Martinez v. State

• Decision Date: 08 March 2016
• Docket Number: No. D–2013–673.,D–2013–673.
• Citation: 2016 OK CR 3,371 P.3d 1100
• Parties: Mica Alexander MARTINEZ, Appellant, v. The STATE of Oklahoma, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma

371 P.3d 1100

2016 OK CR 3

Mica Alexander MARTINEZ, Appellant

v.The STATE of Oklahoma, Appellee.

No. D–2013–673.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma.

March 8, 2016.

Craig Corgan, Perry Hudson, Oklahoma City, OK, Attorneys for Defendant at trial.

Eddie Valdez, Mark Stoneman, Asst. District Attorneys County Courthouse, Lawton, OK, Attorneys for the State at trial.

James H. Lockard, William H. Luker, Norman, OK, Attorneys for Appellant on appeal.

E. Scott Pruitt, Attorney General, Jennifer L. Crabb, Asst. Attorney General, Oklahoma City, OK, Attorneys for Appellee on appeal.

OPINION

LEWIS

, Judge.

¶ 1 Mica Alexander Martinez, Appellant, was tried by jury and found guilty of Counts 1 and 2, murder in the first degree, in violation of 21 O.S.Supp.2009, § 701.7(A)

; and Count 3, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, in violation of 21 O.S.Supp.2006, § 645, in Comanche County District Court, Case No. CF–2009–473. The jury found two statutory aggravating circumstances¹ and sentenced Appellant to death in Counts 1 and 2, and ten (10) years imprisonment in Count 3. The Honorable Mark R. Smith, District Judge, pronounced judgment and sentence accordingly. Mr. Martinez appeals.

FACTS

¶ 2 Carl and Martha “Faye” Miller lived five miles south of Cache, Oklahoma, on State Highway 115 and Woodlawn Road. Around 4:49 a.m. on Monday, October 12, 2009, Ms. Miller called 911 to report shots being fired from a vehicle parked near her residence. She could only describe the vehicle as having its lights on. Ms. Miller asked police to come quickly, saying that “We opened the garage door, and they saw me standing there with the telephone.” Two officers were dispatched to the scene.

¶ 3 A short time later, another motorist also called 911 to report an abandoned vehicle facing east in the westbound lane of Woodlawn Road at the intersection of Highway 115. The two deputies soon arrived and found the reported vehicle, with no one inside. The keys were still in the vehicle's ignition and its cabin lights were on. After seeing loose rounds of high-powered ammunition inside, the deputies turned off their vehicle lights and got a shotgun, an assault rifle, and night vision equipment.

¶ 4 As the deputies scanned the area, they received a third dispatch, to a burglary in progress at a house just across Highway 115, a few hundred feet from the abandoned vehicle. As they approached the house, deputies heard a struggle. They knocked at the back door and demanded entry. Just before they broke in, Shawn Monk unlatched and opened the door. The deputies found Shawn Monk and the Appellant inside and quickly detained them.

¶ 5 The kitchen floor where the two men had been fighting was slick with a mixture of blood and water, which was pouring from a broken refrigerator line. Shawn Monk was badly injured with bleeding wounds

to his head. Appellant repeatedly said “I'm sorry,” and eventually told the officers that Monk lived at the house. The officers also saw a Winchester .30–30 rifle lying on the kitchen floor. Monk told the deputies the rifle belonged to Appellant. Monk also told the deputies that his parents were injured and needed help.

¶ 6 Shawn Monk later testified at trial that he had spent Sunday night with his parents, Carl and Faye Miller, and slept in a guest bedroom. He awoke early the following morning to loud noises and voices. He first thought his father might have fallen asleep with the television on. He heard a loud, unfamiliar voice say “Where's the money, bitch?” A short time later, he heard a voice say “You like my dick in your ass, don't you?” Monk was now alarmed and got up. The lights in the hallway were turned on. He screamed down the hallway, “What the fuck is going on?”

¶ 7 Monk then saw a stranger step into the hallway from his parents' bedroom and walk away from him toward the living room area. He followed the intruder, pausing at his parents' bedroom long enough to see his mother lying on the bed, face down, her pants around her ankles, still breathing but obviously injured. Appellant was looking in the garage as Mr. Monk stepped into the living room. Appellant attacked him. As the Appellant and Monk fought, Monk pleaded with Appellant to let him get help for his parents.

¶ 8 Appellant eventually relented and sat down in the floor, saying “I fucked up, I'm sorry. My friends fucked him up,” referring to Carl Miller. Shawn Monk looked in the garage and saw his father lying on the floor, still breathing but also obviously injured. Monk also picked up the .30–30 lever action rifle he saw lying on the floor, determined it was unloaded, and called 911. Appellant sat in the floor for a few minutes, then got up and threw a barbell at Shawn Monk, striking the phone he was using to call 911. Appellant then wrestled the rifle from Mr. Monk and gashed his head with several blows from the butt of the rifle. Mr. Monk was still fighting with Appellant when he opened the door and deputies entered the home.

¶ 9 Emergency responders transported Carl and Faye Miller to local hospitals, where both later died of their injuries. Faye Miller suffered extensive bruising to her face and upper body, arms, inner thighs, and legs. Blunt force head trauma

caused bleeding and bruising to her scalp, a subarachnoid hemorrhage, and a large subdural hematoma with midline shift of the brain. She also sustained traumatic injuries to her vagina and anus consistent with forcible sexual assault. Carl Miller's wounds included blunt force head trauma with several scalp lacerations, a 7 cm. skull fracture, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and contusion of the temporal lobe. Mr. Miller also suffered bruising and scraping of his arms.

¶ 10 Appellant's father testified that Appellant borrowed his .30–30 Winchester rifle and a box of ammunition and left to go hog hunting early in the morning of October 12, 2009. He learned a few days later that Appellant had been arrested. When Appellant was searched at the crime scene, the deputies recovered Carl Miller's wallet and a set of keys belonging to Shawn Monk. They also recovered Appellant's sweatshirt and t-shirt in the Millers' bedroom. Appellant's jeans were stained with blood, which was eventually matched to all three victims by DNA comparisons. Carl Miller's blood was found on Appellant's shoe.

¶ 11 Appellant did not testify at trial. In his first written and taped statements to police on the morning of his arrest, he claimed that a friend named D.J. attacked the victims. Police later identified “D.J.” and confirmed his alibi for the morning of the crimes. In a second interview several days after the crimes, Appellant then told investigators the murders were committed by a hitchhiker.

¶ 12 At trial, defense counsel acknowledged that Appellant had killed the victims, but argued that the unplanned nature of the crimes and Appellant's intoxication created a reasonable doubt of the element of malice aforethought. Further facts will be discussed in connection with the propositions of error.

ANALYSIS

¶ 13 In Proposition One, Appellant argues that the State's failure to promptly obtain and test his blood sample for alcohol concentration and subsequent “exploitation” of that failure at trial violated due process. He argues that investigators acted in bad faith by “waiting” more than twelve hours after the crimes before drawing blood, depriving him of exculpatory evidence of voluntary intoxication. Appellant also argues that even absent bad faith, the combination of extreme negligence by investigators in collecting his blood, and its resulting prejudice to his defense, requires reversal.

¶ 14 Appellant failed to object on this ground at trial, and failed to object to the admission of other evidence of his blood alcohol concentration. We therefore review this claim only for plain error. Simpson v. State, 1994 OK CR 40, ¶ 2, 876 P.2d 690, 692–93

. To obtain relief, Appellant must prove a plain or obvious error affected the outcome of the proceeding. Hogan v. State, 2006 OK CR 19, ¶ 38, 139 P.3d 907, 923. Even where plain error is shown, this Court will remedy the error only if it seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of the proceedings or represents a miscarriage of justice. Murphy v. State, 2012 OK CR 8, ¶ 18, 281 P.3d 1283, 1290.

¶ 15 Trial evidence and testimony indicate that Appellant was a problem drinker, and had been drinking on the morning he committed these crimes. Around 3:30 a.m., Appellant had stopped by the home of two friends and asked them to go hog hunting. They testified that Appellant said he had a bottle of rum; that he smelled of alcohol, and was slurring his speech. After borrowing a spotlight, Appellant left their house. He called a third friend around 4:00 a.m., who later testified that Appellant sounded intoxicated on the phone.

¶ 16 The arresting officer noticed an odor of alcohol when he encountered Appellant at the crime scene. Another investigator confirmed that Appellant smelled of alcohol some two hours later during an interview. Appellant claimed to police that he had been drinking and briefly passed out in his truck before the crimes, but no empty bottles or cans of alcohol were recovered from the vehicle. Appellant also presented expert testimony of his alcoholism and his probable level of intoxication during the crimes, citing physical evidence that Appellant had defecated in his pants and attempted to clean himself off near the intersection across from the victims' house.

¶ 17 When an investigator first requested that Appellant provide a blood sample, at around 10 a.m. on the morning of his arrest, Appellant refused. Police eventually obtained a warrant for the blood draw, which was executed around 6:35 p.m. The State presented testimony at trial that Appellant's blood alcohol concentration from this sample showed no detectable alcohol, and that Appellant's blood alcohol level at the time of the crimes was unknown.

¶ 18 The preliminary question on plain error review is whether error, an actual...