Housel v. State
| Decision Date | 19 May 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 44110,44110 |
| Citation | 257 Ga. 115,355 S.E.2d 651 |
| Parties | HOUSEL v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Thomas C. Lawler III, Dist. Atty., Lawrenceville, Michael J. Bowers, Atty. Gen., Eddie Snelling, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
This is a death penalty case. Appellant, Tracy Lee Housel, was indicted in Gwinnett County on charges of murder, rape, motor vehicle theft and three counts of financial-transaction-card theft. After a jury was selected, Housel pled guilty to murder and motor vehicle theft. The state did not pursue the remaining charges, but continued to seek the death penalty on the murder count. A jury trial was conducted on the question of sentence, and Housel was sentenced to death. He now appeals. 1
Evidence was presented at the sentencing trial that, during a two-month period in early 1985, Housel killed a man in Texas, stabbed a man in Iowa, sodomized a woman in New Jersey, and, finally, killed the woman in Gwinnett County, Georgia, for whose murder the defendant received the death sentence in this case. Housel's pre-trial statements concerning these crimes were admitted in evidence. In addition, the surviving Iowa and New Jersey victims testified, as did law enforcement officers from Texas, Florida and Georgia.
Housel left his wife in California in October of 1984, his marriage having unraveled as a result of his "being on the road" all the time. A month later Housel began living with a woman in Council Bluffs, Iowa. In February, 1985, Housel was at a truck stop in Spring, Texas, "laid over trying to get a load." Housel stated, "We were all in our leathers, dressed more or less like a rowdy little bike club, just raising Hell and discontent." He met a man named Troy, who had a quantity of cocaine and was trying to sell it. Troy got drunk, and Housel helped him out to his truck and went back to the bar. He learned (he said) that "a couple of guys [were] planning on robbing [Troy] of all of his cocaine," but after he told them not to, they "left him alone." However, Housel himself "was wanting, I guess, a little bit more cocaine," so he climbed into Troy's cab "just [to] fix my nose again and go on about my business." Troy woke up and accused Housel of trying to steal his cocaine. When Troy grabbed him by the throat, Housel picked up a hammer and hit him on the head eight or nine times.
Housel took Troy's cocaine and a few other things, including a CB radio, a stereo, and Troy's identification, put them into his bag, and drove the truck to Beaumont, Texas, where he left it. He stated that Troy was still breathing when he left Spring, but that he died somewhere between Spring and Beaumont.
Troy's body was found in the sleeper of his cab, seven miles from Beaumont, Texas, on February 20, 1985. He was nude from the waist down, and had been anally sodomized.
On March 29, 1985, Housel was back in Council Bluffs, Iowa. He met a man named Gary at a truck stop and asked him for a ride to Des Moines, where perhaps he could get a job. Gary told him he would take him as far as Atlantic, which was about halfway. They got into Gary's car and drove. Gary testified that when they reached the Atlantic exit, Housel pulled out a knife and told him to drive on. A couple of exits later, Housel told Gary to pull off the interstate and park. Then, Gary testified, Housel demanded his wallet, and stabbed him as he reached for it.
Housel stated that Gary made a gesture which he interpreted as a homosexual advance, and he "freaked;" he pulled out his In any event, Gary got out of his car, and Housel pushed him down a ravine. When Gary climbed out, Housel stabbed him several more times and threw him back in.
knife and began stabbing him. Gary denied making any sexual advances.
Gary had thrown away his keys, but Housel found a spare key in the console and drove the car to New Jersey. Credit card receipts found in Housel's belongings after he was arrested showed that he had used Gary's credit cards in Iowa, Illinois and Pennsylvania on March 30 and April 1.
On April 2, 1985, a young woman named Renee met Housel at the apartment of a friend of hers in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. Housel introduced himself as "Troy." About 11:30 p.m., Renee announced that she was going home. "Troy" (who Renee identified at trial as the defendant) offered to escort her to her car. Once there, Housel entered the car and began to strangle her, and then forced her to orally sodomize him. Telling her she was too nice to kill, he took all her money and left. Renee testified that she had marks on her neck from being strangled that did not finally disappear until late that summer.
Next, Housel drove Gary's car to Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he abandoned it. He caught a ride from there to Lawrenceville, Georgia.
After "drinking all night," Housel met the victim in this case, Jean Drew, in the early morning hours of April 7, 1985, at a Lawrenceville truck stop. Housel said they had sex, and then went for a ride in her car, a silver-gray Mustang. They parked in an open area behind some woods, just off Beaver Ruin road in Gwinnett County. According to Housel, they were having sex again in the back seat of her car when he got the urge to spit. Unfortunately, his spit hit her window. She began yelling at him, and he lost his temper and began striking her with his fists. (There was blood all over the inside of the car when it was recovered.) They got out of the car. Her nose was bleeding, and she spit blood on him. Then he really hit her, and she fell "like a ton of bricks." He got on his knees and strangled her, and then he picked up a stick and beat her face to a "bloody pulp."
Housel left her lying there, and drove her car to Daytona Beach, Florida, where, using her credit cards, he stayed several days prior to being arrested.
Jean Drew's body was found later that morning, nude from the waist down. Her head was "extensively traumatized and disfigured." There were "several lesions about the neck area," and there was "blood smeared on both hands."
The pathologist who conducted the autopsy testified that the victim was still alive at the time of strangulation, and that the "[strangulation] force was fairly long in duration given the amount of ... contusion in the area of the neck ...; the [hyoid] bone ... was broken ... and there was digging of fingernails not just into the skin and left in place, but actually tearing through the skin which is another indication of a fair degree of struggle on the part of the decedent."
Several of the victim's teeth had been knocked out. Her mouth was cut. Her skull was crushed in three places. The pathologist testified that because of the extensive trauma to the head, it was impossible to determine how many times the victim had been struck.
Cause of death was "a combination of multiple head trauma and asphyxiation by strangulation."
1. In his first enumeration of error, Housel contends that the confession he gave to Gwinnett County Detective Latty about the Texas murder should have been excluded. He claims that "he was denied his constitutional right to the assistance of counsel as judicial proceedings had been commenced and Detective Latty's 'helpful hints' on the initiation of the conversation were tantamount to interrogation." Appellant's brief, p. 9.
Housel was arrested in Daytona Beach, Florida, on April 14, 1985. He was interrogated by law officers there about the Georgia case involving Jean Drew and also Housel was returned to Georgia by Gwinnett County investigators Latty and Mitchell. Detective Latty testified that on the trip back, the two talked with the defendant, but not about any crimes. After his return, the defendant called Latty on several occasions. These conversations, testified Latty, "consisted mostly of what was going on at the jail and trying to locate members of his family and that type of thing."
about the assault in Iowa. On April 18, 1985, he was returned to Gwinnett County, Georgia. Thereafter, attorney Walt Britt was appointed to represent Housel.
Latty testified that he explained to Housel
About two weeks after Housel was arrested, Gwinnett law officers received NCIC teletype information from Orange County, Texas, concerning a homicide that had occurred there in February. The communication included a detailed description of the suspected killer. The Gwinnett authorities suspected he might be Housel and contacted the Orange County investigators. They discovered that the Texas victim's name was the same as that found on identification carried by Housel when he was arrested. Soon afterwards, two Texas investigators visited the Gwinnett County Jail to confer with the Gwinnett investigators and to look at Housel. They did not question him.
On May 1, 1985, Latty called the defendant's attorney. Latty informed the attorney that Texas law officers were investigating a homicide in which the defendant was a suspect and needed photographs of him--especially of a tattoo on his left arm--and fingerprints. The attorney objected to the defendant being photographed or fingerprinted. In addition, the attorney told Latty, "I did not want anybody from out of state talking to him unless I was there."
Housel saw the Texas investigators when they came by and later asked Latty who they were. Latty told him they were from Orange County, Texas.
On May 10, Housel telephoned Latty and told him he wanted to talk about a Texas murder case. Latty attempted to call Housel's...
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Bright v. State
...v. State, 263 Ga. 637, 639, 436 S.E.2d 316 (1993); Guimond v. State, 259 Ga. 752, 754, 386 S.E.2d 158 (1989); Housel v. State, 257 Ga. 115, 121-122, 355 S.E.2d 651 (1987). 6. Contrary to Bright's contention in his ninth enumeration of error, the court did not err in denying the defense the ......
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...Edwards v. Arizona, supra. "However, the defendant himself may initiate further communications with the police." Housel v. State, 257 Ga. 115, 121(1)(d), 355 S.E.2d 651 (1987). The record supports the trial court's findings that Ward initiated communications with the police and waived his M......
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...(b)(7). Rather, it is only required that the form of the verdict set forth the applicable statutory language. See Housel v. State, 257 Ga. 115, 122, n. 4, 355 S.E.2d 651 (1987). That requirement was met here. (T. 881). (3) Failure to Record Bench Conferences In Section L of his petition, pe......
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