People v. Hardy
| Decision Date | 12 March 1992 |
| Docket Number | CR,Nos. S004607,s. S004607 |
| Parties | , 825 P.2d 781 The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. James Edward HARDY and Mark Anthony Reilly, Defendants and Appellants. 23533. |
| Court | California Supreme Court |
Harvey R. Zall and Fern M. Laethem, State Public Defenders, Sacramento, under appointments by the Supreme Court, Peter R. Silten and Philip M. Brooks, Deputy State Public Defenders, San Francisco, and Maxwell S. Keith, Los Angeles, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for defendants and appellants.
Michael G. Millman, Kathryn K. Andrews, Jean R. Sternberg, Karen S. Schryver, Neoma D. Kenwood, Andrew S. Love and Suzi Alexander, San Francisco, as amici curiae on behalf, of defendants and appellants.
John K. Van de Kamp and Daniel E. Lungren, Attys. Gen., Steve White, Richard B. Iglehart and George Williamson, Chief Asst. Attys. Gen., Edward T. Fogel, Jr. Asst. Atty. Gen., Carol Wendelin Pollack, Acting Asst. Atty. Gen., Linda C. Johnson, Susan L. Frierson, John R. Gorey and Roy C. Preminger, Deputy Attys. Gen., for plaintiff and respondent.
For the reasons stated below, we conclude one multiple-murder special-circumstance finding must be set aside for each defendant but the judgment as to each defendant should otherwise be affirmed in its entirety.
Jack Parsons lived in Van Nuys, across the street from Cliff and Nancy Morgan. On May 21, 1981, he received an early morning telephone call from an operator asking him to call Cliff Morgan in Carson City, Nevada; Morgan had recently moved to Nevada for business purposes. Parsons called Morgan, who expressed concern because he had been telephoning his wife since seven in the morning but no one answered. Morgan asked Parsons to check his house to see if anything was wrong. Parsons did so but saw nothing amiss, although no one responded to his pounding on the door. He reported this to Morgan, who then instructed Parsons to lift open a certain back window, reach inside, and unlock the back door, and check the inside of the house. Parsons did so while Morgan waited on the line. When Parsons returned, he told Morgan, Morgan hung up and immediately began driving back to his Van Nuys home.
Summoned by Parsons, the police arrived at the Morgan home and discovered the bodies of Morgan's wife, Nancy, and their eight-year-old son, Mitchell. Police determined that the house had been entered through the front door on which the security chain lock had been cut with bolt cutters. (As an investigation aid, police did not publicly reveal this latter fact.) In addition, it appeared the light bulb in the porch light had been rotated to break the connection.
Later tests showed that Nancy Morgan had been stabbed 45 times with a stiletto-type knife about 4 hours before Parsons discovered the body. Experts placed the time of death around 3 or 4 a.m. Mitchell Morgan had been stabbed 21 times, probably with the same knife. Because Nancy Morgan was not cut below the pelvis, a police expert opined that an accomplice probably held her legs while the actual killer stabbed her. Also, because the second victim would almost certainly have run away while the other was being killed, the same expert believed that at least two people committed the crime.
Cliff Morgan arrived home about six hours after his conversation with Jack Parsons. Although distraught, he managed to inform police that several guns had been stolen, as well as a coin collection that had been on top of a cabinet. (Investigating officers, however, noticed that the cabinet was covered with a heavy layer of dust and there was no indication that any type of container had been on the cabinet recently.) Morgan later told police he had discovered a diamond ring was also missing.
The following day, police received a call from James Sportsman. Mr. Sportsman stated that his 18-year-old daughter, Debbie, was dating defendant Mark Reilly and that Reilly was a frequent dinner guest in their home. Mr. Sportsman recalled remarks Reilly made in April 1981 to the effect that he had a friend named Morgan who wanted to have his wife killed in order to collect on some insurance policies. Mrs. Sportsman, Debbie's mother, recalled that Reilly said he would receive $25,000 if he could find a "hit man" to do the job. At the time, Mrs. Sportsman thought it was "just talk."
Police investigation, however, revealed a complex conspiracy between Reilly, defendant James Hardy, and codefendant Cliff Morgan to kill the victims in order to obtain insurance benefits. The conspiracy began when Morgan met Reilly while both were studying to become auto salesmen. They became friends and were eventually assigned to the same auto dealership as sales trainees. Reilly would often spend time at Morgan's home during this period.
In January 1981, Morgan began selling life insurance for Equitable Life Insurance Company at the suggestion of his wife, Nancy, who was a secretary there. Shortly thereafter, Morgan took out life insurance policies on himself, Nancy, and his son Mitchell. An expert testified that the policies were an unwise investment because the premiums would be more than $10,000 annually, or more than 25 percent of Morgan's projected annual gross income. Deducting his commission, however, the premium for the first year would be only $5,261, and only a fraction of that amount was due before June 1, 1981. Under the policies, Cliff Morgan would receive more than $850,000 should both Nancy and Mitchell Morgan die.
Debbie Sportsman met Reilly in April 1981 and became intimate with him. She testified that Reilly told her about Morgan's plan to kill his wife and child. Reilly said he agreed to find Morgan someone to do the actual killing. In return, Morgan promised to open a bar for Reilly to manage, and allow Reilly to live in Morgan's home. Reilly told Debbie he knew a kick-boxer who knew someone in the Mafia who would do the killing. Reilly also told Debbie he gave some money and a ring (supplied by Morgan) to the kick-boxer who was, in turn, to give the money to the Mafia hit man. The plan went awry when the hired killer was himself killed and the money stolen. 2
Later, Reilly told Debbie he tried to convince an acquaintance, Calvin Boyd, to do the killing. Reilly told Debbie that Boyd asked for money up front but Reilly said Morgan had no more cash after the incident with the kick-boxer. After Debbie learned of the two killings, she assumed Boyd was the killer but Reilly told her it was not Boyd and that it was better for her if she did not know the real killer's identity. Boyd learned Reilly had given Debbie the impression that Boyd was the killer and warned Reilly to stop spreading such rumors.
In the days following the crime, Boyd pressed Reilly to reveal the name of the actual killer. Reilly eventually told him that he and Hardy killed the victims, but asked Boyd not to tell Hardy that Boyd knew. Later, Hardy confronted Boyd and said he had been asking too many questions.
According to Debbie Sportsman, Reilly began associating with Hardy around May 10, 1981. She testified that the two men had many private conversations during this period and often drank and took drugs together. On the evening of May 20, 1981, the night of the killings, Debbie met with Hardy and Reilly at the latter's apartment. Reilly spoke with Morgan on the telephone and asked him if he wanted to go through with the killing. Morgan, who was in Carson City, answered that he did. When Reilly asked what to do with Mitchell, Morgan said that if it was necessary, his son must also be killed. Reilly told Debbie he did not want her around after 10 o'clock that night.
When Debbie read about the murders in the newspaper the next day, she became hysterical and went to Reilly's apartment. She found him there with Hardy; Reilly was calm and both were laughing and drinking. Reilly told her to behave normally so people would not suspect something was amiss. Without revealing the identity of his crime partner, Reilly admitted to her that he had gone with another person to Morgan's home, unlocked the front door, cut the security chain lock with bolt cutters, and entered the house, his partner apparently entering the bedroom. Reilly said that when he heard Nancy Morgan pleading for her life, he went to wait outside. His partner, the actual killer, eventually emerged and told him Nancy "just wouldn't die." Reilly told Debbie that "you just don't know how it feels" to stab someone. He encouraged Debbie to speak to Hardy and another friend, Colette Mitchell, in order to coordinate their alibi stories. He then gave her a few $100 bills that he had received from Morgan.
Debbie Sportsman went to work the next day but was too upset to work and left before noon. She went to the home of her friend, Kim H. Mrs....
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