Jahnke v. State
| Citation | 692 P.2d 911 |
| Decision Date | 12 December 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 83-121,83-121 |
| Parties | Deborah Ann JAHNKE, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff). |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Wyoming |
Terry W. Mackey and Robert W. Tiedeken of Terry W. Mackey, P.C., and Jeff Brinkerhoff, Legal Intern for Terry W. Mackey, P.C., Cheyenne, for appellant.
A.G. McClintock, Atty. Gen., Gerald A. Stack, Deputy Atty. Gen., John W. Renneisen, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen., Dennis C. Cook, Asst. Atty. Gen., Thomas J. Carroll, Dist. Atty., and Jon Forwood, Deputy Dist. Atty., Laramie County, for appellee.
Before ROONEY, C.J., and THOMAS, ROSE, BROWN and CARDINE, JJ.
The critical question to be resolved in this case is whether voluntary manslaughter is a lesser-included offense when the charged offense is murder in the first degree; more specifically, whether the offense of aiding and abetting voluntary manslaughter is a lesser-included offense of aiding and abetting first degree murder. Other issues presented relate to the denial of the suppression of the teenage defendant's statement to sheriff's officers; the constitutionality of vesting discretion in the prosecuting attorney to determine whether charges should be filed in juvenile court or in the district court where the defendant is treated as an adult; and the legality of the sentence imposed when appraised in the light of the state constitution.
Deborah Ann Jahnke was charged by Information with aiding and abetting her brother in the first degree murder of their father, and with conspiracy to commit first degree murder. 1 A motion to transfer the case from district court, where Deborah Jahnke was charged as an adult, to juvenile court was denied. At her trial the district court admitted her statement to the officers of the sheriff's department into evidence and instructed on the lesser-included offense of aiding and abetting voluntary manslaughter. After her conviction of aiding and abetting voluntary manslaughter and her acquittal of other charges the district court sentenced her to serve not less than three nor more than eight years in the Women's Correctional Center. We affirm the district court.
In her brief in this appeal Deborah Jahnke states the issues as follows:
The brief of the State of Wyoming rephrases the same issues in this manner:
The facts surrounding the killing of the Jahnke children's father have been reviewed in the case of Jahnke v. State, Wyo., 682 P.2d 991 (1984). They can be reiterated briefly. Following years of both physical and psychological abuse of the children by the father, matters came to a head on the evening of November 16, 1982. After an altercation between the deceased father, Richard Chester Jahnke, and Deborah Jahnke's brother, Richard John Jahnke which included the father's striking the brother with his fists, the Jahnke children's parents went out to dinner. While they were gone Richard made elaborate preparations for confronting his father. These preparations included loading firearms and placing them at several "back-up" locations throughout the house; putting the family pets in the basement for their safety; and waiting in a darkened garage with a shotgun loaded with slugs for the parents to return. When the parents did return Richard Jahnke shot six times through the garage door, with four of the slugs striking the father and killing him almost instantly.
Deborah Ann Jahnke's role in these events began on that evening when she observed the assault upon her brother, Richard, and heard her father tell her brother, "We're going to get rid of you, we don't know how we're going to, but we're going to get rid of you." Deborah Jahnke stated that where her brother went she also went, but she was rebuffed by the father, who told her, "Shut up, you slut" and sent her back into her own room. From her bedroom Deborah Jahnke heard the events of still another verbal and physical assault upon the brother. Just before the parents left, the father returned to the house and shoved the brother, Richard, against the wall, stating
Deborah Jahnke watched as her brother changed the ammunition in a modified .12 gauge shotgun, the death weapon, from what their father referred to as "candy-cane mix" to the fatal slugs. While the brother, Richard, was placing loaded weapons in "back-up" positions in the family room and the basement, he told Deborah to get her shoes on because he wanted to get her out of the house before the parents returned. Deborah put her shoes on, but she made no further preparations to leave because she began experiencing feelings of guilt about leaving her brother there alone. She decided not to leave but that instead she would stay to help her brother.
After this decision Richard demonstrated the use of two of the weapons, a 30.06 rifle in the basement and an M-1 carbine, to Deborah. Deborah explained that the M-1 carbine was selected for her to use because it kicked less than the other weapons. Other preparations made by the Jahnke children included turning on a number of lights in the house for the purpose of creating temporary night blindness for the father if he was able to enter the house; shutting off most of the exterior lights with the exception of those which illuminated the driveway outside of the garage; and placing the family pets in the basement to prevent them from being harmed or getting in the way. These latter two steps were accomplished at Deborah's suggestion. Deborah stated that she perceived her role as a type of backup in the event something went wrong.
After Richard had stationed himself at his place of waiting in the garage, appellant on one occasion went into the garage and was escorted back into the family room by her brother, who told her to stay away. As he was returning to the garage Deborah asked Richard whether he intended to kill their mother also. Richard testified that Deborah was upset when he told her, "no," and she asked him to kill "Mom."
The parents returned at approximately 6:15 p.m., and as the father approached the garage from his parked vehicle Richard fired the fatal shots. In the statement that she furnished, Deborah said that she knew Richard was angry and would do something. She thought he would be active, but she did not expect "that he would just, you know, blow my father away." She heard the shots from the garage and wondered whether she should pick up the M-1 carbine. While trying to decide whether to grab the weapon, Deborah heard footsteps and her brother came down the hall from the garage area. Deborah ascertained that her mother was not shot, and went into her room, shut off her stereo, obtained a coat and book, and then fled with Richard through an open window from the master bedroom. They separated soon after they left the house, and she went out into the hills and plains adjacent to their home.
After fleeing the house, Deborah proceeded toward a shopping mall, and from there to the area of a roller rink, where she spoke with two of her friends. She then went to the clubhouse of a large apartment complex, where she spent the night. When she awoke the next morning she borrowed a newspaper from the doorway of one of the apartments. She read the article about the events of the prior evening, replaced the newspaper, and went from the apartment complex to a nearby park which she was seen entering at about 6:30 a.m. Then Deborah was picked up by a deputy sheriff, and she agreed to accompany the sheriff's officers to their office to talk.
Two days after the father's death, on November 18, 1982, a formal complaint was filed charging Deborah Jahnke with aiding and abetting her brother, Richard, in the commission of first degree murder and with conspiracy to commit first degree murder. She appeared before a county court judge and waived her right to a preliminary hearing, and she was bound over to the district court. On ...
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