Howell v. State
| Decision Date | 16 March 2006 |
| Citation | 185 S.W.3d 319 |
| Parties | Karen Renee HOWELL v. STATE of Tennessee. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Gary Lee Anderson, Knoxville, Tennessee, and Jason E.B. Smith, Waynesville, North Carolina, for the appellant, Karen Renee Howell.
Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General; and Mark A. Fulks, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
JANICE M. HOLDER, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which WILLIAM M. BARKER, C.J., and E. RILEY ANDERSON, ADOLPHO A. BIRCH, JR., and CORNELIA A. CLARK, JJ., joined.
In this post-conviction case, the petitioner contends that she received ineffective assistance of counsel during her juvenile transfer hearing, that her guilty plea was not knowingly, voluntarily, and understandingly entered, and that the post-conviction court erred in refusing to admit an attorney's expert testimony regarding whether defense counsel was ineffective. We hold that the petitioner received effective assistance of counsel during the juvenile transfer hearing. Although defense counsel was deficient in failing to secure and present evidence during the juvenile transfer hearing that the petitioner was committable to a mental health facility, the deficiency did not result in prejudice. We further hold that the petitioner knowingly, voluntarily, and understandingly entered the guilty plea and that the post-conviction court properly excluded the expert testimony. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals.
The petitioner, Karen Howell, pleaded guilty to three counts of felony murder, one count of attempted first degree murder, two counts each of especially aggravated kidnapping and aggravated kidnapping, and one count of theft of property valued between $1,000.00 and $10,000.00. These convictions resulted from Howell's participation in the events that concluded in the shooting deaths of Vidar and Delfina Lillelid and their six-year-old daughter, Tabitha, and injury to the Lillelids' two-year-old son, Peter.
On April 6, 1997, Howell and her co-defendants, Natasha Cornett, Crystal Sturgall, Joseph Risner, Dean Mullins, and Jason Bryant, planned a trip from their homes in Pikeville, Kentucky, to New Orleans, Louisiana. At the time, Howell was seventeen years old; Bryant was fourteen years old; and each of the remaining co-defendants was at least eighteen years old. Prior to leaving Kentucky in Risner's vehicle, Howell and her co-defendants secured a nine millimeter handgun, a .25 caliber handgun, and cash. While en route, they discussed the possibility of stealing a vehicle due to the poor condition of Risner's vehicle.
At a rest stop on Interstate 81 near Greeneville, Tennessee, Mr. Lillelid, a Jehovah's Witness, approached Howell and her co-defendants at a picnic table and began discussing his religious views. At some point, Risner displayed one of the firearms and said, "I hate to do you this way, but we are going to have to take you with us for your van." Risner directed the Lillelid family to their van even though Mr. Lillelid offered the group his keys and wallet in exchange for allowing the family to remain at the rest area.
Mr. Lillelid drove the van, and Risner, who was still armed, sat in the passenger seat. Howell, Bryant, and Cornett also rode in the van with the Lillelids. Mullins and Sturgall followed in Risner's vehicle. Mrs. Lillelid began singing in an attempt to console the crying children, and Bryant ordered her to stop. Risner subsequently directed Mr. Lillelid to a secluded road and ordered him to stop the van. Once outside the van, all four members of the Lillelid family were shot multiple times. Bryant claimed that Risner and Mullins were the shooters, but Howell and her remaining co-defendants maintained that Bryant was the shooter. As Risner drove Howell and her co-defendants from the scene, the van struck one or more of the victims.
Howell and her co-defendants were apprehended in Arizona after failing to cross the border into Mexico. At the time of their arrests, Howell and several of her co-defendants had personal items belonging to the Lillelids in their possession.
The State offered Howell and her co-defendants a "package plea offer" whereby the State would not seek the death penalty against the four adult co-defendants if Howell and all of her co-defendants agreed to enter guilty pleas to the offenses. The plea offer provided for concurrent sentences of twenty-five years for each conviction of especially aggravated kidnapping, twelve years for each aggravated kidnapping conviction, and four years for the theft conviction. The trial court would determine the sentences for the felony murder and attempted first degree murder convictions.
Howell and her co-defendants accepted the State's offer. Following a sentencing hearing, the trial court sentenced Howell to life without the possibility of parole for each of the three felony murder convictions and twenty-five years for the attempted murder conviction. The trial court ordered that each sentence be served consecutively. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Howell's sentences on appeal.2 See State v. Howell, 34 S.W.3d 484 (Tenn.Crim.App.2000).
Howell subsequently filed a post-conviction relief petition alleging that she received ineffective assistance of counsel during proceedings in both the juvenile court and the criminal court and that her guilty plea was not knowingly and voluntarily entered. Following a hearing, the post-conviction court denied Howell relief. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the post-conviction court's judgment. We granted review.
To establish ineffective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution and article I, section 9 of the Tennessee Constitution, a petitioner must demonstrate both that counsel's performance was deficient and the deficiency prejudiced the defense. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 692, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984); Goad v. State, 938 S.W.2d 363, 370 (Tenn.1996). A petitioner's failure to establish either prong justifies the denial of relief. Nichols v. State, 90 S.W.3d 576, 586 (Tenn.2002).
To establish deficiency, a petitioner must show that counsel's representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness under prevailing professional norms. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 688, 104 S.Ct. 2052; Baxter v. Rose, 523 S.W.2d 930, 936 (Tenn.1975). We have recognized that:
[t]he assistance of counsel required under the Sixth Amendment is counsel reasonably likely to render and rendering reasonably effective assistance. It is a violation of this standard for defense counsel to deprive a criminal defendant of a substantial defense by his own ineffectiveness or incompetence.... Defense counsel must perform at least as well as a lawyer with ordinary training and skill in the criminal law and must conscientiously protect his client's interests, undeflected by conflicting considerations.
Goad, 938 S.W.2d at 369 (quoting Baxter, 523 S.W.2d at 934-35). In reviewing counsel's conduct, we must make every effort to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances of counsel's conduct, and to evaluate the conduct from the perspective of counsel at that time. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689, 104 S.Ct. 2052.
Howell claims that defense counsel was ineffective in failing to introduce certain evidence at her transfer hearing in juvenile court. We have previously recognized that the juvenile court has original jurisdiction over children who are alleged to be delinquent. State v. Hale, 833 S.W.2d 65, 66 (Tenn.1992); see Tenn.Code Ann. § 37-1-134(a) (1996). The juvenile court transferred Howell to the criminal court to be tried as an adult pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated section 37-1-134(a) (1996). Section 37-1-134(a) lists several criteria that, when met, require a juvenile to be transferred to criminal court to be tried as an adult. See Tenn.Code Ann. § 37-1-134(a)(1)-(4) (1996). Included in the criteria is the requirement that the juvenile court find "reasonable grounds" to believe that:
(A) The child committed the delinquent act as alleged;
(B) The child is not committable to an institution for the mentally retarded or mentally ill; and (C) The interests of the community require that the child be put under legal restraint or discipline.
Id. at (a)(4)(A)-(C).3 The issue in this case is whether defense counsel was deficient in failing to offer evidence that Howell was committable to a mental health facility under subsection (a)(4)(B) and, if so, whether prejudice resulted from that failure.
Howell contends that defense counsel4 was ineffective in failing to offer evidence at the transfer hearing that she was committable to a mental health facility. In July of 1997, defense counsel contacted Dr. Leonard Miller, a clinical psychologist experienced in evaluating juveniles involved in transfer hearings. Defense counsel requested that Dr. Miller evaluate Howell prior to her transfer hearing. Defense counsel informed Dr. Miller that Dr. Larkin, a psychologist retained by the State, evaluated Howell and concluded that Howell was not committable to a mental health facility and that she met the standards for transfer to criminal court. Defense counsel further informed Dr. Miller that Dr. Larkin's evaluation of Howell was based on a half-hour interview. During the post-conviction hearing, Dr. Miller opined that Dr. Larkin's brief interview with Howell would not have provided Dr. Larkin with a sufficient basis to assess Howell's mental status. Dr. Miller stated that he informed defense counsel of his willingness to evaluate Howell but that he did not receive...
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