Eddings v. State
| Citation | 616 P.2d 1159 |
| Decision Date | 21 March 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. C-78-325,C-78-325 |
| Parties | Monty Lee EDDINGS, Petitioner, v. The STATE of Oklahoma, Respondent. |
| Court | United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma |
Monty Lee Eddings murdered an Oklahoma Highway Patrol Officer on April 4, 1977. Because he was 16 at the time, the State moved to have him certified to stand trial as an adult. The motion was granted by the District Court after a hearing, and we affirmed the certification on appeal. Matter of M. E., Okl.Cr., 584 P.2d 1340 (1978), cert. denied, 436 U.S. 921, 98 S.Ct. 2271, 56 L.Ed.2d 763 (1978). Subsequently, Eddings entered a plea of nolo contendere to a charge of Murder in the First Degree in the District Court, Creek County, Case No. CRF-77-118. After a hearing on the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the District Court sentenced him to death. Title 22 O.S.Supp.1978, § 513, provides that the legal effect of a plea of nolo contendere shall be the same as that of a plea of guilty; and for that reason the case is before us on a petition for certiorari.
Title 21 O.S.Supp.1978, § 701.13, requires this Court to review the propriety of every death sentence. This review is in addition to any direct appeal taken by the person sentenced to death, but the Statute directs that the appeal and the sentence review shall be consolidated. Section 701.13 also provides that both the State and the convicted person shall have the right to present oral argument as well as briefs; and the instant case was argued on the 7th day of November, 1979.
The petitioner's victim was Patrolman Larry Crabtree of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. The testimony of witnesses established that the petitioner had taken his brother's automobile, and that he and his sister and two friends had run away from their homes in Missouri. Before leaving, the petitioner had taken three of his father's firearms and had shortened the barrel on at least one-a .410 gauge shotgun. Before getting to the Turner Turnpike at the Tulsa gate, the group picked up a hitchhiker. They stopped at a service station/coffee shop for refreshments, and as they were leaving, the petitioner, who was driving, lost control of the car briefly because he had dropped his cigarette and was trying to find it. The car went over a curb and down into the bar ditch before the petitioner regained control, but he pulled back onto the highway and continued toward Oklahoma City. A man who saw the incident told Patrolman Crabtree, who was in the coffee shop, and the officer said he would check on the matter.
As the runaways were driving along, one of the passengers in the back seat said there was a police car behind them. The petitioner said, "If the fucking cop HARASSes me I'll shoot him." The passengers treated the remark as a joke; but when the officer turned on his red light and the petitioner pulled off the road, he took the sawed-off shotgun from the floor of the car and loaded it. When Patrolman Crabtree was about six feet away, the petitioner stuck the shotgun out the window and fired. Immediately he drove away.
Evidence was presented to the court concerning the petitioner's extensive juvenile record in Missouri. The product of a broken home, he was shuffled back and forth between his mother's house and his father's house, and also spent some time in "group homes" operated by the State of Missouri. A petition was filed in November, 1975, when the petitioner was 14, charging him with four counts of burglary in the second degree and tampering with a motor vehicle. He was adjudicated delinquent and made a ward of the court. In September, 1976, a supplementary petition was filed alleging assault with the intent to do bodily harm; and in that same month another petition charged burglary in the second degree and stealing. In addition, there was a charge of tampering with mail boxes. According to testimony, the petitioner's conduct steadily worsened until he was returned to his parents' custody. In March, 1977, the petitioner violated his probation by running away from home. He was found in Oklahoma and returned to Missouri.
There was also testimony of statements made by the petitioner both before and after he was taken into custody. As he drove away from the scene of the murder, he said he would rather have killed a cop than go back to where he lived. At one point after he had been taken to jail, he said to two officers, "If I got loose I would shoot you all, too." And at another time after having twice asked to have a light turned off, he told an officer, "Now I have shot one of you people, and I'll get you too if you don't turn this light out."
While the petitioner asks to be permitted to withdraw his plea of nolo contendere, all of his assignments of error relate in one way or another to the imposition of the death penalty in his case. He argues first that it would be cruel and unusual punishment to impose the death penalty on a juvenile. Next, he contends that his motion to strike the bill of particulars regarding the sentence should have been sustained, that none of the statutory aggravating circumstances were established beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the aggravating factors in his case were outweighed by the mitigating factors. In his third assignment of error, the petitioner claims that the State suppressed evidence which he could have used to counter one of the aggravating circumstances alleged in the bill of particulars. And, finally, he says he should have been given the services of an investigator and a psychiatrist at State expense. For the sake of convenience, we will discuss the petitioner's arguments out of order.
One of the aggravating circumstances found by the District Court was that the murder was committed "for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest or prosecution." Title 21 O.S.Supp.1978, § 701.12. The petitioner claims that the State knew, but failed to tell, of a witness who could have aided him in attacking this particular circumstance. This witness would have testified that although the traffic stop was made because of a misdemeanor committed by the petitioner in leaving the turnpike service station, Patrolman Crabtree did not actually see the offense; he merely heard of it from the undisclosed witness. Thus, the petitioner argues, the officer did not have the right to make a warrantless arrest. And this particular aggravating circumstance would not have been found had the witness been brought to testify.
The petitioner had filed appropriate pretrial motions seeking disclosure of any exculpatory evidence held by the State. At the pretrial conference the prosecutor insisted that he knew of no evidence which would tend to establish the petitioner's innocence or limit the sentence. He agreed that if he did become aware of any evidence he would make it known to the petitioner, and the court so ordered in a court minute. The petitioner alleges that the State knew all along that the patrolman did not see the incident at the station. He cites Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963); United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 49 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976); and Blevens v. State, Okl.Cr., 487 P.2d 991 (1971), in arguing that the District Attorney acted in bad faith in not only keeping secret his knowledge of the affair, but also in continuing to assert that a lawful arrest had been made.
The petitioner's assertions are called into question by the record. He alleges that he did not find out about the witness until the State had concluded its evidence of aggravation, on May 15, 1978; but on April 10, 1978, he filed a motion to strike the bill of particulars regarding the death penalty, and in that motion he said that "the evidence shows that Patrolman Crabtree was not making a lawful arrest, the offense for which the defendant was stopped being a misdemeanor not committed in the presence of the officer."
Also, we do not accept the petitioner's claim that the District Attorney was acting in bad faith by continuing to assert that a lawful arrest had been made. There are many reasons for making a legitimate traffic stop. The fact that the petitioner can attack one does not eliminate all others. We will discuss this issue in depth when we take up the aggravating circumstances.
The petitioner was not entitled to State funds to hire an investigator or a psychiatrist. He insists he was denied due process of law, but we have dealt with this question in the past. See, for instance, Bills v. State, Okl.Cr., 585 P.2d 1366 (1978), and Dennis v. State, Okl.Cr., 561 P.2d 88 (1977).
He claims that under 22 O.S.1971, § 1271, he would have been entitled to investigative and psychiatric assistance had he committed his crime in a county having a population in excess of 200,000. Section 1271 provides for the assistance of counsel at county expense for those who are unable to retain private counsel; but counties having a population in excess of 200,000 are expressly excluded from the provisions of this Section. Such counties are covered by 19 O.S.1971, §§ 138.1 et seq.; and § 138.6 provides for the employment of one or more investigators in the larger counties. There is no provision for psychiatric assistance.
In Bills v. State, supra, we held that the statutory distinction between the counties with 200,000 people or less and the counties with more than 200,000 people is not an unconstitutional discrimination. The petitioner has asked us to overrule Bills, but we still believe that case is correct. As we said...
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