Ramsey v. State

• Decision Date: 11 October 2002
• Docket Number: No. A-7295.,A-7295.
• Citation: 56 P.3d 675
• Parties: Evan E. RAMSEY, Appellant, v. STATE of Alaska, Appellee.
• Court: Alaska Court of Appeals

56 P.3d 675

Evan E. RAMSEY, Appellant, v. STATE of Alaska, Appellee.

No. A-7295.

Court of Appeals of Alaska.

October 11, 2002.

Michael Dieni, Assistant Public Defender, and Barbara K. Brink, Public Defender, Anchorage, for Appellant.

John A. Scukanec, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Special Prosecutions and Appeals, Anchorage, and Bruce M. Botelho, Attorney General, Juneau, for Appellee.

Before: COATS, Chief Judge, and MANNHEIMER and STEWART, Judges.

OPINION

COATS, Chief Judge.

A jury convicted Evan Ramsey of two counts of murder in the first degree,¹ one count of attempted murder in the first degree,² and fifteen counts of assault in the third degree.³ Superior Court Judge Mark I. Wood sentenced Ramsey to a composite term of 210 years to serve. Ramsey appeals both his conviction and his sentence. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

On Wednesday morning, February 19, 1997, sixteen-year-old Evan Ramsey entered Bethel High School with a .12 gauge shotgun hidden under his jacket. Ramsey immediately walked toward the student common area where several students were sitting. At the nearest table sat Joshua Palacios, a fellow high school student, talking with several of his friends. Palacios began to turn around and stand up when Ramsey pulled out the shotgun and shot Palacios in the stomach. Palacios later died from his wounds. Two students who were sitting across from Palacios, S.M. and R.L., were also hit by pellets from the shotgun blast.

One of the art teachers at the high school, Reyne Athanas, was in the teacher's lounge when she heard the first gunshot. She entered the hallway and observed Ramsey shooting into the ceiling. She saw Palacios lying on the floor with another student. During this episode, Ramsey paced up and down the hall several times in a very threatening manner. She and Robert Morris, another school teacher, attempted to convince Ramsey to put the shotgun down and give up. Ramsey then aimed the gun at them, but did not shoot. Ramsey walked away from Athanas and Morris, heading in the direction of the school's main office where the school's administrative offices were located.

Meanwhile, Ronald Edwards, the school principal, had been walking through the school looking for Ramsey because he had heard that Ramsey was in the school with a gun. Edwards found Ramsey as he was approaching the main office. Ramsey aimed the shotgun at Edwards, and Edwards turned around to run back into the school's office. As Edwards was trying to get back into the office, Ramsey shot him in the back and shoulder. Edwards died in his office from the gunshot wounds.

Minutes after the shooting began, Bethel police officers arrived at the high school. Several officers entered the high school and saw Ramsey standing in the common area with the shotgun. Ramsey saw the officers and fired one round in their direction. After a brief exchange of gunfire, Ramsey put the shotgun down and gave up. According to the officers, as he threw the shotgun down, Ramsey yelled "I don't want to die." Officers were quickly able to detain Ramsey and take him into custody.

A grand jury indicted Ramsey on two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of attempted first-degree murder, and fifteen counts of third-degree assault. The State's theory at trial was that Ramsey sought revenge against both Palacios and Edwards. The State introduced testimony that Ramsey and Palacios got into an argument and fight two years before the shooting. The State also introduced a letter found in Ramsey's bedroom following the shooting that indicated Edwards was one of Ramsey's intended victims. The letter read, in part,

Hi, everybody. I feel rejected. Rejected, not so much alone. But rejected. I feel this way because the day-to-day mental treatment I get usually isn't positive. But the negative is like a cut, it doesn't go away really fast, they kind of stick. I figure by the time you guys are reading this, I'll probably have done what I told everybody I was going to do. Just hope a 12-gauge doesn't kick too hard, but I do hope the shells hit more than one person, because I am angry at more than one person. One of the big assholes is Mr. Ed—Ron Edwards, he should be there. I was told that this would be his last year, but I know it will be his last year. The main reason that I did this is because I am sick and tired of being treated this way everyday. Who gives a fuck about it? Now, I got something to say to all of those people who think I'm strange can suck my dick and like it.

...

Life sucks in its own way, so I killed a little and kill myself. Jail isn't for me ever and wasn't.

Ramsey's major defense at trial was that he was suicidal and did not form the requisite intent to commit first-degree murder or first-degree attempted murder. According to Ramsey, his intent during the shooting was not to kill anyone but merely to scare the people at the school and force the police to go to the high school and kill him. Ramsey's counsel described Ramsey's actions as "suicide-by-cop."

The jury convicted Ramsey of two counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree attempted murder, and fifteen counts of third-degree assault. The jury also acquitted him of two counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of third-degree assault. Judge Wood sentenced Ramsey to a composite term of 210 years' imprisonment.

Judge Wood's refusal to allow Ramsey to introduce evidence of past physical and sexual abuse

In support of his defense, Ramsey asked the court's permission to introduce evidence of Ramsey's family history and history of past sexual and physical abuse committed against Ramsey while he was in foster care. Ramsey stated that he intended to argue that the history of a dysfunctional family combined with past incidents of physical and sexual abuse demonstrated why Ramsey was suicidal when he went to the high school with the shotgun. The State opposed the request and asked Judge Wood to preclude the proposed evidence as not relevant.

In his offer of proof, made immediately before his opening statement, Ramsey stated that in 1987 his father went to jail for ten years. After his father went to jail, his mother developed an alcohol problem. In 1988, the Department of Family and Youth Services (DFYS) removed Ramsey and his two siblings from his mother's custody. Following the removal, Ramsey's oldest brother, John Ramsey, was separated from Ramsey and the youngest brother, William. And finally, Ramsey and his younger brother were shuffled between ten different foster homes over a two-year period. In support of his claim of past physical and sexual abuse, Ramsey stated that while Ramsey and William were in a particular foster home, the foster parents' biological son physically and sexually abused both Ramsey and William. The offer indicated that the biological son would come into the Ramsey' room at night to punch and pinch both Ramsey and William. During some of the incidents, the son would urinate into their mouths. According to the offer, a school nurse discovered the abuse and contacted DFYS. The offer claimed a subsequent investigation found that the abuse occurred and that DFYS removed the Ramsey brothers from the foster home.

Judge Wood agreed with Ramsey that his family history was relevant to explaining why Ramsey might feel suicidal, but noted that this was not precisely the issue. The charges against Ramsey required the State to prove that Ramsey acted with the intent to kill others. The fact that Ramsey might have also wished to kill himself would not be a defense. Alaska Statute 11.81.900(a)(1) declares that "when intentionally causing a particular result is an element of an offense, that intent need not be the [defendant's] only objective."

Although Judge Wood was willing to give Ramsey considerable latitude to introduce evidence of his past, Judge Wood believed that the proposed evidence of sexual abuse was too likely to distract the jury from the issues in the case. He believed that this potential for unfair prejudice would outweigh the probative value of the evidence—unless Ramsey could show that his past subjection to sexual abuse was (1) likely to make him suicidal and at the same time (2) not just as likely to make him homicidal.

When Judge Wood suggested that Ramsey would need expert testimony to establish this point, Ramsey replied that there was no need for expert testimony—that the inference was obvious. Judge Wood disagreed. Confronted with Judge Wood's ruling, Ramsey either could not or chose not to offer expert testimony on this point.

At the conclusion of the State's case-in-chief, Ramsey asked the court to reconsider its previous ruling about the sexual and physical abuse. Judge Wood declined to reverse his earlier ruling. He found that sufficient evidence had been introduced to allow Ramsey to argue his suicidal theory and to argue that Ramsey "wasn't thinking clearly" when he entered the high school. But he reiterated his finding that past incidents of physical and sexual abuse were not relevant to the case and found that, even if relevant, the incidents were more prejudicial than probative.

On appeal, Ramsey argues that Judge Wood abused his discretion because he should have taken judicial notice of the linkage between evidence of homosexual rape and the inclination to commit suicide. Ramsey contends that prior physical and sexual assaults have a clear tendency to show that Ramsey intended to commit suicide, not homicide.

A review of the record of the trial demonstrates that Ramsey was able to present substantial evidence about his background to support his defense. Ramsey presented testimony that his childhood was very difficult. Ramsey's oldest brother, John Ramsey, testified that he and his brothers were forced to move around often with their mother after their home burned down. This hardship was exacerbated when their father went to jail in 1986. Ramsey's mother developed a drinking problem,...