DeShields v. State

Decision Date27 May 1987
Citation534 A.2d 630
PartiesKenneth Wesley DeSHIELDS, Defendant Below, Appellant, v. STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff Below, Appellee. . Submitted:
CourtSupreme Court of Delaware

Edward C. Gill (argued) of Robert C. Wolhar, Jr. & Associates, P.A., Georgetown, and William B. Wilgus, Millsboro, for defendant below, appellant.

Richard E. Fairbanks, Jr. (argued), Chief of Appeals Div., Loren C. Meyers, Timothy J. Donovan, Jr., Bartholomew J. Dalton, Deputy Attys. Gen., Dept. of Justice, Wilmington, Gary A. Myers, Deputy Atty. Gen., Dept. of Justice, Georgetown, for plaintiff below, appellee.

Before CHRISTIE, C.J., and HORSEY, MOORE, WALSH and HOLLAND, JJ., constituting the Court en Banc.

HORSEY, Justice:

Defendant, Kenneth W. DeShields, seeks reversal of his conviction in a jury trial of two counts of Murder in the First Degree (11 Del.C. § 636), 1 Robbery in the First Degree (11 Del.C. § 832(a)(2)), and Possession of a Deadly Weapon during the Commission of a Felony (11 Del.C. § 1447(a)). Following a separate penalty hearing held pursuant to 11 Del.C. § 4209, the jury unanimously recommended the death penalty for each murder count. DeShields was sentenced to death for each first degree murder conviction, 30 years' imprisonment for robbery, and 30 years' imprisonment for the weapons offense. On appeal, DeShields asserts multiple grounds for reversal. His principal arguments involve: (1) the jury selection process; (2) the constitutionality of the death sentence; (3) the admission of physical evidence; and (4) the prosecutor's comments to the jury. We find no reversible error and, therefore, affirm.

* * *

* * *

The evidence at trial may at the outset be summarized as follows:

On August 11, 1984, Elizabeth Reed, an attendant at a Sussex County landfill located south of Milford and near Lincoln, a small rural community, died from a shotgun wound fired at close range shortly after 4:00 p.m. as she was preparing to leave work. She had been shot at the The police soon began to focus their investigation on DeShields. For the prior month and a half, DeShields had been living near Lincoln with his girlfriend, Sadie Sample. DeShields and Sample shared living accommodations in a three-bedroom mobile home with Sample's mother, Odetta Boyd, the owner of the home, and five other relatives of Sample, including her seventeen-year-old nephew.

landfill and her body dragged approximately 95 feet to where it was found by her son the following day. Local residents had heard a shotgun blast coming from the direction of the landfill between 4:00 and 4:30 p.m. on August 11. One witness placed the blast at exactly 4:19 p.m.

On Saturday, August 11, DeShields wanted to go to a family reunion out of state, but he had no money and no means of transportation. Sample could offer little assistance, then having only five dollars and no car. That morning, about 10:30 a.m., DeShields left the Boyd home, telling Sample that he was going to attempt to borrow the car of a friend, Gary Waters.

Later that afternoon, at a time estimated to be between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m., DeShields was seen by a close acquaintance driving a car at an excessive speed on a rural road between Milford and Slaughter Neck. The witness noticed DeShields because the car the witness was driving came close to colliding with the car DeShields was driving when DeShields ran a stop sign. At trial, the witness identified the car DeShields was driving, which other witnesses identified as Reed's car.

That same day, DeShields returned to the Boyd home near Lincoln between 4:30 and 5:00 p.m. He was driving a car that Sample and her nephew had never seen before, but which was identified at trial as Reed's car. When Sample asked DeShields where he had gotten the car, DeShields said that it belonged to a friend of his. Sample knew that it was not Waters' car. Sample's nephew saw a shotgun belonging to DeShields in the back seat of the car. Her nephew observed DeShields take the shotgun out of the back seat of the car and put it in the trunk. Later he saw DeShields take a change purse out of the car, empty it, and throw it into the nearby woods.

Thereafter, DeShields, Sample, and her seventeen-year-old nephew drove off in Reed's car, traveling through Sussex and Kent Counties. While the car was parked on a side street in Dover, DeShields took the shotgun out of the trunk and sat in the car with the gun for five to ten minutes before putting it back in the trunk. They eventually returned to the mobile home at approximately 11:30 p.m. Saturday night. When DeShields said he was driving back to Dover, Sample asked him to leave the shotgun with her. DeShields wrapped the shotgun in a green garbage bag and gave it and the weapon's magazine to Sample. Sample put the shotgun in the closet of the bedroom that she and DeShields slept in and placed the gun's magazine under the mattress of their bed.

On Sunday evening, August 12, two Delaware State Police officers went to Boyd's home. They were looking for DeShields and Sample in connection with the shooting. Although neither Sample nor DeShields was there, Boyd consented when asked by the officers if they could search her daughter's and the defendant's bedroom. Boyd asserted that she had complete access to all portions of the home. In the bedroom closet, the police found the shotgun in the garbage bag and the magazine with two unexpended 20-gauge shotgun shells between the mattress and box springs of the bed.

Early the following morning, August 13, the police arrested DeShields after "spotting" him driving Reed's car. On the day of arrest, over a period of several hours, DeShields gave approximately four statements, although in several different variations, to the police. The Superior Court As previously noted, based on the facts presented at trial, the jury found DeShields guilty on all charges.

however, suppressed portions of the initial statements, finding the police to have violated DeShields' Miranda rights by ignoring his request, early in the interview, to postpone the questioning. The inadmissible statements led to the discovery of an expended shotgun shell casing and Reed's wallet near a dirt road approximately two-tenths of a mile from the landfill. Ballistic examination established that the shell had been fired from the gun taken from DeShields' bedroom and that the shot or pellets taken from Reed's body were consistent with the shot found within the shells hidden under the mattress.

I

The first issue presented is whether the Trial Court abused its discretion by failing to excuse for cause two prospective jurors. The jurors in question, among the first to be examined by the Court, initially gave an affirmative response when asked whether they would "automatically vote for the death penalty" for a person convicted of first degree murder. Later, however, in response to the Court's restated questions, both jurors unequivocally stated that even if a verdict of first degree murder were returned, each could vote for either life imprisonment or the death penalty. DeShields contends that, based on the jurors' initial responses, the Court was required to excuse the jurors for cause and, in failing to do so, abused its discretion and violated controlling law as set forth in Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. 412, 105 S.Ct. 844, 83 L.Ed.2d 841 (1985). We conclude that the Trial Court neither abused its discretion nor committed reversible error in failing to excuse the two jurors.

A.

The primary purpose of voir dire is to elicit a juror's lack of bias or prejudice and thus secure for the defendant a jury able to vote impartially upon the evidence and the law as presented at trial. Riley v. State, Del.Supr., 496 A.2d 997, 1004 (1985), cert. denied, 478 U.S. 1022, 106 S.Ct. 3339, 92 L.Ed.2d 743 (1986); Parson v. State, Del.Supr., 275 A.2d 777 (1971). Balanced against the defendant's right to a competent, impartial jury is the State's right to empanel jurors who can "follow their instructions and obey their oaths." Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38, 44, 100 S.Ct. 2521, 2526, 65 L.Ed.2d 581 (1980); Riley, supra. Superior Court Criminal Rule 24(a), in pertinent part, states that "the Court shall permit or conduct such examination as is reasonably calculated to ascertain prejudice of a juror."

In the conduct of voir dire, the trial court has broad discretion in determining whether a prospective juror should be excused for cause and its discretion is restricted only by essential demands of fairness. Hooks v. State, Del.Supr., 416 A.2d 189, 195 (1980); Parson, supra at 780. The standard for excluding a juror for cause with respect to the juror's views on capital punishment as established by the United States Supreme Court in Wainwright, supra, is "whether the juror's views would 'prevent or substantially impair the performance of his duties as a juror in accordance with his instructions and his oath.' " 469 U.S. at 424, 105 S.Ct. at 852. The trial court's exercise of its discretion in applying the Wainwright standard will be overturned only upon a showing of both abuse of discretion and consequent prejudice to the defendant. Riley, supra; Ross v. State, Del.Supr., 482 A.2d 727 (1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1194, 105 S.Ct. 973, 83 L.Ed.2d 976 (1985); Hickman v. State, Del.Supr., 431 A.2d 1249 (1981); Hooks, supra. DeShields has failed to show either abuse of discretion or prejudice.

B.

The voir dire in this case extended over a three-day period and included both general DeShields claims the Trial Court committed reversible error by failing to excuse for cause juror Charles Stoddart and juror Jeffrey Harris, who were among the first jurors the Court examined. The relevant portion of Stoddart's voir dire examination is as follows:

and individual examination of the prospective jurors. The Trial Court began the voir dire by asking...

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