Parks v. State
| Decision Date | 17 May 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 41619,41619 |
| Citation | 254 Ga. 403,330 S.E.2d 686 |
| Parties | , 62 A.L.R.4th 833 PARKS v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Robert E. Wilson, Dist. Atty., Decatur, Susan Brooks, Asst. Dist. Atty., Michael J. Bowers, Atty. Gen., Atlanta, Dennis R. Dunn, Sr. Atty., for the State.
This is a death penalty case. Appellant, Joseph Russell Parks, was convicted in DeKalb County of murder, rape and aggravated sodomy. 1
The victim, 10-year-old Agnes Ann Watts, disappeared early in the evening of September 17, 1981. At 10:45 p.m., her body was discovered behind the refrigerator in an empty apartment from which Joseph Parks and his girlfriend, Elise Talent By 1:00 a.m., investigators learned that Parks and his girlfriend had been the most recent occupants of the apartment, and that Parks had been seen in the area about the time the victim had disappeared.
had recently been evicted by the victim's mother, who managed the apartment complex.
An attempt to contact Parks at his new residence was unsuccessful, as he and Ms. Talent were out, so the police left word with a mutual friend of the couple that they should contact the police upon their return. They did and were asked to come to the police station.
Parks and Ms. Talent arrived at about 4:00 a.m. and were questioned separately.
Ms. Talent stated that sometime between 6:30 and 8:00 p.m. on the 17th, Parks had told her that a child's body had been found behind a refrigerator in an empty apartment at their former apartment complex. She asked him if the empty apartment was their old apartment and he stated that he thought so. This statement was reduced to writing at 8:08 a.m.
Parks was questioned off and on throughout the day. He denied knowledge of the crime, claiming: "[I]f I did it, I didn't know I did it." Early in the morning, his clothes were removed from him and he was given a set of "jail blues" to put on. Later in the morning, Parks was examined by Dr. Joseph Burton, Medical Examiner for DeKalb and Cobb counties. (Parks testified that he wanted to prove his innocence, so he let them take all the tests they wanted.)
That afternoon, Parks again stated that if he had done it, he did not know it. However, he was able to pick out the victim from a picture of three young girls, and he admitted that he "might have" seen her at the entrance to the apartment complex and that she "could have flagged him down and asked him for a ride" or that "he could have ... stopped and offered her a ride to her apartment." Then he stated that "it could have happened in the car or it could have happened in the apartment," and that "if he did it, he wanted some kind of help." When asked what he had done with the victim's clothes, Parks said that he "could have" thrown them "out behind the apartment" or else "out of the car when he left the apartment complex."
Late in the afternoon of September 18, Parks was formally arrested. Between January 27 and February 19, 1982, Richard Gaily occupied the cell adjacent to the one occupied by Parks. Over a period of time, Parks admitted to Gaily the details of the crime.
Parks told Gaily that he had gone to his old apartment and the girl was already inside, in the bedroom. He grabbed her around the neck, threw her down on the floor, "snatched off the bottoms," and raped and sodomized her. Then he strangled her, and, realizing she was dead, placed her in a corner of the kitchen. Parks stated that he did it for revenge, because the girl's mother had evicted him from the apartment. He told Gaily that he had told the police he had been at the apartments at 3:30 and again at 8:00 p.m., but in fact he had also been there at 5:45, and he was afraid that one witness who lived in the area was going to testify to that fact. (He did.)
Dr. Burton conducted the autopsy on the body of the victim. He estimated the time of death to be 6:00 p.m., give or take an hour or two. Cause of death was ligature and manual strangulation coupled with sexual trauma to the uterus and anus. Bruises on the victim's arms, legs and chest indicated that the child had struggled with her attacker.
Dr. Burton also examined Parks. He observed recent bruising and abrasions on Parks' arms, as well as a fresh abrasion on his scrotum. A fiber was discovered in his fingernail that was consistent with having come from the sweater that was around the victim's neck when she was found, and his pubic hair was found to be similar to one discovered on the victim's body.
The evidence was sufficient to support the convictions. Jackson v. Virginia,
1. Parks contends in his 1st enumeration of error that his rights under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution were violated by the admission in evidence of statements he made while in police custody on September 18, 1981. 2
The record shows that when Parks was questioned, he was to some extent still under the influence of preludin (described by Dr. Burton as a synthetic amphetamine-type drug) that he had taken the night before. However, the record does not require a finding that Parks was by reason of this drug usage incapable of knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently waiving his Miranda rights.
The record also shows that Parks did not sign a written waiver of rights until just before he gave a written statement the afternoon of September 18. However, the record provides no support for Parks' contention that statements were elicited from him only after "repeatedly unsuccessful attempts on the part of police officers to obtain a signed waiver of rights ..." Brief of Appellant, pp. 9-10.
The trial court found that Parks "knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waived his constitutional rights after being advised thereof as required by Miranda v. Arizona, [384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966) ]" and that considering the totality of the circumstances his "written statement and his oral admissions were made voluntarily, without being induced by hope of benefit or fear of injury." Record, p. 91. These findings are not clearly erroneous and we therefore accept them. Rose v. State, 249 Ga. 628(2), 292 S.E.2d 678 (1982).
We find no merit to Parks' contention that, because the trial court did not make explicit findings of voluntariness until after trial, this case must be reversed. Cofield v. State, 247 Ga. 98(4), 274 S.E.2d 530 (1981).
2. After the charge of the court at the guilt phase of the trial, the jury was sent to the jury room with the usual instructions that it was not to begin its deliberations until it received the indictment and the exhibits admitted in evidence. Then the court instructed the attorneys to review the exhibits to make sure that only those items which were supposed to go to the jury room went there. When they stated to the court that their review was completed, the court stated: "Let the record show that everything that is going to the jury room is agreed to by counsel to be only that which is to go to the jury room; is that right?" Attorneys for both sides agreed that was correct, and the items they had gathered together were sent to the jury.
Next, the court began the checklist review required by Rule III(A)(3)(b) of the Unified Appeal Procedure. See 252 Ga. at p. A-23. During this review, the court asked, "Where's the defendant's written statement?" The assistant district attorney did not know, and one of Parks' attorneys stated: "Ten to one it went out." The court sent the sheriff to the jury room to retrieve the exhibit and it was back in the courtroom less than 10 minutes after it had been given to the jury.
In his 2nd enumeration, Parks contends the court committed reversible error by permitting the written statement to be seen by the jury. See Royals v. State, 208 Ga. 78(2), 65 S.E.2d 158 (1951). Under the circumstances recounted above, we find no reversible error.
3. Parks filed a pre-trial motion seeking, among other things, discovery of arguably exculpatory written statements of any person interviewed by any agent of the state in connection with this case, and an in camera inspection of the state's file. See Tribble v. State, 248 Ga. 274, 280 S.E.2d 352 (1981). The trial court conducted an in camera inspection and ordered that a number of items be furnished to Parks. However, for some unknown reason, the state's file did not include a written statement taken from Jan Brown (who lived with Parks and Elise Talent). Thus, her statement was not furnished prior to trial.
Jan Brown was called by the defense as an alibi witness. She testified that from 4:15 until after 8:00 p.m. on the evening of September 17, Parks was at home. On cross-examination, she admitted that she had been on the telephone during part of this time. The state then used her written statement to remind her that she had received three phone calls during this time, in an effort to show that she had been too distracted by other matters to know for sure that Parks had not been out at least some of this time.
After the conclusion of her testimony, the trial court stated:
In his 3rd enumeration, Parks contends that the failure to disclose this statement violated his rights under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). 3
Although Parks speaks of a failure to disclose, in fact, the statement was disclosed, albeit only after the trial commenced. See Castell v. State, 250 Ga. 776, 781, 301 S.E.2d 234 (1983). Thus, ...
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