Medlock v. State
| Decision Date | 30 September 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. C-91-298,C-91-298 |
| Citation | 1994 OK CR 65,887 P.2d 1333 |
| Parties | Floyd Allen MEDLOCK, Appellant, v. The STATE of Oklahoma, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma |
Floyd Allen Medlock, appellant, entered a blind plea of guilty to First Degree Murder with Malice Aforethought in the District Court of Canadian County, Case No. CRF-90-89, and was sentenced to death. The Judgment and Sentence is AFFIRMED. The Application for Writ of Certiorari is DENIED.
Steven Jones, Robert Wyatt, IV, Enid, for defendant, at trial.
Cathy Stocker, Dist. Atty., Enid, Michael Gahan, Asst. Dist. Atty., El Reno, for State, at trial.
William H. Luker, Deputy Appellate Indigent Defender, Norman, for appellant, on appeal.
Susan Brimer Loving, Atty. Gen., A. Diane Blalock, Asst. Atty. Gen., Oklahoma City, for appellee, on appeal.
Floyd Allen Medlock was charged by Amended Information in Canadian County District Court, Case No. CRF-90-89, with First Degree Murder with Malice Aforethought or, in the alternative, First Degree Murder While in Commission of a Felony, in violation of 21 O.S.Supp.1989, § 701.7. The State filed a Special Bill of Particulars seeking the death penalty. The Bill of Particulars alleged (1) the murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, and (2) there existed the probability that Medlock would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society.1
On February 4, 1991, Medlock entered a blind plea of guilty2 to First Degree Murder with Malice Aforethought. The Honorable Edward C. Cunningham conducted a hearing to determine the voluntariness and sufficiency of the plea. The district court found Medlock was competent to enter the plea, the plea was being entered knowingly and voluntarily, and there was a factual basis for the plea. The district court accepted Medlock's guilty plea.
A sentencing hearing was held from March 11 through 15, 1991. At the conclusion of the hearing, the district court found the existence of both aggravating circumstances alleged in the Bill of Particulars, determined the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances and imposed a sentence of death. Before the death sentence was formally pronounced, Medlock filed an application to withdraw his guilty plea. The district court overruled Medlock's application and imposed the death sentence. Medlock filed a writ of certiorari with this Court appealing both the district court's order denying his application to withdraw his guilty plea and his death sentence. We now affirm Medlock's Judgment and Sentence.
On the night of February 19, 1990, Georgina Busch reported that her seven-year-old daughter, Katherine Ann Busch (hereinafter referred to as Kathy), was missing. During the early morning hours of February 20, 1990, the police found Kathy's dead body in a dumpster behind a shopping center store near the apartment complex where Kathy lived with her mother. An autopsy revealed Kathy died from a deep stab wound in the back of her neck. Kathy's face and body had sustained a number of injuries, bruises and abrasions, including injuries to the vagina and rectum.
At approximately 9:30 a.m. on February 20, Floyd Allen Medlock, who was not a suspect in Kathy's murder, called "911" from a public telephone booth and informed the Yukon police dispatcher that he was the person who had killed the young girl. Medlock gave the dispatcher his location and a description of himself. The Yukon police responded to the call and arrested Medlock. After his arrest, Medlock confessed to killing Kathy Busch.3
Medlock had been living in the same apartment complex as Kathy and her mother for approximately two weeks. In his oral confession to the Yukon police, Medlock stated that, at 3:30 p.m. on the day Kathy was killed, he was in his apartment watching cartoons when he heard someone trying to open his door. Medlock unlocked the door and saw a little girl with a bicycle.4 Medlock said the girl walked into his apartment and told him she used to live there. Medlock advised the child she should not barge into his home. The girl asked Medlock to feed her and he offered to make her macaroni and cheese. While making the macaroni and cheese, Medlock gave the girl some chips for a snack.
Medlock stated that as he was cooking the macaroni and cheese "this real weird feeling" came over him. (P.H. State Exhibit 10 at 21)5 Initially Medlock told the Yukon police that the girl told him she did not want macaroni and cheese and went into Medlock's bedroom. Later during his confession, Medlock stated the child went into the bedroom with him. In his written confession, Medlock stated that "[f]or some reason [he] thought that the girl should die," and when he went into his bedroom to get a knife, the child followed him. (State Exhibit 61) Medlock said the girl told him that she and her mother used to use the bedroom. Medlock stated (P.H. State Exhibit 10 at 6)
Medlock wrestled with the girl, covered her mouth when she began screaming, and choked the child until she passed out. He then dragged her over to the toilet and stuck her head in the toilet for ten minutes during which time the child was still gasping for air. At one point during his confession, Medlock stated the girl was still conscious when he put her head in the toilet.6 (P.H. State Exhibit 10 at 28) When it was evident the child was still alive even after he had held her head in the toilet, Medlock stabbed the child in the back of the neck with a knife but the knife broke. He then used a hunting knife to stab the girl in the back of the neck again.7 According to the medical examiner, this stab wound killed Kathy. Medlock then held the child's head in the toilet so that she would not bleed on the floor. When the bleeding stopped, he put the body in the bathtub and took off the child's clothes. Medlock tried to sexually molest the child but could not sustain an erection. He wrapped the child in a blanket, placed her in a box, and took the child's body and her bicycle to the dumpster.
Medlock told the police the whole incident seemed dream-like and he had difficulty remembering the incident. He said he could not believe what he had done and stated he threw up after he "did it." (P.H. State Exhibit 10 at 10) Medlock advised the Yukon police that he had memory lapses and, when asked what caused him to snap, he mentioned voices he had been hearing since he was twelve-years-old.
Medlock's account of the murder to the F.B.I. was similar to his confession to the Yukon police, although some details of the crime varied.8 During his interview with the F.B.I., he discussed the voices he heard during the murder and stated the voices stopped after the girl was dead. He described the incident as dream-like and stated "I was sunk back, and it was someone else, you know, in front doing this." (State Exhibit 70 at 45)
Medlock initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Immediately prior to empaneling the jury for trial, he advised the district court he wished to enter a blind plea of guilty to First Degree Murder with Malice Aforethought. Before accepting the plea, the trial court placed Medlock under oath and questioned him about his competence to enter the plea, the voluntariness of the plea, the consequences of entering the plea, the various rights and presumptions he would waive by entering the plea, and about the facts of the case. Specifically, the district court asked Medlock:
(Feb. 4 Tr. 24-26) Further in support of Medlock's plea, the State incorporated the transcripts of the preliminary hearings held on June 22, 1990 and January 10, 1991. Medlock did not object to the incorporation of these hearings.
The trial court also questioned defense counsel about Medlock's competence to enter a guilty plea. Counsel stated that while he had some questions about Medlock's competency, he had been assured by a psychologist and a social worker that Medlock was competent. The trial court then asked:
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