In re A.D.
| Decision Date | 13 August 2021 |
| Docket Number | 295,120 |
| Parties | In the Matter of A.D. |
| Court | Kansas Court of Appeals |
NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION
Appeal from Sedgwick District Court; Gregory D. Keith, judge.
Jordan E. Kieffer, Jordan E. Kieffer, P.A., of Bel Aire, for appellant.
Matt J. Maloney, assistant district attorney, and Marc Bennett district attorney, for appellee.
Before Green, P.J., Bruns, J., and McAnany, S.J.
A.D confessed to stabbing to death a transgender woman. After the trial court denied A.D.'s motion for self-defense immunity, a jury convicted A.D. of second-degree murder. He challenges the court's self-defense ruling. Also, he argues that he was denied his right to a speedy trial and disputes the designation of this case as an extended jurisdiction juvenile prosecution. We find no reversible error, and for this reason, we affirm.
A.D was 16 years old when he went to Tyreece Walker's Wichita apartment on May 1, 2016. A.D. stabbed Walker to death in the apartment that night.
On May 4, 2016, the State charged A.D. with voluntary manslaughter. That case was set for a January 2017 jury trial. The court continued that trial date until March 13, 2017, because of a shortage of judges. Then, on March 1, 2017, the State amended the charge against A.D. to second-degree murder. The trial was continued again. On July 26, 2017, the State learned that the coroner would be unavailable to testify the week of the jury trial beginning July 31, 2017. The State asked for a continuance, but the trial court ruled that the State failed to show good cause. As a result, on July 31, 2017, the State dismissed the charges against A.D.; it refiled the case that same day, again charging A.D. with second-degree murder for killing Walker.
In August 2017, A.D. moved for immunity from prosecution under K.S.A. 2015 Supp. 21-5231(a). A.D. argued that he was immune from prosecution because he justifiably used deadly force arguing that he reasonably believed that deadly force was necessary to prevent Walker from raping or sodomizing him. The State opposed the motion. The State argued that the evidence did not support A.D.'s claim of self-defense.
The trial court held a hearing on A.D.'s motion for immunity from prosecution. Dr. Scott Kipper, a Sedgwick County deputy coroner/medical examiner, testified first. Dr. Kipper performed Walker's autopsy. Dr. Kipper testified that Walker had 140 "sharp force injuries," including 19 stab wounds and 121 incised wounds. Walker also had "some abrasions and lacerations of [her] head and some abrasions of [her] torso and [her] upper extremities." Dr. Kipper also testified that Walker had incised wounds on her hands and forearms that "could be" consistent with defensive wounds. On cross-examination, Dr. Kipper admitted that "there's no way to tell for sure what [Walker was] doing at the time [she] received the wounds."
Next Wichita Police Department crime scene investigator Chris Engle-Tjaden testified. Engle-Tjaden testified that he inspected the contents of A.D.'s father's car, including a white plastic trash bag found in the car. The plastic trash bag contained items later identified as belonging to A.D. The bag contained black sneakers, a green plaid shirt, a pair of jeans, a pair of gray athletic shorts, and an ornamental dagger. Each item contained bloodstains, particularly the shirt and jeans which were "heavily saturated" with blood. Engle-Tjaden testified that he also found a camouflage coat in the car's back seat. The inner lining of the coat had apparent bloodstains. In the coat's pockets, Engle-Tjaden found two pocketknives and the sheath for the ornamental dagger. One of the pocketknives also had apparent bloodstains on it.
Then, Charles Ulrich, a former Wichita Police Department crime scene investigator, testified. Ulrich photographed A.D. at the police station on the night of the stabbing. Ulrich stated that A.D. complained of pain on the right side of his head, but Ulrich could not see anything that would have caused this pain. Ulrich admitted that A.D.'s hairstyle made it difficult to see his scalp, but that there was no visible blood or "anything wrong" on the right side of A.D.'s head. Ulrich testified that A.D. had a 30-millimeter scrape on the middle of his upper back, and "injuries to the right palm, the top of the right hand, the left palm, and the top of the left hand." Ulrich testified that he was not qualified to determine if A.D.'s injuries were defensive or aggressive wounds.
Ulrich also processed Walker's apartment at about 1:15 a.m. on May 2, 2016. Ulrich testified that he found blood on the interior door frame of the apartment building, as well as the stairwell leading to Walker's apartment. Inside Walker's apartment, Ulrich found blood on a kitchen wall. Ulrich also found blood on the floor of the hallway to the bedroom. Walker's body was in her bedroom on the floor; she was nude except for a sports bra. A large amount of blood was in the bedroom: on the bedsheets, on the footboard of the bed, on the floor, on the wall, and on a television stand. Ulrich found a black Chicago Bulls T-shirt, one sock, and a pair of underwear sitting near a bench behind the bedroom door. The shirt and underwear had blood dripped or splattered on them. Ulrich testified that an overturned candle warmer holding a candle with pink wax was on the bedroom floor. Broken glass, a dildo, and handcuffs were on the bedroom floor next to Walker's body. The trial court admitted the photographs that Ulrich took of the scene.
Detective Michelle Tennyson testified next. She recounted her May 2, 2016 interview with A.D. She testified that she offered A.D. the opportunity to be examined by a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE), but he declined after she explained what it would entail.
Next, A.D. testified and provided his account of the evening. He testified that he first met Walker on April 30, 2016, when he and a male acquaintance went to Walker's apartment "for approximately three minutes." While he was at the apartment, he noticed the charge on his phone battery was 98%. So he plugged in his charger and charged his phone. According to A.D., during this three-minute encounter with Walker, he immediately developed a dislike for her.
He testified that on the evening of May 1, 2016, he told his younger brother that he was going up the street to get his phone charger. He left his house and walked to Walker's apartment. He wore
After A.D. knocked on Walker's door and explained he was there to retrieve his charger, Walker invited A.D. inside. At Walker's request, A.D. removed his shoes at the front door. Walker told A.D. that the phone charger was in the bedroom; so the pair walked towards the bedroom. A.D. said that Walker flirted with him as they walked, calling him a "Chocolate Knight."
A.D. testified that once they were in the bedroom, Walker told him the charger was on a bench. According to A.D., when he leaned over the bench to pick up the charger, Walker punched him in the head. Then, A.D. "stood up, pushed [her] and punched [her] in the chest and tried to take off running" but he slipped on a carpet and fell onto the floor. Then, A.D. said Walker "charged [him] and tried to pull [him] back by [his] pants." According to A.D., the process of Walker grabbing his pants and him trying to escape caused him to "wiggle out of" his jeans, athletic shorts, and underwear. Then, A.D. testified that Walker pulled A.D. by his shirts, which caused A.D. to "wiggle[] out of [his] shirts," leaving him entirely naked and on the floor.
While he was on the floor on his stomach, A.D. said Walker "kept trying to advance, and [A.D.] felt what [he] thought was [Walker's] penis on [his] thigh." Walker's penis was erect. A.D. said that he then noticed that the foot-long decorative dagger had fallen out of his coat pocket onto the floor. So he grabbed it and when Walker "advanced again," A.D. "just started to stab [her]." A.D. stated that at some point during the struggle, Walker's basketball shorts came off and she was just in her "tank top and nothing else." The whole incident "happened pretty fast." According to A.D., he used only the ornamental dagger to stab Walker; he used neither of the two other pocketknives that was in his possession.
When A.D. was stabbing Walker, Walker said, "'I'm dead'" and A.D. "really panicked" and told Walker, "'I'm going to get you help.'" Then A.D. A.D. testified he put only his shorts and coat on before leaving the apartment. Then A.D. walked to a friend's apartment who lived in the same complex as Walker. According to A.D., he told the friend that he had gone to Walker's apartment to get his charger. But Walker tried to rape him while he was there; he needed the friend to call 911.
A.D stated that the friend insisted on calling A.D.'s mother before she would call 911. A.D. spoke to his mother on the phone. His mother told him that she would leave work to meet him at the friend's apartment and call the police. After the phone call, the friend told A.D. to take a shower, A.D. did so. Then, the friend put A.D.'s blood-soiled clothing in a white trash bag; she gave A.D. a clean set of clothes to wear. After A.D. showered, his mother arrived and called the police. The police came to the friend's apartment. A.D. told the police his story and the police asked him to show...
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