Rice v. State

• Decision Date: 20 November 1997
• Docket Number: No. 26111,26111
• Citation: 949 P.2d 262,113 Nev. 1300
• Parties: Christie Ann RICE, Appellant, v. The STATE of Nevada, Respondent.
• Court: Nevada Supreme Court

Page 262

949 P.2d 262

113 Nev. 1300

Christie Ann RICE, Appellant, v. The STATE of Nevada, Respondent.

No. 26111.

Supreme Court of Nevada.

Nov. 20, 1997.

Laura Wightman FitzSimmons, Las Vegas, for Appellant.

Frankie Sue Del Papa, Attorney General, Carson City, Richard A. Gammick, District Attorney, Terrence P. McCarthy, Deputy District Attorney, Reno, for Respondent.

OPINION

ROSE, Justice:

Christie Ann Rice (Christie) and her husband, Cody Alan Rice (Cody) first met in April of 1990. After learning that she was carrying his child, she moved in with him, and they were subsequently married. However, the marriage was strained because Cody was violent and abusive toward Christie. Matthew, Christie and Cody's son, was born on July 1, 1992. Sometime around the middle of September 1992, Cody told Christie that Matthew had been accidentally burned in hot water. Christie tried to treat Matthew's injuries at home. On September 22, 1992, Matthew was rushed to the hospital because he had stopped breathing. He died in the hospital two days later.

Cody was charged with and pleaded guilty to the first degree murder of Matthew. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Christie was charged with child neglect causing substantial bodily harm to Matthew. Following a jury trial, Christie was convicted and sentenced to serve the maximum term in prison allowed by law, twenty years. Christie now appeals. We affirm the conviction but remand for resentencing.

FACTS

In April of 1990, Christie met Cody, and they were engaged in August of 1991. Christie moved in with Cody in January of 1992 when she found out she was pregnant with Matthew, and the two were married in April of 1992. Christie testified that until she moved in with Cody, the two never had any problems.

Christie stated that shortly after they moved in together, Cody became physically abusive toward her. However, she did not leave because she loved Cody and believed he would not continue to hurt her because he loved her. Christie's family and friends also testified to Cody's violent, threatening, and explosive behavior toward Christie.

Matthew was born on July 1, 1992. Despite Cody's abusive and controlling behavior toward her, Christie testified that she believed he would not hurt Matthew because he was so proud to be a father. Christie testified she could never imagine Cody intentionally hurting Matthew.

On August 21, 1992, Dr. Berkley Powell, a physician in Reno, saw Matthew. Dr. Powell testified that Matthew had a fever, a yellowish, bloody discharge coming from his nose, and was breathing very rapidly. Matthew had also thrown up blood the night before. Matthew was admitted to the hospital and was diagnosed with pneumonia, and he remained in the hospital for approximately a week. During his stay in the hospital, Matthew recovered from the infection but lost almost half a pound.

Dr. Powell also noticed a bruise above Matthew's nose and his eye. When he asked Christie about it, she said Cody had dropped Matthew, and Matthew's face had struck a coffee table. Dr. Powell's concern prompted him to order a CAT scan and X-rays and call child protective services. The X-rays did not reveal any indications of fractures. Dr. Powell testified that Christie seemed uncomfortable with the questions he asked about Matthew's injuries, and he believed she was covering up for Cody.

Child abuse was suspected, and a social worker from Washoe County Child Protective Services was assigned to Matthew's case. The social worker testified that Cody related several inconsistent accounts about Matthew's injuries. Based on twenty-two different factors, the social worker rated the risk of injury to Matthew as low, despite information he received from a family member that Cody had a quick temper.

After Matthew was released from the hospital, Christie got a job because Cody was not working regularly. When Christie was at work, Matthew was in the care of either Cody or Christie's grandparents. Christie testified that Cody became "very explosive," volatile, and short-tempered during this time. He quit his job and did not tell Christie. Christie related an incident in which Cody threatened her with a knife, telling her he was going to kill them both so that they would die as a family and nobody could control them any longer. Christie stated that when Cody realized she was holding Matthew, he backed off. She stated she was terrified of Cody by this point.

On September 17, 1992, Cody went to see Christie while she was at work. He told her Matthew had been burned when Cody had been giving Matthew a bath and failed to check the water temperature. Christie could not remember the exact date this incident had happened. Cody told Christie the burns were not bad, just pinkish. Christie told Cody to go home and stay with Matthew. When Christie got home, she looked at Matthew's burns. She testified they were "pink like a sunburn" and reddish in some areas. She bathed Matthew, put ointment on his burns, and dressed them in gauze.

Christie told Cody she thought a doctor should see Matthew, but Cody told her no. Cody told her they could treat Matthew's wounds themselves, and if he got worse, then they would take him to a doctor. Christie acquiesced to Cody's demands because she was afraid of what Cody would do to her if she did not, especially because Cody had previously threatened to kill them all. Christie was also worried that social services would take Matthew from her.

On September 18, 1992, a friend of Christie's and Cody's, Lori Smith, visited Cody and Matthew while Christie was at work. Lori saw Matthew lying on his stomach with gauze covering his back and upper arms. She saw no blisters or oozing around the gauze covered area, but noted that when Cody turned Matthew over to change his diaper, he started crying. She asked Cody what happened, and he told her Matthew had been in the bath when the water suddenly got hot and burned him. Lori thought the burns looked bad, so she asked Cody if Matthew had been to the hospital, and Cody replied that he had.

In the early evening of September 22, 1992, Matthew was having trouble breathing. Christie stated that she told Cody she was going to take Matthew to the doctor the next day, and Cody became enraged. The next day at work, Cody called Christie and told her that there was an emergency with Matthew. When Christie got home, Cody was performing CPR on Matthew. They drove Matthew to the hospital.

Christie and Cody arrived with Matthew at the emergency room of Saint Mary's Hospital shortly before 5:00 p.m. on September 22, 1992. Shari Quinn, a nurse at the emergency room of Saint Mary's, testified that when Matthew arrived at the hospital, he had no heart or respiratory rate and was subsequently put on life support. Quinn questioned Christie and Cody about the events leading to Matthew's injuries. Quinn testified that Christie told her Matthew had been burned four or five days earlier when the water heater had exploded. Quinn re-entered the emergency room and while moving Matthew, felt fluid from the burn on his back. She stated that when she pulled her hand away from Matthew, her hand had sanguinous fluid and dead skin from the burn on it. She rolled Matthew over and saw a huge burn over most of his back.

Another nurse who treated Matthew assumed when she saw him that he was only four to five weeks old because his weight was so low. Matthew's injuries included a black eye and a small cut under it, noticeable abrasions on his ear and head, burn marks on his hand, a blister on one of his feet, and a large burn on his back covering the majority of the area between his shoulders and buttocks. The burn on Matthew's back was open and cracked, moist and oozing, with the skin flaking away. No ointment or other kind of medical treatment was evident on Matthew at the time he was admitted. Additionally, evidence was presented that Matthew had suffered "tissue wasting" and "muscle wasting," as evidenced by his buttocks and legs having no plumpness and being almost "to bone."

Matthew was transferred from Saint Mary's to Washoe Medical Center for further treatment, but died on September 24, 1992. The autopsy revealed that in addition to the burns, Matthew had suffered injuries not superficially apparent. These included broken ribs and a severe cranial trauma. Additionally, Matthew's thymus gland had withered. The stated cause of death was blunt injuries to the skull and brain, in combination with the burn wound.

Detective Jenkins, a Reno Police detective, was called in by the medical team, and he interviewed Christie. Christie never told him she was afraid of or abused by Cody; however, she did tell Jenkins she had seen Cody very angry on occasions. She also told Jenkins she felt the need to protect her husband and her child and said she had never seen Cody hurt Matthew. Jenkins concluded that Christie, three years older than Cody, was clearly the more mature one and did not seem intimidated by him. In fact, Christie stated that she would leave Cody immediately if he was physically abusive to Matthew or her.

Christie also told Jenkins that Matthew had been burned in the shower with Cody. However, detectives found that the various faucets in Cody's and Christie's apartment maintained a consistent temperature, not over 135 degrees. Additionally, testimony was presented which indicated Matthew would have had to have been immersed in water that temperature for nearly one minute to suffer the burns found on him.

Christie initially characterized Matthew's burns as pinkish in color with no blistering or other indication of a severe burn. Later in the interview, she told Jenkins that Matthew's blanket was sticking to his burns and that when she removed the blanket, portions of his skin would "literally peel off with the blanket." She also indicated that the blistering had occurred shortly after the burn trauma.

Following the...