People v. Eliason

• Decision Date: 04 April 2013
• Docket Number: Docket No. 302353.
• Citation: 833 N.W.2d 357,300 Mich.App. 293
• Parties: PEOPLE v. ELIASON.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US

300 Mich.App. 293

833 N.W.2d 357

PEOPLE

v.ELIASON.

Docket No. 302353.

Court of Appeals of Michigan.

Submitted Jan. 9, 2013, at Grand Rapids.

Decided April 4, 2013, at 9:05 a.m.

Limited on Constitutional Grounds

M.C.L.A. §§ 769.1(1)(g), 791.234(6)(a)Bill Schuette, Attorney General, John J. Bursch, Solicitor General, Arthur J. Cotter, Prosecuting Attorney, and Elizabeth A. Wild, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for the people.

State Appellate Defender (by Jonathan Sacks) for defendant.

Before: GLEICHER, P.J., and O'CONNELL and MURRAY, JJ.

Opinion of the Court

MURRAY, J.

Defendant appeals as of right his convictions for first-degree premeditated murder, MCL 750.316(1)(a), and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, MCL 750.227b(1). Defendant, who was 14 years old at the time he committed these crimes, was sentenced to mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole for his first-degree murder conviction and two years' imprisonment for his felony-firearm conviction. We affirm defendant's convictions but remand for resentencing on his first-degree premeditated murder conviction in accordance with this opinion.

I. FACTS

The material facts of this case were essentially undisputed, and at trial those facts revealed the following course of events. On March 5, 2010, defendant, along with his sister, went to spend the weekend at the home of Jean and Jesse “Papa” Miles, their grandmother and step-grandfather. Defendant often spent weekends at his grandparents' home. Jean described defendant as a “good grandson,” and testified that she and Jesse had always been involved in defendant's life. She explained that defendant had a “good” relationship with her and Jesse, and that nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary during this particular weekend.

On March 6, 2010, defendant's sister returned to their father's home while defendant remained at his grandparents' house. Jean saw defendant during the evening and briefly spoke with him when he came downstairs to use the restroom; defendant did not at the time appear angry or upset. At approximately 7:30 p.m. that evening, Jean went to her bedroom to watch television; Jesse was in the living room, where he slept, watching television. Defendant was in an upstairs bedroom.

Jean awoke at approximately 3:00 a.m. the next morning when she heard a “pop.” Upon awakening, she heard defendant's voice, and thought defendant told her, “I shot Papa.” The next thing she remembered was that she had a gun in her hands; she could not recall whether defendant gave her the gun or whether she picked it up. After discovering what happened, she instructed defendant to call 9–1–1, and paramedics responded to the call but were unable to save Jesse.

Michigan State Police Trooper Brenda Kiefer ¹ and Deputy Eugene Casto of the Berrien County Sheriff's Department responded to the scene and arrested defendant. Kiefer initially interviewed defendant at the home; she read defendant his Miranda² warnings and defendant agreed to waive his rights and to speak to her without having a parent present.³ Defendant told Kiefer that late in the evening on March 6 or early in the morning on March 7, he went downstairs to get a handgun that Jesse kept on the hook of a coat rack. Afterwards, defendant went back up to his room and sat in a chair with the gun for approximately two to three hours. While he sat upstairs with the gun, defendant “was contemplating homicide or suicide.” Defendant told Kiefer that he went downstairs and shot Jesse with the handgun while he was sleeping on the couch. Although defendant told Kiefer that he shot Jesse out of “sadness” and “pent up anger,” he was not angry with Jesse or Jean, but instead was angry with his own parents.

Defendant also spoke with Casto on the night of his arrest as defendant sat in Casto's patrol car.⁴ Among other things, defendant informed Casto that he neglected to tell Kiefer about two knives he had placed in the living room near the staircase, and that he realized that his “life just turned into Law & Order, but without commercials.” Additionally, in referencing the killing, defendant stated, “[y]ou know I wish I could take it back but now I understand the feeling that people get when they do that. Now I understand how they feel.” Continuing, defendant commented to Casto about the feeling, “when you hit that point of realization for that split second you feel like nothing could ever hurt you. Just for that split second. Once you realize what you've done.” Defendant also described to Casto a paper his father, Steven Eliason, had written for a criminology class about various forms of execution.⁵

Shortly thereafter, defendant was brought to a police station for interrogation by Detective Fabian Suarez. With everyone's permission, Eliason was present during some portions of the interview, but was not in the same room as defendant and Suarez for the entire interview. During the interview, Eliason and defendant acknowledged that they understood the Miranda warnings and defendant agreed to waive his rights. Defendant explained to Suarez that he had not slept much before the shooting, and that he shot Jesse after taking the loaded handgun from the coat rack. He could not explain why he shot Jesse, and indicated that Jesse never harmed him physically or emotionally. However, defendant indicated that he was contemplating either committing suicide or shooting Jesse that night, but decided to kill Jesse because he was not ready to die. And, in a sense admitting to a self-awareness of his actions, defendant stated that at one point he thought to himself, “what am I doing, why do I have to do this, why do I have the gun, I know better than this....”

As to the shooting, defendant was in the living room looking at Jesse for approximately 45 minutes trying to decide what to do before he shot Jesse. Defendant then aimed the gun at Jesse from approximately seven feet away and pulled the trigger, shooting him in the head.⁶ Defendant had not previously considered hurting Jesse, but “[s]omething snapped” that night because everything he had been thinking of that evening “just buil[t] up to the point that you don't know what you're doing.” According to defendant he “blacked out for a couple minutes” before he shot Jesse.

With these essential facts in mind we now turn to defendant's challenges to his convictions and sentences.

II. ANALYSIS

A. INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL

Defendant first argues that he was denied the effective assistance of trial counsel because his trial counsel should have presented an expert witness to rebut testimony offered by the prosecution that he lacked remorse after the shooting. At a Ginther⁷ hearing on this matter, Dr. James Henry testified that defendant experienced significant emotional trauma before the shooting and that this caused him to dissociate from reality. As a result, defendant often had trouble expressing his feelings, including remorse. Defendant contends that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to call an expert witness, such as Dr. Henry, to explain his alleged lack of remorse.

A defendant is denied the effective assistance of counsel in violation of the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution if “counsel's performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness ... [and] the representation so prejudiced the defendant as to deprive him of a fair trial.” People v. Pickens, 446 Mich. 298, 309, 521 N.W.2d 797 (1994). This Court presumes that trial counsel was effective, and in order to show that counsel's performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness, a defendant must overcome the strong presumption that his counsel's conduct constituted reasonable trial strategy. People v. Carbin, 463 Mich. 590, 600, 623 N.W.2d 884 (2001). “An attorney's decision whether to retain witnesses, including expert witnesses, is a matter of trial strategy.” People v. Payne, 285 Mich.App. 181, 190, 774 N.W.2d 714 (2009).

Defendant cannot overcome the presumption that his trial counsel's decisionnot to call an expert witness was the product of trial strategy. Rather than calling an expert witness, defendant's trial counsel attempted to rebut the prosecution's arguments that defendant lacked remorse by impeaching witnesses who testified that defendant lacked remorse, and highlighting evidence that arguably showed defendant did have remorse. This Court will not second-guess trial counsel's strategy to rebut the evidence in this manner rather than calling an expert witness. People v. Cooper, 236 Mich.App. 643, 658, 601 N.W.2d 409 (1999). Just as importantly, we cannot conclude that defendant's trial counsel performed in an objectively unreasonable manner when the record reveals that he consulted with three mental health experts before trial, none of whom concluded that defendant's lack of remorse was caused by dissociation with reality. Although these experts evaluated defendant for purposes of raising an insanity defense or for mitigating the killing, they nonetheless concluded that defendant did not suffer from a mental health disorder. We cannot hold that trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective by not seeking out a fourth expert witness when the first three he consulted did not indicate that defendant suffered from an underlying mental health condition that caused him to appear to lack remorse for his actions. The record unequivocally shows that trial counsel thoroughly examined options regarding the use of expert witnesses and what, in the end, would be the best trial strategy. His performance on behalf of defendant was anything but ineffective as defined by the Supreme Court.

However, defendant also argues that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to irrelevant and prejudicial evidence, as well as the prosecutor's argument that utilized that evidence. Defendant notes that the prosecution introduced evidence—without objection from his counsel—of his...