Robert W. Hensley, and Ian G. Sonego, Asst. Attys. Gen., Frankfort, for appellee.

OPINION OF THE COURT

Appellant Sheila Davis was convicted in the Hardin Circuit Court of intentional murder. The Commonwealth sought the penalty of death, but appellant was sentenced to life in prison without benefit of probation or parole for at least twenty-five years. She appeals to this Court as a matter of right. We affirm.

On August 20, 1987, the body of appellant's husband, James W. Davis, was found in the back of his locked Ford Ranger pickup truck in a Louisville parking garage. The truck was parked backwards into a space so that the rear of the truck was visually protected. A plywood board covered the substantially decomposed body, further concealing it from view.

Suspecting foul play, the investigating police officer summoned the Commonwealth's Chief Medical Examiner, George R. Nichols, II, to the scene. Dr. Nichols was unable to make complete autopsy findings because of the condition of the corpse. Although no skull fracture or sign of brain hemorrhaging was discovered, Dr. Nichols concluded from the appearance of three wounds found on the victim's forehead that the cause of death was a blunt force injury to the head.

From the presence of the food found in the digestive tract, Dr. Nichols opined that the victim died within 60 to 90 minutes after he ate. However, the doctor testified that he could not determine how long Mr. Davis had been dead. His blood contained an alcohol level of at least .16 at the time of his death, and he had apparently vomited shortly before dying.

At trial, appellant's testimony tracked the story she relayed to investigating officers during several interviews conducted soon after her husband's body was discovered. The victim was in the army and stationed at Fort Knox. He, appellant and their children lived nearby in Radcliff, Kentucky. Appellant stated that on Saturday, August 15, 1987, Mr. Davis ate dinner around 8:00 P.M. and then left the house sometime after 10:00 P.M. He was depressed about an upcoming transfer to South Korea.

Appellant began to inquire as to her husband's whereabouts on Sunday, August 16, 1987, when she awoke early and found that he had not returned home from the night before. After contacting friends, commanding officers and the military police, appellant reported her husband missing to the Kentucky State Police when she returned from work on Monday, August 17. She was notified on Friday, August 21, 1987, of the discovery of her husband's body.

The first of appellant's interviews with investigating officers took place on August 21, 1987, and she was interviewed again the next day at Fort Knox. On August 24 she was taken to the Louisville Police headquarters for more than three hours of questioning. She submitted to a lie detector examination on August 25 which produced inconclusive results. She was notified that she was the primary suspect in the death of her husband during a September 9, 1987, interview at the police department. Only then was she informed of her constitutional rights.

On April 7, 1988, the Jefferson County Grand Jury returned an indictment against Sheila Davis "for murder and complicity for the death of James William Davis." Venue was changed to Hardin County on April 19. Trial commenced in the Hardin Circuit Court in August of 1988.

The Commonwealth sought to prove that appellant, acting alone or in concert with her lover, Ron Stoker, murdered her husband to obtain his life insurance proceeds. Appellant and Stoker had both misrepresented their relationship to investigating officers by maintaining that their affair had ended well before the victim's death. Numerous prosecution witnesses testified to the contrary. The prosecution relied heavily on testimony concerning appellant's incriminating actions and inactions near the time of her husband's disappearance to prove her guilt.

Appellant's defense centered on the possibility that her husband had died of natural causes. She presented expert medical testimony which disputed the medical examiner's conclusions concerning the cause of Mr. Davis's death. Dr. William Godfrey, an Elizabethtown internist, testified that in his opinion, the victim did not die from blows to the head. Instead the head wounds were probably caused by a bolt on which the body lay in the bed of the truck. Dr. Godfrey was impressed by the contents of the victim's medical records, including chest pains, stomach pains, dizziness, synocope (blackouts), and possible alcoholism. Dr. Godfrey testified that alcohol consumption could have aggravated an existing heart condition and that cardiac disease could have been the cause of death. A treating physician essentially concurred. He reported the victim's complaints about chest pains during the year prior to his death. Medical records showed Mr. Davis had been admitted to the army hospital emergency room four times in the last six months of his life for this problem. Further expert testimony revealed the victim's documented and long-standing alcohol abuse. While the autopsy results could not confirm heart disease as the cause of death, neither could they refute that possibility.

Appellant also suggested that others may have been responsible for the victim's body being taken to the parking garage. There was supposition that her husband may have died while visiting a girlfriend or while in an otherwise awkward location. The evidence established that the victim engaged in extramarital relationships. In summary, appellant contends she can't be convicted of murder if no murder occurred and that the Commonwealth failed to prove this crime was committed.

On this appeal, appellant presents twelve allegations of error. We first address her challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence as they strike at the very heart of the case.

Appellant claims the Commonwealth failed to prove that the victim's death was caused by violence. Citing Hibbard v. Commonwealth, Ky., 291 S.W.2d 574 (1956), she argues that circumstantial evidence is insufficient to support a conviction where the proof raises a reasonable hypothesis other than death occasioned by violence to explain the death of the deceased. Reviewing the relevant evidence, she asserts that it was established that her husband's death was not caused by blunt force trauma to the head. She further notes the absence of a murder weapon, time of death, and the identity of a co-conspirator.

The Commonwealth relied on the conclusion drawn by the state's chief medical examiner to determine the cause of Mr. Davis's death. Although admitting that he did not have the benefit of reviewing the victim's medical records in drawing his conclusion, Dr. Nichols held firm under cross-examination on his finding of death by blunt force injury, despite being questioned on the so-called "bolt theory." The jury also had before it the testimony of two medical experts called by appellant. While they disagreed with the medical examiner's conclusion, Dr. Godfrey conceded that considering the circumstances in which he was found, the victim may have been murdered. In Murtaugh v. Commonwealth, Ky., 579 S.W.2d 619, 620 (1979), we said though "there was evidence which indicated that death may not have been caused by criminal agency, the jury was entitled to weigh the conflicting evidence." The prevailing rule for determining a criminal defendant's entitlement to a directed verdict is found in Commonwealth v. Sawhill, Ky., 660 S.W.2d 3 (1983).

" 'If under the evidence as a whole it would not be clearly unreasonable for a jury to find the defendant guilty, he is not entitled to a directed verdict of acquittal.' " Id. at 5 (citing Trowel v. Commonwealth, Ky., 550 S.W.2d 530 (1977)).

This standard applies to evidence of the corpus delicti, as well as to evidence of the defendant's guilt.

Upon her claim of entitlement to a directed verdict, appellant contends that the Commonwealth relied almost exclusively on her motive--to collect her husband's life insurance proceeds and to continue her relationship with her lover--to prove she committed the murder. She claims to have been tried upon highly prejudicial evidence of her bad moral character and lifestyle and not for murder. Finally, she argues she cannot be convicted on circumstantial evidence if such is as consistent with innocence as with guilt. Collinsworth v. Commonwealth, Ky., 476 S.W.2d 201 (1972). We agree that the evidence must do "more than point the finger of suspicion." Matthews v. Commonwealth, Ky., 481 S.W.2d 647, 648-49 (1972).

The Commonwealth's case was built upon circumstantial evidence. Appellant testified that the victim's truck was pulled into their garage on the night of his disappearance. It was established that this was unusual. When coupled with her testimony about a plywood board, the Commonwealth argued that these events showed an opportunity to load and conceal the body. The plywood board in question was designed to cover a well or depression in a wooden form Mr. Davis had installed in the rear of his truck for the purpose of carrying army equipment. It was in this well that his body was found. Several witnesses testified that because the plywood board rattled around in the back of the truck, the victim seldom carried it. Instead, it was usually kept in the garage. Appellant testified that on the night her husband disappeared, she discovered the board was gone from the garage when she returned from running an errand. From the foregoing evidence, in the absence of another explanation, it was not clearly unreasonable for the jury to conclude that the victim's truck had been pulled inside the garage so that his body could be...