People v. Bass

• Decision Date: 13 September 2016
• Docket Number: Docket No. 327358.
• Citation: 317 Mich.App. 241,893 N.W.2d 140
• Parties: PEOPLE v. BASS.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US

317 Mich.App. 241

893 N.W.2d 140

PEOPLE

v.BASS.

Docket No. 327358.

Court of Appeals of Michigan.

Submitted Sept. 8, 2016, at Detroit.

Decided Sept. 13, 2016, at 9:15 a.m.

Bill Schuette, Attorney General, Aaron D. Lindstrom, Solicitor General, Kym L. Worthy, Prosecuting Attorney, Timothy A. Baughman, Research, Training, and Appeals Chief, and David A. McCreedy, Lead Appellate Attorney, for the people. Neil J. Leithauser for defendant.

Before: GADOLA, P.J., and WILDER and METER, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

Defendant, Walter Bass III, appeals as of right from his April 15, 2015 jury trial convictions of first-degree, premeditated murder (first-degree murder), MCL 750.316(1)(a), felony murder, MCL 750.316(1)(b), being a felon in possession of a firearm (felon-in-possession), MCL 750.224f, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony (felony-firearm), MCL 750.227b, and disinterment, mutilation, defacement, or carrying away of a human body (mutilation of a human body), MCL 750.160. Defendant was sentenced as a fourth-offense habitual offender, MCL 769.12, to life without the possibility of parole for his murder convictions, 41 to 62 years for the felon-in-possession conviction, 2 years for the felony-firearm conviction, and 41 to 62 years for the mutilation of a human body conviction. We affirm.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

This case arises out of the March 10, 2013 disappearance of Evelyn Gunter (the victim), whose badly charred remains were eventually discovered in the garage of an abandoned house in Detroit. The evidence against defendant in the trial court was almost entirely circumstantial.

At the time of her disappearance, the victim had an intimate, romantic relationship with defendant. The victim introduced her daughter, Jemmima Gunter, to defendant—who introduced himself as "Tiko"—in December 2012. The victim's teenaged grandson, Dalon Gunter, is the last known family member to have seen the victim alive. Dalon last saw the victim around 5:00 p.m. on March 10, 2013. She arrived at his house alone in her red Impala. The victim dropped off some groceries, spoke with Dalon for roughly five minutes, and then left in her vehicle, again alone. Dalon was unaware of her intended destination.

Early the next morning—March 11, 2013, sometime between midnight and 1:00 a.m.—Jemmima received a text message from the victim's cell phone stating "that she [the victim] was going to Chicago to help a friend" and would be back the next night. "Chicago" was misspelled, which was unusual because the victim "was a very intelligent person." Moreover, the victim "had no friends in the Chicago area that [Jemmima] knew of." Suspecting that the victim was being untruthful about her whereabouts, Jemmima responded via text, accusing the victim of lying to conceal substance abuse.¹ In reply, Jemmima received another text from the victim's cell phone. On the basis of the tone and content, Jemmima suspected the text message had not actually been sent by the victim. After Jemmima sent another message, "someone" responded, " I'm just going to Chicago to help my friend move. I'll be back tomorrow." The message referred to Jemmima by her nickname, "Mya," which was also unusual; the victim "always" called Jemmima by her first name rather than her nickname.

The next day, Jemmima received another text message from the victim's number that appeared to be intended for "someone named Mike" and that contained a request for narcotics, specifically "an eight ball and a 20 bag." Jemmima responded, "[Y]ou sent that message to the wrong person." The response from the victim's phone number indicated that the text had been sent to "Mike" by the victim's "friend," not the victim.

Daniel Hines is the victim's son and was living with her at the time of her disappearance. Hines last saw the victim on March 9, 2013. Thereafter, he noticed that her mail was accumulating, unopened. He later received a call from the victim's employer of 15 years indicating that the victim had not been reporting to work. Daniel was concerned and contacted his sister, Jemmima; it was unusual for the victim to be "missing from the house like that." After the last time Hines saw the victim, he tried calling her several times on her cell phone. At first, "somebody would answer it" but remain silent. Later, around March 12 or March 13 of 2013, Hines called again and heard "a man's voice on the phone[.]" Hines asked, "Who is this?" The man responded, "Tiko."

On the afternoon of March 12, 2013, a burned body was discovered in the garage of an abandoned house in Detroit. Genetic testing subsequently indicated that the body almost certainly belonged to the victim. The body was "burned pretty much beyond recognition," bound with some kind of wire, and laid out on a green plastic tarp, which was also burned. In places, the body was burned so severely that bone was visible. A blue "Bic lighter" was found in the driveway in front of the garage.² The lighter "stood out because it wasn't weathered at all." A watch and necklace belonging to the victim were found near the body.

An "expert in fire investigation, cause and origin of a fire" subsequently determined that the fire "[o]riginated at the body." Chemical testing and burn pattern analysis indicated that gasoline was used as an accelerant. In order to "consume bone as with a cremation," as this fire had, it would necessarily have been "extremely hot."

On March 13, 2013, Dr. Lokman Sung, who is an assistant medical examiner and was qualified as "an expert in the field of anatomic and forensic pathology," performed an autopsy on the victim. There were "extensive burns to 100% of the body with consumption of much of the soft tissue, internal organs and fragmentation of most of the bones." A gunshot wound

was discovered, with the entry wound situated in "the left top of the head behind the ear," and the exit wound located in "the left forehead region." "[T]hree fragments of a nonjacketed bullet" were "recovered from the skull." Sung determined that the burns were postmortem and occurred after the victim was shot. There "were seven loops of copper wire wrapped around the body." Sung was unable to determine whether the wire was wrapped around the victim before death or afterward. Toxicology testing returned positive results for four substances: (1) iron levels consistent with normal bodily function, (2) carbon monoxide, (3) carboxyhemoglobin (a byproduct of carbon monoxide), and (4) caffeine. The victim did not test positive for cocaine, marijuana, or alcohol. Had she used cocaine or marijuana on or after March 10, 2013, those substances would have been detected in the toxicology screening

. The cause of death was determined to be the gunshot wound to the victim's head.

Kateesha Bouldin was a patron of Detroit's "Club Celebrity" several times in February and March 2013 and met defendant there, where he worked as security. After speaking with defendant briefly on the evening that she met him, Bouldin gave him her cell phone number. Thereafter, she began to regularly receive telephone calls and text messages from defendant that originated from his cell phone number. However, at 2:30 a.m. on March 15, 2013—several days after the victim's body was discovered—Bouldin received a telephone call from defendant that originated from the victim's cell phone number.

On March 16, 2013, Jemmima received a telephone call from defendant, who inquired whether Jemmima still³ wanted him to paint her house. Jemmima declined. During the conversation, defendant never mentioned the victim or her vehicle, nor did he say anything about trying to return the victim's vehicle.

After speaking with her brother, Hines, on March 22, 2013, and learning that the victim "had been no call, no-show to work for all of the days since [Jemmima last] talked to her," Jemmima became very concerned. The victim "never misse[d] work," and on the rare occasions when she did, she did so with good cause after informing her employer that she would be absent. Accordingly, Jemmima went to the police station and reported the victim missing, informing the police that the victim's Impala was equipped with Onstar.

Later that same day, March 22, 2013, the victim's Impala was located outside Club Celebrity. Defendant was working as security at the club that evening. One of the managers knew him by the nickname "Tiko." Earlier that night, Club Celebrity's deejay, Cortlant Smith—who also knew defendant as "Tiko"—had seen defendant arrive at the club alone driving the victim's Impala.

Several witnesses gave varying accounts regarding what took place at Club Celebrity on the evening of March 22, 2013. Along with her partner, Sergeant Shannon Jones of the Detroit Police Department (DPD) was dispatched to Club Celebrity after the victim's Impala was located using Onstar. The officers discovered the victim's Impala in the parking lot of Club Celebrity and, after searching it and finding no signs of "foul play," had it towed and impounded. Despite the location and the March weather, the vehicle's sunroof was open, which led Jones to believe that the person who had parked it was likely still nearby. The Impala was parked just two spaces from Club Celebrity's main entrance, where the security personnel—including defendant—were stationed. A leather jacket bearing defendant's DNA was recovered from the Impala's rear floor well.

According to Jemmima, after learning that the victim's Impala had been located, Jemmima, Hines, and other family members went to Club Celebrity and began asking the employees if anyone knew who had been driving the Impala. While Jemmima was at the club, a security guard handed Jemmima a phone; it was a call from defendant's number. Jemmima asked defendant why he had been driving the victim's Impala, and defendant responded that, on her way out of town to Chicago with her friend "Lori," the victim had stopped at defendant's house, given him the keys to the Impala, and "[t]old him to keep her car; she was going to...