State Of Tenn. v. Schmeiderer
| Decision Date | 14 September 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. M2007-01922-SC-DDT-DD.,M2007-01922-SC-DDT-DD. |
| Citation | 319 S.W.3d 607 |
| Parties | STATE of Tennesseev.Joel Richard SCHMEIDERER. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
Claudia S. Jack, District Public Defender; Shipp Weems and Michelle VanDeRee, Assistant Public Defenders, Columbia, Tennessee, for the appellant, Joel Richard Schmeiderer.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General; James E. Gaylord, Assistant Attorney General; Joel Douglas Dicus and Patrick Butler, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
JANICE M. HOLDER, C.J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which CORNELIA A. CLARK, GARY R. WADE, WILLIAM C. KOCH, and SHARON G. LEE, JJ. joined.
In this capital case, the defendant, Joel Richard Schmeiderer, was convicted of first degree premeditated murder in connection with the strangling death of a fellow inmate. The jury imposed a sentence of death for the murder based on two aggravating circumstances. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed. On automatic appeal pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-13-206(a)(1), we designated the following issues for oral argument: 1 1) whether the trial court abused its discretion by denying the defendant's motion for a second continuance; 2) whether this denial of a continuance violated the defendant's constitutional right to present mitigation evidence during the sentencing phase; 3) whether the trial court erred by allowing the State to introduce into evidence and argue a non-statutory aggravating circumstance during the sentencing phase; 4) whether the prosecutor's closing argument during the sentencing phase constituted plain error mandating reversal; and 5) whether the sentence of death is disproportionate or invalid under the mandatory review of Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-13-206(c)(1). Having carefully reviewed the record and relevant legal authority, we conclude that none of the errors alleged by the defendant warrant relief. With respect to issues not herein specifically addressed, we affirm the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeals. Relevant portions of that opinion are published hereafter as an appendix. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals is affirmed.
At the guilt phase of the trial, the State presented proof that on the evening of July 11, 2001, the victim, Tom Harris, an inmate at the South Central Correctional Center in Clifton, Tennessee, was strangled to death in his cell. The victim's cell was located on the second floor of a “pod.” The cells belonging to the defendant, Joel Richard Schmeiderer, and codefendant, Charles Sanderson, were on the first floor in that pod. Inmates were permitted access to cells within their pod.
The victim was last seen alive in his cell at approximately 7:00 p.m. when Jeremy Means, a correctional officer, delivered an educational pass for the victim's cellmate, Robert Craig. Shortly after 8:00 p.m., inmates returned to their pod for a head count after a period of recreation. Officer Means could not see the victim's cell from his post at the entry to the pod. Daniel Pollen, who was housed next to the victim's cell, testified that he heard loud “thumping” noises coming from the victim's cell at approximately 8:10 p.m. Another inmate, Douglas Ford, testified that he saw the defendant and Mr. Sanderson quickly leave the victim's cell at approximately 8:20 or 8:25 p.m. A few minutes later, Mr. Craig went to the victim's cell. Because Mr. Craig had been housed in the victim's cell for only one night, he did not yet have a key. The victim and Mr. Craig had been using a piece of cardboard to prevent the cell door from locking, but the cardboard was not in the door. The victim did not answer when Mr. Craig pounded on the locked door.
Officer Means responded to Mr. Craig's call for help at 8:30 p.m. Officer Means unlocked the cell and found the victim face down on the floor with a sock around his neck. The cell was in disarray. There was blood on the sock, the victim's shirt, the television, the outside door handle, and a towel in the sink. The defendant's cell was located at the bottom of a stairway, and a blood trail led from the victim's cell to the top of the stairway.
The defendant's cellmate, Jeffrey Hubert, testified the defendant met in their cell with Mr. Sanderson on the day of the murder. The men stopped talking each time Mr. Hubert entered the cell. When the guards locked down the prison at 8:45 p.m., Mr. Hubert returned to the cell. The defendant told him that “it was going to be a long night.” The defendant also indicated that the guards would find blood on his pants because he had injured himself on the basketball court that day. Mr. Hubert saw the defendant remove a shirt from a plastic bag and use his teeth to tear off a part of the shirt containing a blood stain. The defendant flushed the bloody material down the toilet. The blood-stained pants and blood-stained torn shirt were found in subsequent searches of the defendant's cell.
Mr. Hubert asked the defendant whether “he had stuck the old man upstairs.” The defendant replied, The defendant told Mr. Hubert that the “old man put up a fight” and “bit Chuck [Mr. Sanderson] on the hand.” The defendant also remarked that the victim was a “baby raper” whose sentence was not long enough and that the killing would get the defendant back into court, giving him an opportunity to escape.
Two agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (“TBI”) interviewed the defendant after he waived his Miranda rights. When asked to explain what happened, he responded, “Well, you're the investigators, you tell me.” The agents then related to him their theory that he and Mr. Sanderson had gone into the victim's cell. A struggle ensued during which Mr. Sanderson's finger was bitten and bled. The defendant punched the victim and ultimately strangled him with a sock. In the process, the defendant's clothes were stained with both the victim's blood and Mr. Sanderson's blood. Essentially confirming this theory, the defendant stated, “That's pretty much it.” When asked if he was bothered by taking a man's life, the defendant laughed, shrugged his shoulders, and said, “No.”
Dr. Charles Harlan, the pathologist who performed the autopsy of the victim, determined that the cause of death was strangulation. In addition to scrapes and bruises, the victim's body had a line around the neck with broken capillaries, indicating that an object was tied or wrapped around the neck tightly.
Serological testing showed that Mr. Sanderson's blood was on the television in the victim's cell, the outside door handle, and the towel in the sink. The sock used to strangle the victim contained both his and Mr. Sanderson's blood. The defendant's shirt had the victim's blood on it. The defendant's pants contained both the victim's and Mr. Sanderson's blood.
In defense, the defendant presented the testimony given by Mr. Sanderson at his separate trial. In that prior testimony, Mr. Sanderson stated that on the evening of the murder he went to the victim's cell to beat up the victim for disrespecting Mr. Sanderson earlier that day. The defendant stayed outside the victim's cell as a lookout. Mr. Sanderson knocked the victim against the wall and hit him several times in the face after he bit Mr. Sanderson's finger. Mr. Sanderson cleaned his finger at the sink, wiping his hand on the towel. When he left the cell, the victim was alive, sitting on the bunk. Mr. Sanderson and the defendant then went their separate ways. Mr. Sanderson could not explain how his blood got on the defendant's pants or on the sock around the victim's neck.
The jury convicted the defendant of first degree premeditated murder. A sentencing hearing was conducted to determine punishment.
During the sentencing phase, the State presented the testimony of the warden of the South Central Correctional Center, who confirmed that the defendant was an inmate there on the day of the murder. The State also introduced proof that in August 1999 a jury convicted the defendant of first degree premeditated murder and two counts of attempted first degree premeditated murder and that he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in December 1999.
Through the testimony of the two victims of the defendant's attempted murders and the wife of one of those victims, the facts underlying these convictions and the murder conviction were presented. Their testimony showed that on October 9, 1998, when the defendant was eighteen years old, he argued with two men at a gas station. When the two men left, the defendant and his companions gave chase, shooting at the men's truck. The chase ended when the defendant's car rammed the truck. The two men got out of the truck and ran behind a nearby house. The defendant approached the owner of the house and tried to shoot him, but the gun misfired. When the two men returned to the truck, the defendant fired the gun at them. One of the men was fatally shot and fell against the house. The defendant tried to shoot him again, but the gun misfired.
In mitigation, the defendant presented the testimony of Joseph Cody Uttmor, who was with the defendant when he committed the earlier murder and attempted murders. Mr. Uttmor explained that he and the defendant were high on Xanax at the time.
The defendant also presented the testimony of three family members. His mother testified that she never married the defendant's father, who showed no affection toward the defendant. The defendant started getting into trouble in high school. After he was sent to an alternative school, he began stealing drugs, money, and guns. He entered a juvenile facility at age fifteen and remained there until his eighteenth...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Miller
...evidence that that determination was erroneous." State v. Alley , 776 S.W.2d 506, 518 (Tenn. 1989) ; see also State v. Schmeiderer , 319 S.W.3d 607, 633 (Tenn. 2010) ; State v. Reid , 213 S.W.3d 792, 835-36 (Tenn. 2006) ; State v. Thomas , 158 S.W.3d 361, 378 (Tenn. 2005) ; State v. Austin ......
-
State v. Odom
...424 (Tenn.2001) (“[T]he prosecution is permitted to rebut any mitigating factors relied on by a defendant.”); accord State v. Schmeiderer, 319 S.W.3d 607, 621 (Tenn.2010). In summary, the Defendant is not entitled to relief on this issue. Moreover, even if the argument on behalf of the Stat......
-
State v. Willis
...Constitution and Article I, sections 8, 9, and 16 of the Tennessee Constitution. This claim has been rejected. See State v. Schmeiderer , 319 S.W.3d 607, 636 (Tenn.2010) (appendix)).(2) Section 39–13–204(c) mandates that a trial court permit a victim's representative to testify before the j......
-
State v. Vandenburg
...of the trial court, and the trial court's rulings will not be reversed on appeal absent an abuse of discretion." State v. Schemeiderer, 319 S.W.3d 607, 626 (Tenn. 2010); see also State v. Irick, 762 S.W.2d 121, 125 (Tenn. 1988); State v. Poe, 755 S.W.2d 41, 45 (Tenn. 1988). Here, allowing D......