Major v. Commonwealth of Kentucky, No. 2003-SC-673-MR (KY 2/3/2006)
| Decision Date | 03 February 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 2003-SC-673-MR.,2003-SC-673-MR. |
| Parties | William Alexander MAJOR, Appellant v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court (Kentucky) |
Donna L. Boyce, Damon L. Preston, Department of Public Advocacy, Frankfort, Kentucky, Counsel for Appellant.
George G. Seelig, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General, Frankfort, Kentucky, Gregory D. Stumbo, Attorney General, Frankfort, Kentucky, Counsel for Apellee.
The Appellant, William Alexander Major, was convicted of murder and tampering with physical evidence by the Boone Circuit Court and sentenced to a term of life in prison. He appeals to this Court as a matter of right, Ky. Const. § 110(2)(b), asserting the following claims of error; (1) Admission of uncharged acts in violation of KRE 404 and 403; (2) failure to grant a mistrial upon the mention of a polygraph test; (3) failure to suppress a taped phone conversation between the Appellant and his father; (4) admission of a firearm not proven to be connected with the crime; (5) prejudicial conduct (crying) of the prosecutor during the trial and(6) the failure to grant a mistrial due to a conversation between the Court Bailiff and a juror.
For reasons hereinafter set out, we reverse the Appellant's conviction and remand this case to the trial court for a new trial because of (1) the improper admission of evidence of uncharged crimes and (2) the admission into evidence of firearms unconnected to the crime charged. Having reversed, we will address those additional claims of error that are likely to reoccur upon retrial. Sgringer v. Commonwealth, 998 S.W.2d 439, 445 (Ky. 1999).
The Appellant, William Major, and his wife, Marlene Major, had two (2) children, a son, Donald Oakes, and a daughter, Lalona Bramble. By the fall of 1980 however, their marriage was failing. On the night of October 11, 1980, Marlene disappeared.
On November 29, 1981, a skull of a white female was found on a nearby farm belonging to the Waller family. Appellant worked there on occasions. Later DNA testing,1 in 2001, confirmed the skull belonged to a maternal relative of their daughter, Lalona Bramble.
According to information contained in Marlene's diary, she had witnessed Appellant sexually molesting their son, Donald. On the day of her disappearance, she told her sister she had "proof" against the Appellant kept some place where he would not find it, and if anything happened to her, the information would go to the police. In the same conversations, she told her sister about her unhappiness and that she was going to divorce the Appellant. She spoke one more time with her sister that night, and seemed to be upset as a result of fighting that was occurring in her home.
Glen St. Hillaire lived on their property near the Appellant and Marlene. He was friends with both and worked with the Appellant in his garage. Apparently he and Marlene were also romantically involved. In fact, Marlene had given St. Hillaire her diaries for safekeeping after an argument with the Appellant.
At times when they were estranged due to arguments, the Appellant would describe to others what he would do if Marlene ever left him. On several occasions, he even told St. Hillaire he would shoot Marlene, cut her head off and knock her teeth out, in order to make identification of her body difficult. Similar threats to dismember her body were made by Appellant in the presence of others.
On the night of October 11, 1980, St. Hillaire became concerned. He saw Appellant around the trailer around 3:00 a.m. and asked about Marlene and the kids. Appellant told him he didn't know where she was, but she had left with the children. However, it appears Appellant had taken the children over to a neighbor's house around 11:00 p.m. and told them that Marlene had left him for St. Hillaire.
Over the next several days, Appellant sold his holdings in Kentucky in preparation for moving to Rhode Island. He gave his three (3) weapons to his neighbor, Brice — a 9mm pistol, a shotgun and a 22 caliber rifle and also sold him his tractor. On Wednesday of that week, he notified the Boone County Sheriff's office that Marlene was missing, claiming they had an argument and she left him. Subsequently, St. Hillaire notified the police of his concerns and ultimately they took possession of Marlene's diaries and the weapons Appellant had given Brice. Their investigations in the general vicinity did not turn up her body.
Sometime later the detectives traveled to Rhode Island to speak with Appellant's son, Donald, concerning the allegations of sexual abuse that occurred in Kentucky. Although they were unsuccessful in acquiring any useful information at the time, the Appellant beat Donald when he found out about the inquiries, accusing him of giving the police information.
After the Appellant moved to Rhode Island with the children, the sexual abuse of Donald continued. Moreover, Appellant then began to sexually abuse Lalona. Ultimately he was discovered, convicted and incarcerated in Rhode Island for the sexual abuse of the children. He was incarcerated there for approximately ten (10) years, up until sometime in 1996. Thereafter, he was transported back to Kentucky on a detainer which had been issued against him in regard to the prior sexual abuse of Donald when they lived in Kentucky. It was during this incarceration, in 1996, on the detainer, from Boone County, when he made the telephone call and confession to his father, Mr. James Major.
Later in early 2001, the detectives became aware of this 1996 phone conversation the Appellant had with his father, wherein, he apparently confessed to Mr. Major that he had killed Marlene. Thereafter, the detectives went to Nova Scotia in an attempt to set up another phone conversation between Mr. Major and the Appellant, hoping the Appellant would acknowledge the confession. Mr. Major was cooperative in this, even suggesting his cover story would be he only had a short time to live. The call was made and it was taped by the detectives, however Appellant's answers were evasive, such as, "Why do I get the feeling that somebody is trying to set me up?" When asked if he could say what happened, Appellant replied: "Even if I could, I probably wouldn't." When Mr. Major told him his daughter just wanted to know what happened, Appellant said to tell her to "ask Marlene's boyfriend in Indiana...I think if they had a talk with him...they might be surprised." When Mr. Major reminded Appellant "You told me you killed her." He replied: "At the time I was in jail and I was pretty well upset." At the time of this conversation, the Appellant was not under arrest; nor was he incarcerated.
Ultimately, around July of 2001, the Appellant was charged and extradited back to Kentucky. Once in custody, he immediately began to ask questions about the investigation. He was advised of his Miranda rights and responded he understood them. He then made a series of incriminating statements. Back in Kentucky, he met with Detective Jack Banks and was re-Mirandized, and thereafter gave the officers his version of the events that took place on the night of Marlene Major's death.
According to Appellant, they got into an argument in her Ford Pinto, when she pulled a gun on him. He took it away from her and she began screaming, then as Appellant related it, he "lost it" and fired the gun until it was empty. After realizing he had killed her, he left her body in the Pinto and took the children to spend the night at his neighbors, Trinnie Brice's house. He then returned and took Marlene's Pinto to the Waller Farm where he dumped her body in a sink hole, covered it with dirt and a piece of rolled fencing, and then tossed the murder weapon in a nearby pond. He even drew the police a map to aid in their search for her remains. As to her Ford Pinto, he indicated he had pushed it into the Ohio River near a ferry.
Significantly, neither Marlene's body (other than the skull), the Ford Pinto, nor the pistol were ever located or recovered.
The Appellant argues the Court committed reversible error by allowing the Commonwealth to introduce highly inflammatory character evidence of Appellant's sexual and physical abuse of his children, of his past marriages, a child abandonment, and of his prior incarceration for the sexual abuse of his children; all of which unduly prejudiced the jury against him and were unrelated to the charged crime of murder.
The Appellant's son, Donald Oakes, testified about Appellant's sexual abuse of him, both in Kentucky and Rhode Island, prior to, and after, the alleged murder of his mother, Marlene Major. In fact, Marlene had caught Appellant sexually abusing him and had confronted Appellant about it, indicating she was going to divorce him. This event was noted in her diary, which she intimated to others would turn up if anything happened to her. It did.
Oakes also testified about arguments he witnessed between his parents over his sexual abuse by the Appellant and about being beaten by Appellant after he had been questioned about the sexual abuse by the Kentucky police in Rhode Island, the Appellant having accused Oakes of giving information about him to the police.
His daughter, Lalona Bramble, was allowed to describe in detail the sexual abuse she also suffered, a death threat made to her by her father, as well as her father's arrest in Rhode Island on the charges of sexual abuse that occurred in Rhode Island. However, the sexual abuse of the daughter, Lalona, did not begin until sometime after Marlene's disappearance, after Appellant and the children had relocated to Rhode Island.
Accepting the Commonwealth's arguments that this evidence was admissible, not only to prove motive, but for reasons it was so "inextricably intertwined" with...
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