Hoke v. Com.
| Decision Date | 03 March 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 880268,880268 |
| Parties | Ronald Lee HOKE, Sr. v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia. Record |
| Court | Virginia Supreme Court |
Thomas C. Daniel, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Mary Sue Terry, Atty. Gen., on brief), for appellee.
Present All the Justices.
Ronald Lee Hoke, Sr., was indicted for the capital murder of Virginia C. Stell in the commission of robbery, abduction, and rape. Code § 18.2-31. A jury found Hoke guilty of capital murder as charged in the indictment.
Pursuant to the bifurcated-trial procedure prescribed by Code § 19.2-264.4, a separate hearing on the penalty was conducted. In the penalty phase of the trial, the Commonwealth presented evidence of aggravating factors, and Hoke offered evidence in mitigation. The jury fixed Hoke's punishment at death. Thereafter, the trial court conducted a sentencing hearing pursuant to Code § 19.2-264.5, and at the conclusion of the hearing the court imposed the death sentence.
We have consolidated the automatic review of Hoke's death sentence with his appeal from his capital murder conviction, Code §§ 17-110.1(A) and -110.1(F). Pursuant to Code § 17-110.2, we have given them priority on our docket.
PRETRIAL MATTERS
Hoke contends that Code §§ 19.2-264.2 and -264.4(C) are unconstitutional because they "are overly broad and impermissibly vague." Hoke correctly acknowledges, however, that we have "rejected this claim in other cases." See, e.g., Gray v. Commonwealth, 233 Va. 313, 320-21, 356 S.E.2d 157, 161 (compiling cases), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 873, 108 S.Ct. 207, 98 L.Ed.2d 158 (1987). Adhering to our previous rulings, we again reject this contention.
Hoke also contends that death by electrocution constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Federal and Virginia Constitutions. We have repeatedly rejected this argument, see, e.g., Gray, 233 Va. at 320, 356 S.E.2d at 160-61 (compiling cases), and adhere to our previous holdings.
Hoke contends that the trial court abused its discretion in failing to grant a change of venue. This issue is not properly before us. Hoke made no proffer of evidence to support his assertion that certain newspaper articles and reports by the broadcast media prevented his receiving a fair trial in the City of Petersburg. Moreover, Hoke has waived the contention. When he first moved for a change of venue, he requested that the motion be continued until it could be determined whether a jury could be impanelled. His counsel agreed that he could renew the motion if jury voir dire indicated that "it's a problem." The motion was not renewed, and, therefore, we will not consider this contention on appeal. Rule 5:25.
THE GUILT PHASE
On either October 4 or 5, 1985, in mid-afternoon, Hoke and Stell, the victim, were in the European Restaurant in the City of Petersburg. Initially, they were in different areas of the restaurant. Later, however, Hoke came across the room and joined Stell at her table. About 6:00 p.m., Hoke and Stell left the restaurant together.
On October 7, the police found Stell's body in the bedroom of her apartment. Stell had sustained two lethal stab wounds, one in the right upper front quadrant of her body and the other in her right back. The front wound was six-and-one-half inches deep; the depth of the wound to the back was two-and-five-eighths inches. Fresh, red bruises were on Stell's arms. A medical examiner testified that the stab wounds caused Stell's death. She opined that Stell "had some period of time of survival, at least several minutes."
Stell's "anal ring" was dilated and smeared with "stool" and a greasy, yellow substance "like margarine, butter." A blue electrical cord was wrapped around Stell's wrists, binding them so tightly that "there wasn't any way for her to get out of it." Her ankles were bound with a brown electrical extension cord, rendering the ankles immobile. Her mouth had been A knife was found on an ironing board in Stell's bedroom. The knife was covered with blood that matched Stell's blood type. Beside the knife was a clothes iron. The blue electrical cord around Stell's wrists had been cut from the iron. Several dresser drawers were open, and their contents had been "dumped" on the bedroom floor. Items from two purses--including empty pill containers--were strewn upon the floors of the bedroom and an adjacent dining room-kitchen.
"gagged" with a pair of "panties," tied so tight that they left "an impression."
Swabs and smears were taken and examined in a laboratory for the presence of semen (spermatozoa). Semen was identified "on the vaginal swabs and smear, on the anal smear," and on a "towel labeled 'peri-anal wipings.' " Semen found on sheets and a bedspread in the bedroom was consistent with Hoke's blood type.
On October 15, 1985, about 3:25 a.m., Hoke "flagged ... down" a police officer in Hagerstown, Maryland. He told the officer that he had murdered a woman in Petersburg, Virginia. The officer immediately advised Hoke of his Miranda rights and took him to police headquarters.
At the police station, Hoke related that he had met a woman named Virginia at the European Restaurant, and he and the woman had gone to her apartment. He stated that he murdered the woman by stabbing her twice, "once in the back, once in the abdomen area in the front." He said that after he stabbed the woman "she was screaming," so he "placed a pillow ... over her face to muffle her screaming." Hoke said he knew the woman was dead before he left the apartment "because she wasn't breathing, she wasn't moving, and her eyes were rolled back in her head." Finally, Hoke said that he dumped the woman's purse, "took some pills and left" the apartment.
Petersburg police officers also interrogated Hoke on October 15. At the time, Hoke was in the Hagerstown jail. After "being advised of his rights and waiving his rights," Hoke told the officers that he had murdered Stell in her Petersburg apartment. Hoke said he had met Stell at the European Restaurant and thereafter had accompanied her to her apartment. Upon their arrival at the apartment, they "had sex." He then "put [a knife] to her throat," tied her hands together, bound her feet, and gagged her mouth. He stabbed Stell in the back with the knife, muffling her screams with a pillow. He then rolled her over and stabbed her in the stomach. As Stell continued to scream, Hoke held the pillow over her face for four or five minutes until she died. He then "ransacked" the apartment and stole some of Stell's medication that was in her purse.
On October 17, while confined in the Petersburg jail, Hoke contacted the police and repeated his confession to them. He also stated at that time that he had decided to kill Stell while they were walking to her apartment, adding that he had thought about killing someone for a long time, and "this seemed like a perfect opportunity" to do it.
Hoke told a fellow inmate in the Petersburg jail that he had come to Petersburg to see Stell. Hoke said that he had "sold drugs to the woman or somebody in that apartment complex." Hoke said he killed Stell when he "found out that she had ripped him off" and that "he couldn't get his stuff back."
In his trial testimony, Hoke stated that he and Stell "had sex" and then "made love the second time anally," using margarine as a lubricant. Then Next, "[s]he slapped me in the face ... and I stabbed her in the back." Hoke said he "kind of freaked out." He "grabbed some cords and started tying her up and she started to scream so [he] went ahead and ... tried to muffle the screams" with a pillow. Stell continued to scream so Hoke "grabbed the knife again and stuck it in her stomach." He then found a bottle of pills in Stell's pocketbook and left the apartment with the bottle.
Hoke contends that the Commonwealth, in exercising its fourth peremptory
jury strike, intended to strike venireman Claiborne Manns, but the clerk "arbitrarily" struck Elizabeth G. Moran, whose name immediately followed Manns'. We cannot consider[237 Va. 309] this contention on appeal, however, because no objection was made at trial. Rule 5:25.
Hoke contends that the trial court erred in refusing to admit evidence of Stell's unchaste character. We do not agree.
In enacting Code § 18.2-67.7, 1 the "rape shield" statute, "the General Assembly intended to preclude evidence of general reputation or opinion of the unchaste character of the complaining witness in all circumstances." Winfield v. Commonwealth, 225 Va. 211, 220, 301 S.E.2d 15, 20 (1983). Hoke's counsel, as an apparent proffer, told the trial court:
I think at best I could, through various witnesses, would prove that it was [Stell's] reputation that she would go out with them and quite possibly go back to the apartment but as to any specific sexual act that occurred, I have no such evidence, other than what was the popular belief of the people at the European.
To this statement, the trial court correctly replied that "general reputation and opinion ... is positively barred by [Code § 18.2-67.7]." Therefore, we affirm the trial court's ruling.
To convict Hoke of capital murder, the Commonwealth not only had the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the killing was willful, deliberate, and premeditated, but that it was "in the commission of, or subsequent to, rape," Code § 18.2-31(e), or "in the commission of robbery while armed with a deadly weapon," Code § 18.2-31(d), or "in the commission of abduction ... when such abduction was committed with the intent to extort money or a...
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