Leonard v. State
| Decision Date | 30 January 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 33732.,33732. |
| Parties | Gregory Neal LEONARD, Appellant, v. The STATE of Nevada, Respondent. |
| Court | Nevada Supreme Court |
JoNell Thomas, Las Vegas, for Appellant.
Frankie Sue Del Papa, Attorney General, Carson City; Stewart L. Bell, District Attorney, James Tufteland, Chief Deputy District Attorney, and Peggy A. Leen, Deputy District Attorney, Clark County, for Respondent.
BEFORE THE COURT EN BANC.
The State charged appellant Gregory Neal Leonard with the murder and robbery of Tony Antee. The State sought the death penalty for the murder. The case proceeded to a jury trial. Leonard's first and second trials resulted in mistrials. His third trial resulted in his conviction for first degree murder and robbery. The jury imposed a death sentence for the murder, finding two aggravating circumstances: (1) the murder occurred in the commission of or an attempt to commit robbery; and (2) Leonard had been convicted of another murder.
The judgment of conviction was entered on January 5, 1999. The district court sentenced Leonard to a concurrent imprisonment term for the robbery. This appeal followed. We affirm Leonard's conviction and sentence of death.
Guilt phase evidence
The victim's body was discovered in Leonard's apartment, under his bed. The impetus behind discovery of the body was Jesus Cintron's disclosure to police that Leonard had made inculpatory statements to him.
Cintron testified for the State at trial. At the time of the victim's death, Cintron and Leonard were both employed by the Mark Twain Apartments in Las Vegas, performing general maintenance and repair. Leonard lived in an apartment near the maintenance shop, but Cintron was living elsewhere at the time. Cintron testified that he spoke with Leonard by phone on three occasions on Sunday, January 22, 1995. On the first two occasions, Leonard asked Cintron to come to the Mark Twain Apartments because there was something that he needed to talk to him about. Leonard refused to tell Cintron what he wanted, and Cintron refused to meet Leonard.
That evening, Leonard left a voice message on Cintron's pager. After reviewing his statement to police, Cintron testified that the message was Cintron called the number and reached a pager, and Leonard called Cintron back. Cintron had caller ID that indicated the call was from the Mark Twain Apartments.1 Leonard told Cintron that he had killed someone the previous night and that the body was under his bed. Leonard indicated that he was using the pager of the person he had killed. Leonard asked Cintron to help dispose of the body. Leonard planned to wrap the body in carpet and leave it in a dumpster. Cintron told Leonard that he was crazy, and then Leonard threatened to kill Cintron and several others.2 Cintron subsequently contacted the police and played the voice message that Leonard had left on his pager. Several police officers acknowledged the poor quality of the recording. However, one officer testified that he had recognized Leonard's voice. Although police returned the pager to Cintron without recording the message, the substance of the message was memorialized in an affidavit supporting Leonard's arrest and in Cintron's tape-recorded statement.
Police went to the Mark Twain Apartments, where they came into contact with Leonard and subsequently spoke with him at the maintenance office. Leonard ultimately refused to allow police to search his apartment. Police decided to remove everyone from the apartment so that it would be secure, and Leonard agreed. There were three individuals present in Leonard's apartment at that time: Leonard's cousin, Jerry Leonard ("Jerry"), Jerry's girlfriend, Rose Lewis, and Martina Harkins. After these three were removed, a police officer conducted a sweep of the apartment to make sure that nobody else was inside. During the sweep, she discovered the victim's body under Leonard's bed.
Leonard was arrested and was found to be wearing a pager, which was later identified as belonging to the victim. The phone number for the pager was 252-1010, the same number that Leonard had given to Cintron as a contact number. Leonard volunteered that he did not know how the body had gotten under his bed because he had been out of town in Stateline for the past few days.
Cintron stopped going to work immediately after the discovery of the body at Leonard's apartment. Cintron testified that Leonard called him from jail on several occasions and that he felt that one of the calls was threatening. Cintron received money for relocation expenses from the State, and he received $1,000 from the secret witness fund.
The victim's body was recovered, autopsied, and identified as Tony Antee. The victim was wearing a T-shirt, a thermal-type shirt, and briefs that were pulled down partly exposing his genitals. Three pieces of cord that came together in a plastic knob were found wrapped around the victim's neck; the cord resembled a mini-blind or curtain cord. The cord had left deep impressions that completely encircled the victim's neck.
Dr. Giles Sheldon Green performed the autopsy on the morning of January 24. Green testified that the victim had died approximately two to three days previously. Green found no evidence of sexual assault. The cause of death was determined to be asphyxia due to strangulation. Green indicated that it would take the average person about four minutes to die of strangulation and that continuous pressure would have to be applied for that time. He indicated that there was no reason to believe that it took less than that time to kill the victim. The victim's body had other minor external injuries, unrelated to the cause of death. These included an abrasion and a small scratch to the victim's forehead, which Green indicated were made about the time of the victim's death. Internal examination indicated bruising to the victim's head; these injuries had also been inflicted recently, less than a day prior to the victim's death. The injuries to the victim's head were possibly sufficient to stun the victim or even cause unconsciousness. The victim had a blood-alcohol content of .02 percent.
Little other relevant physical evidence was recovered that might indicate the circumstances of the murder. However, a bloodstained carpet sample was taken from a spot near the entranceway of Leonard's apartment. DNA testing indicated that the blood on the sample was the victim's. A rubber glove with a trace amount of blood was found in a basket on the bottom shelf of a coffee table in Leonard's apartment. Three blood spots were found on the bathroom floor of Leonard's apartment; testing indicated that the blood could have come from the victim or from Leonard since they had the same blood type.
There is little evidence about the victim's actions prior to the murder, although many of the witnesses, in addition to Leonard, knew or had at least met the victim, including Cintron, Jerry, and Rose Lewis. Vincent Altamura, an acquaintance of the victim, testified that he tried to contact the victim on Sunday, January 22. He paged the victim at approximately 3:00 p.m., and someone other than the victim responded to the page.
Several witnesses testified to Leonard's actions prior to discovery of the body. Leonard's cousin, Jerry, testified that he went to Leonard's apartment on the morning of Sunday, January 22, and was there for much of the day. When Jerry arrived, Leonard was wearing a robe, and it appeared that he had just awoken. Martina Harkins was in the bedroom. Harkins left later that day. Jerry indicated that Leonard was acting strangely and that Leonard was in and out of the apartment during the day. Jerry left at about 4:00 p.m. to walk Rose Lewis to an interview, and he returned with Lewis a couple of hours later. During the evening, Gladys Burton came into the apartment for a time. Harkins returned to the apartment in the late evening, shortly before the police arrived. Jerry further testified that Leonard had sent him a letter in March or April of 1995 asking him to testify falsely in the case (apparently to implicate Cintron), but that he had not saved the letter.
Gladys Burton also testified. Burton had been involved in a short relationship with Leonard a few weeks prior to the murder. She was at Leonard's apartment on Friday night, January 20, from approximately 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. until approximately 2:00 a.m. the next morning. Leonard's cousin and girlfriend were also there. Burton did not see Leonard on Saturday, but she spoke with him by phone on several occasions. Leonard visited Burton for a short time early Sunday afternoon. Leonard "was kind of broke down [sic] and kind of sad," and at times he had tears in his eyes. Leonard and Burton made plans to see each other again that evening.
In the evening, Burton picked up Leonard and later visited his apartment for a short time. Leonard "was acting very differently," and at one point he said, "you don't know what I did ... last night." Leonard gave Burton a broken necklace, which she later gave to the police; the necklace was identified by the victim's sister as being similar to one worn by the victim.3
The defense called two witnesses, Lori Knight, former manager of the Mark Twain Apartments, and Martina Harkins. Leonard did not testify. The defense attempted to call into question the credibility of Jerry Leonard and Jesus Cintron and to suggest that they might have been involved in the killing.
Penalty phase
In the penalty phase, the State presented Leonard's judgment of conviction for the murder and robbery of Thomas Williams (with the sentence redacted). The State presented the testimony of a pathologist and a detective concerning the circumstances of Williams' murder, which also involved strangulation of the victim. The State also presented victim impact evidence from the victim's s...
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...is that the district court erroneously admitted video surveillance evidence despite the State's violation of Leonard v. State, 117 Nev. 53, 68, 17 P.3d 397, 407 (2001) (a defendant's due process rights may be violated if the State fails to preserve evidence and the defendant can show that t......
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Leading Questions
...for “court.” NEVADA: Nevada’s §50.105 is similar to Fed. R. Evid. 611; the term “judge” is substituted for “court.” Leonard v. State , 17 P.3d 397 (Nev., 2001). The trial court acted within its discretion by granting prosecutor some latitude in asking questions of state witnesses in order t......
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Leading Questions
...for “court.” NEVADA: Nevada’s §50.105 is similar to Fed. R. Evid. 611; the term “judge” is substituted for “court.” Leonard v. State , 17 P.3d 397 (Nev., 2001). The trial court acted within its discretion by granting prosecutor some latitude in asking questions of state witnesses in order t......
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Leading Questions
...for “court.” NEVADA: Nevada’s §50.105 is similar to Fed. R. Evid. 611; the term “judge” is substituted for “court.” Leonard v. State , 17 P.3d 397 (Nev., 2001). The trial court acted within its discretion by granting prosecutor some latitude in asking questions of state witnesses in order t......
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Leading questions
...for “court.” NEVADA: Nevada’s §50.105 is similar to Fed. R. Evid. 611; the term “judge” is substituted for “court.” Leonard v. State , 17 P.3d 397 (Nev., 2001). The trial court acted within its discretion by granting prosecutor some latitude in asking questions of state witnesses in order t......