Rhyne v. State
| Decision Date | 16 January 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 36064.,36064. |
| Citation | 118 Nev. 1,38 P.3d 163 |
| Parties | Kelly Eugene RHYNE, Appellant, v. The STATE of Nevada, Respondent. |
| Court | Nevada Supreme Court |
Matthew J. Stermitz, Elko, for Appellant.
Frankie Sue Del Papa, Attorney General, Carson City; Gary D. Woodbury, District Attorney, and Alvin R. Kacin, Deputy District Attorney, Elko County, for Respondent.
Before the Court En Banc.
Kelly Eugene Rhyne appeals from a judgment of conviction, entered pursuant to a jury verdict, of first-degree murder and from a sentence of death.1
After careful review of the record on appeal and all of Rhyne's claims of error, we conclude that the district court erred by intervening in Rhyne's relationship with his attorneys but that Rhyne is estopped from complaining because he invited the error by seeking the district court's permission to call a witness despite his attorney's disagreement. We reject Rhyne's claims that the prosecutor committed misconduct warranting reversal, and we conclude that the death sentence was appropriately imposed. Rhyne's remaining contentions are either without merit or are unsupported by cogent argument and authority.
At around 9:00 p.m. on the night of October 31, 1998, Kelly Rhyne arrived at what was then known as the Miner's Camp bar. James Mendenhall and the victim, Donald "Lobo" Brown, were also at the bar. An auction was taking place at the bar, and people were drinking and bidding. Photographs taken during the auction and eyewitness testimony confirmed that Rhyne was wearing a red t-shirt, a black vest, jeans, a black jacket, and white high-top tennis shoes. Mendenhall was wearing a denim shirt, a cap, and boots.
Sometime before 10:00 p.m., a patron at the bar overheard Rhyne say to Mendenhall, "I hate that f___ing guy." Mendenhall replied, The patron ultimately concluded that Rhyne and Mendenhall were referring to the victim, Donny Brown. After the auction ended, Brown and Rhyne were seen leaving the bar a few minutes apart. Mendenhall then became involved in an altercation near the front door of the bar. After the altercation, Rhyne returned, asked Mendenhall if he was okay, and then left the bar with Mendenhall. When they returned later, Mendenhall's shirt had blood on it. He removed it and placed it over a chair. Rhyne later retrieved the shirt and again left the establishment. Later, via aerial search, police found the shirt on the roof of a building near Rhyne's residence.
At around 1:00 a.m., a porter at a nearby hotel observed two men place a body in a dumpster. Police later found the body of Donny Brown in the dumpster, apparently beaten to death. His head had been crushed, and there was a large v-shaped indentation in the side of his head that matched the lug of Mendenhall's boot. There were also "ladder-like" marks on Brown's face that were suggestive of a pattern from the sole of a tennis shoe.
When police contacted Rhyne at his residence at around 3:00 a.m., he was alert and cooperative. Rhyne maintained that he had arrived at the bar around 9:00 p.m. and left only once to get cigarettes at around 12:00 a.m. Rhyne allowed police to search his room and told them he had been wearing a pair of workboots that night. But the boots Rhyne pointed out had no blood on them, and police found nothing incriminating in the residence.
When the police returned to Rhyne's residence at 8:00 a.m., he voluntarily accompanied them to the police station and gave a statement. He again maintained he had been at the bar all evening and had only left once to purchase cigarettes. He denied spending time with Mendenhall and denied leaving with him at any time. The police arrested Rhyne after the interview.
During Rhyne's interview, police located Mendenhall, who accompanied the police to the station and was ultimately arrested. DNA tests revealed a substantial amount of Brown's blood on Mendenhall's clothes and boots. A small amount of Brown's blood was also found on Rhyne's pants, jacket, and on his ring. The white tennis shoes Rhyne had been seen wearing and his red shirt and black vest were never found.
The State charged Rhyne and Mendenhall with murder, felony murder, robbery, and conspiracy to commit murder and filed notices of intent to seek the death penalty against both men. On August 8, 1999, the district court granted a motion to sever the trials, and on August 31, 1999, Mendenhall entered an Alford2 plea to one count of second-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. The State agreed not to oppose concurrent sentences, and Mendenhall agreed to provide a written statement regarding the incident. He also agreed that he could be called to testify at Rhyne's trial, but that his testimony was not part of the plea negotiations. Mendenhall ultimately testified against Rhyne.
The jury trial began March 15, 2000. Much of the incriminating evidence presented at trial has already been noted: Rhyne's professing hatred toward Brown on the night of the murder and Mendenhall's ominous response; the suspicious disappearance of the shoes, shirt, and vest that Rhyne was wearing that night; the presence of the victim's blood on Rhyne's pants, jacket, and ring; and Rhyne's false statement to police that he had never spent time with or left the bar with Mendenhall. In addition, Mendenhall testified and incriminated Rhyne while denying his own culpability. According to Mendenhall, after his altercation by the door of the bar, Rhyne came to the door and called to him to come outside. When he followed Rhyne outside and into the alley, he saw a man slumped over on the ground. Rhyne asked him for help putting the man in the dumpster. Mendenhall initially refused, but Rhyne "had a crazy look in his eyes," and he threatened that if Mendenhall did not help him throw Brown's body into the dumpster, Mendenhall would end up lying alongside of him. Mendenhall was afraid and reluctantly helped Rhyne. As they carried the body to the dumpster, Mendenhall slipped and fell. Mendenhall also testified that in moving the body he got blood on his hands and clothes. After moving Brown's body, Mendenhall went back into the bar. When Rhyne came back into the bar, he told Mendenhall to keep his mouth shut and to go home.
The jury returned a verdict convicting Rhyne of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, but acquitting him of robbery. At the close of the three-day penalty phase the jury returned a sentence of death. The jury found the three aggravating circumstances alleged by the State: torture or mutilation, a prior conviction for battery by a prisoner, and a prior conviction for attempted assault with a deadly weapon. The jury found two mitigating circumstances: the murder was committed while Rhyne was under an extreme mental or emotional disturbance, and Rhyne has suffered a serious mental disorder during his life as a result of his long struggles with bipolar disorder and problems taking his medications. The jury found that the mitigating circumstances did not outweigh the aggravating circumstances and imposed a sentence of death. On May 1, 2000, the district court entered a written judgment of conviction and sentence of death pursuant to the jury's verdict. This automatic appeal followed.
The district court's interference in Rhyne's relationship with his attorneys
During the guilt phase of the trial Rhyne and his attorneys reached a point of disagreement over whether a witness, Chris Brodhecker, should be called to testify. Rhyne wanted Brodhecker called as a defense witness, while Rhyne's counsel felt Brodhecker was unreliable and would potentially cause the defense case more harm than good. Brodhecker was incarcerated with Mendenhall prior to the trial and proposed to testify that Mendenhall had essentially confessed to him to acting alone in killing Donny Brown.
On March 28, 2000, the district court held an ex parte hearing with Rhyne and his counsel to discuss the dispute. At the hearing, the district court inquired extensively into Rhyne's reasons for wanting to call Brodhecker and into counsel's reasons for not wanting to call him. The district court canvassed Rhyne thoroughly on the risks that counsel felt were associated with calling Brodhecker and determined that Rhyne fully understood that Brodhecker's testimony could backfire on the defense. The district court then directed counsel to call Brodhecker.
On appeal, Rhyne claims the district court should not have allowed him to direct the actions of his counsel or should have canvassed him regarding his right to represent himself. We conclude that the district court erred by interjecting itself into the attorney-client relationship. And we take this opportunity to recognize the well-established rule that while the client may make decisions regarding the ultimate objectives of representation, the trial lawyer alone is entrusted with decisions regarding legal tactics such as deciding what witnesses to call:
Once counsel is appointed, the day-to-day conduct of the defense rests with the attorney. He, not the client, has the immediate—and ultimate—responsibility of deciding if and when to object, which witnesses, if any, to call, and what defenses to develop.3
Indeed, Justice Harlan has also suggested that "a lawyer may properly make a tactical determination of how to run a trial even in the face of his client's incomprehension or even explicit disapproval."4 Only the defendant, of course, can make certain fundamental decisions regarding the objectives of representation, such as whether to present a defense of not guilty by reason of insanity.5 However, with few exceptions, the means of representation, i.e., trial tactics, remain within counsel's control.6
In a case apposite to this one, the California Supreme Court upheld a trial court's denial of a defendant's request, not joined in by counsel, to present...
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