Grissom v. State
| Decision Date | 01 April 2011 |
| Docket Number | No. D–2008–595.,D–2008–595. |
| Citation | 253 P.3d 969,2011 OK CR 3 |
| Parties | Wendell Arden GRISSOM, Appellant,v.STATE of Oklahoma, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
¶ 0 An Appeal from the District Court of Blaine County; the Honorable Ronald G. Franklin, District Judge.John W. Coyle III, John W. Coyle IV, attorneys for defendant at trial.Barry Retherford, Mike Fields, Asst. District Attorneys Watonga, OK, attorneys for the State at trial.Michael D. Morehead, Kathleen M. Smith, Okla. Indigent Defense System, Norman, OK, attorneys for appellant on appeal.W.A. Drew Edmondson, Attorney General, Jennifer L. Strickland, Asst. Attorney General, Oklahoma City, OK, attorneys for Appellee on appeal.
¶ 1 Wendell Arden Grissom, Appellant, was tried by jury and found guilty of Count 1, murder in the first degree, in violation of 21 O.S.Rev.Supp.2005, § 701.7(A); Count 2, shooting with intent to kill, in violation of 21 O.S.Rev.Supp.2005, § 652(A); Count 3, grand larceny, in violation of 21 O.S.2001, § 1705; and Count 4, possession of a firearm after former conviction of a felony, in violation of 21 O.S.Rev.Supp.2005, § 1283, in Blaine County District Court, Case No. CF–2005–80.1 The State alleged that the murder involved three statutory aggravating circumstances: The defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person; the murder was committed by a person serving a sentence of imprisonment on conviction of a felony; and the existence of a probability that Appellant would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society. 21 O.S.2001, § 701.12(2), (6), and (7). The jury found all three aggravating circumstances and sentenced Appellant to death for murder in the first degree, life imprisonment for shooting with intent to kill, twenty-five (25) years imprisonment for grand larceny, and forty (40) years imprisonment for possession of a firearm after former conviction of a felony. The Honorable Ronald G. Franklin, District Judge, presided over the trial and pronounced the judgment and sentence on June 17, 2008. This Court stayed execution of the judgment and sentence on July 1, 2008. Mr. Grissom appeals.
¶ 2 On November 2, 2005, Appellant left Arkansas and headed west on Interstate 40, driving his white Chevrolet truck. Just across the Oklahoma state line, he picked up a homeless hitchhiker, Jessie Johns. As they continued west, the two men drank whiskey and got acquainted. They also discussed plans to commit some robberies or burglaries to raise money. Later that evening, Appellant checked into a hotel in Oklahoma City, paying $266.00 for a weekly rental. Appellant shared his room that evening with Jessie Johns, who slept on the floor.
¶ 3 The following morning, Jessie Johns watched as Appellant showed him how to load a .44 caliber black powder pistol, one of two firearms in Appellant's possession at the time. The other was a two-shot .22 caliber derringer. The two men drank more alcohol that morning as they again headed west in Appellant's truck on Interstate 40. They stopped around 10:45 a.m. at the Love's Country Store on Exit 108, where security cameras recorded each man buying a pair of brown cotton gloves. They then drove into rural Blaine County, looking for a house to burglarize.
¶ 4 Appellant ultimately parked his truck in the driveway of the residence of Matt and Dreu Kopf, near Hitchcock, in rural Blaine County. He told Jessie Johns to wait until the shooting was over and then come in and help him burglarize the house. Appellant approached a sliding door at the rear of the residence and knocked. Dreu Kopf was inside her home that morning with her best friend, Amber Matthews, and her two young children, eighteen month-old Rylie and infant Gracie Jo. Rylie was in her crib in the bedroom and Ms. Kopf was holding Gracie. Ms. Matthews answered the sliding glass door as Ms. Kopf turned in her glider chair to speak with Appellant. He asked Ms. Kopf if her husband was home. She replied that her husband was at work. Appellant told her he would come back later. Ms. Matthews closed the door, but seconds later Appellant reappeared. Ms. Kopf handed the baby to Ms. Matthews and approached the door again. Appellant shot a pistol round into the large glass pane and shattered it. He then stepped into the residence and fired a second shot at Ms. Kopf, striking her in the hand.
¶ 5 Amber Matthews ran with the baby into Rylie's bedroom. Ms. Kopf fought with the intruder and pushed him across the room onto a couch. While Ms. Kopf was on top of Appellant fighting him, she begged him to take what he wanted and leave. He just laughed at her as he pulled the black powder pistol from his waist and put it to her head. She grabbed at the weapon as he fired it, but a bullet tore through her hand and struck the side of her head, fracturing her skull. Appellant then stuck the big pistol in her hip and fired again. The force of this shot threw Ms. Kopf onto the floor.
¶ 6 Appellant got up and headed toward the bedroom where the children and Ms. Matthews were. Ms. Kopf then heard Ms. Matthews beg for her life, and the report from Appellant's pistol. Ms. Kopf escaped from the house to her garage and activated the overhead door. Realizing that she was leaving a blood trail for her killer to follow, she knew she could not hide. She saw the white truck in her driveway pointed toward the road for a getaway, and ran toward it.
¶ 7 Jessie Johns had left the truck and approached the residence after hearing several shots. He saw Ms. Kopf run from the house. He stepped through the shattered door and found Appellant standing over a wounded Amber Matthews. He watched as Appellant fired another shot into Ms. Matthews with the .44. Johns then told Appellant that someone had run from the house. Appellant ran toward the truck, tried to get inside, and fired his .44 pistol again at Ms. Kopf as she pulled away. Not far from her house, Dreu Kopf flagged down a trio of truckers hauling rock and told them that her friend and children were dead and she had been shot. One of the truck drivers, himself a retired police officer, got into the truck with Ms. Kopf. He reported the shooting by phone to the Kingfisher County Sheriff's Office and drove Ms. Kopf to the hospital in nearby Watonga.
¶ 8 Realizing their plans were foiled, Appellant and Johns attempted their escape from the crime scene on a red four-wheeler ATV they found in the Kopf's garage. A postal delivery man saw two men on the red four-wheeler leaving the Kopf residence with a black dog chasing them. The rock haulers, who had encountered Dreu Kopf only a few minutes earlier, saw two men speed past them on a red four-wheeler. The men on the four-wheeler ran out of gas after a short distance, but managed to hitch a ride with a passing farmer, who assumed they were laborers. He gave them a ride to the Hillstop Cafe, just over the Kingfisher County line on Highway 33.
¶ 9 The two women who were running the Hillstop Cafe that day became frightened when they noticed a pair of men looking in the windows of the store from outside and looking inside cars parked at the Hillstop. The two men then came in the store. Each bought an individual can of beer. One of the men, later identified as Jessie Johns, walked across the highway, ducked into some trees, and sat there drinking his beer. The other man headed across a wheat field on foot. Johns later walked back across the street and purchased a second can of beer. After he left the store the second time, one of the clerks called the Kingfisher County Sheriff's Office and reported two suspicious men hanging around the store. The clerks also asked the only customer in the store, a local man waiting on his lunch, to stay with them until the two strangers were gone.
¶ 10 Recognizing the possible connection to the report of a shooting at the nearby Kopf residence about thirty minutes earlier, Kingfisher County Sheriffs officers now raced toward the Hillstop Cafe. Not far away, emergency personnel and various officers of the Watonga Police Department, the Blaine County 4/11/2011 Sheriffs Office, and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol descended on the Kopf residence after the initial report of a shooting. Officers approached the home cautiously, but managed to enter and find the Kopf children alive. Amber Matthews was unconscious and mortally wounded. She died during a medical evacuation flight to an Oklahoma City hospital.
¶ 11 Back at the Hillstop Cafe, a Kingfisher County deputy sheriff approached Jessie Johns, who was now walking down the road, and detained him for investigation. The deputy questioned Johns briefly, searched him for weapons, and drove him back to the Hillstop Cafe. Meanwhile, law enforcement officers continued to gather information about the crimes at the Kopf residence and the suspicious persons reported at the Hillstop. About forty-five minutes after being detained, police arrested Jessie Johns for involvement in the four-wheeler theft and other crimes at the Kopf residence.
¶ 12 Investigators eventually located Appellant hiding in a rock pile near the Hillstop Cafe. They recovered a blood-stained .22 pistol and a pair of brown cotton gloves from his person. They ultimately recovered Appellant's .44 pistol and a second pair of brown cotton gloves discarded near the crime scene. The State also presented evidence that a DNA profile isolated from blood stains on Appellant's jeans matched to a DNA profile from the known blood of Dreu Kopf. Appellant did not testify at trial, but the State presented a videotape of his statement to police. On appeal, Appellant describes these crimes as “a tragedy with no discernible cause,” admitting that he shot Amber Matthews and Dreu Kopf “for reasons even he does not understand.” We will relate additional facts in connection with the individual propositions of error.
¶ 13 In connection with this appeal, Appellant timely...
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