State Of Vt. v. Godfrey

• Decision Date: 09 April 2010
• Docket Number: No. 08-217.,08-217.
• Citation: 996 A.2d 237,2010 VT 29
• Parties: STATE of Vermontv.Howard GODFREY.
• Court: Vermont Supreme Court

996 A.2d 237
2010 VT 29

STATE of Vermont
v.
Howard GODFREY.

No. 08-217.

Supreme Court of Vermont.

April 9, 2010.

996 A.2d 238

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

996 A.2d 239

William H. Sorrell, Attorney General, and David Tartter, Assistant Attorney General, Montpelier, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Allison N. Fulcher of Martin & Associates, Barre, for Defendant-Appellant.

Present: REIBER, C.J., DOOLEY, JOHNSON and BURGESS, JJ., and CORSONES, Supr. J., Specially Assigned.

¶ 1. REIBER, C.J.

Defendant Howard Godfrey appeals his conviction of aggravated murder following a jury trial. Defendant argues that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Defendant also argues that the trial court erred and violated his constitutional right to present a complete defense when the court limited his cross-examination of one of the State's primary witnesses. We affirm.

¶ 2. The evidence presented at trial disclosed the following. On October 29, 1991, the police discovered the body of Patricia Scoville in a remote area at Moss Glenn Falls just outside of Stowe, Vermont. The body was face down and hidden under leaves and tree branches. One of the State's experts testified that the pattern of dried blood on Scoville's face indicated that she had been in a different position at the time she bled. The front of Scoville's clothing had dirt and debris on it in a series of lines, which, according to one of the State's experts, indicated that her body had been dragged. The edges of Scoville's shirt, pants, and underpants were partially rolled down and contained dirt and leaves. Debris and leaves also covered parts of the front of Scoville's body. The State additionally presented evidence that Scoville's pants were not on straight and that “her panties were very stretched out ... like someone had pulled on them.”

¶ 3. Scoville was twenty-eight years old at the time of her death. She had moved to Stowe from Boston, Massachusetts, in September 1991. Later that same month, Scoville and her friend, Neil Hillmer, bicycled to Moss Glenn Falls. On October 1, Scoville moved into an apartment in Stowe with a roommate. On the morning of October 21, after being away since the previous evening, Scoville returned home to her apartment and stayed there during the morning, baking and eating cookies.

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Around noon, Scoville decided to go bicycling. She did not tell her roommate where she was going. Her roommate did not see her again.

¶ 4. The last known sighting of Scoville, after she left her apartment, occurred when she visited a local bank and cashed a check at 1:39 p.m. The bank teller saw Scoville depart from the bank on her bicycle around 1:45 p.m., heading toward town. No one reported seeing her alive after this time.

¶ 5. On October 22, Scoville's roommate became concerned that Scoville had not yet returned home from her bicycle trip. On October 23, the roommate called the local hospital and then the police to report that Scoville was missing. The police immediately launched an investigation and provided the local television stations with a description of Scoville and her bicycle. The stations broadcasted this information on the evening news, and a local resident contacted the police that night to report a sighting earlier that day of a bicycle leaning against a tree in the Moss Glenn Falls area. Three police officers traveled to Moss Glenn Falls that evening and discovered the bicycle. They also found a pair of gloves nearby, at an area overlooking the falls. On October 24, the police launched a full search of the Moss Glenn Falls area, and the search continued until October 29, when Scoville's body was finally discovered.

¶ 6. On October 30, the State's medical examiner performed an autopsy on Scoville. At trial, he testified that he found lacerations and bruises indicating blunt-force injuries on Scoville's head and face, as well as neck injuries that were characteristic of strangulation and asphyxiation. He concluded that oxygen deprivation-“due to manual and/or ligature strangulation”-was the cause of death.

¶ 7. The medical examiner additionally provided testimony that Scoville's vaginal area had been subject to trauma or injury of some sort, including some tearing of the hymenal ring. In his view, the nature of the injuries indicated an early reaction that suggested that the injuries occurred when Scoville was still alive. The medical examiner testified that it was his opinion that the injuries to Scoville's head, face, and neck, and the injuries to her vaginal area, “all occurred at or about the same time and at or about the time of death.”

¶ 8. The autopsy of Scoville also involved an examination of her stomach contents, which revealed the presence of theobromine-a chemical that is typically found in chocolate. The medical examiner testified that theobromine is normally completely emptied from the stomach within four hours after consumption and that digestion ceases upon death. Thus, if chocolate had been consumed around noon on October 21-when Scoville had been seen eating cookies-it would have been undetectable unless Scoville died before 4:00 p.m. that same afternoon. The medical examiner noted that the state of Scoville's body-both when she was found and at the autopsy-was “entirely consistent” with her having died within several hours of her visit to the bank at 1:39 p.m. on October 21.

¶ 9. The medical examiner took vaginal, anal, and oral swabs during the autopsy. The vaginal swab revealed “the presence of a large amount or abundant spermatozoa or sperm cells.” The medical examiner then testified as follows regarding the significance of this finding:

The presence of abundant spermatozoa, that means that they're very easy to find, and they were very frequently found, indicates a relatively high concentration or relatively large amount of semen that had been deposited. Now with

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normal activities, semen would tend to dissipate or drain away, so the presence of a large amount would suggest a recent deposition of the semen.

¶ 10. The State investigated and prosecuted this case under the theory that it was a combined rape and murder. Based upon the large amount of semen found in Scoville's vagina, as well as other factors, such as the injuries to her vagina, her pants being off-center, and her underwear being stretched out and having leaves in it, one of the State's witnesses, Detective Merriam, testified that Scoville was raped, that it “happened there” in the woods, and that she was killed at or around the same time. He testified that a combined rape and murder explained why there was evidence that “someone else pulled up the pants” and underwear afterwards.

¶ 11. Defendant became a person of interest in the investigation in 2005, when the FBI alerted the Stowe Police Department that defendant's DNA matched the DNA found in the semen from Scoville's underwear.¹ The police interviewed defendant, and he at first denied having known Scoville, having dated her, or having had intercourse with her. Defendant was placed under surveillance, and an investigator collected defendant's discarded cigarette butts for further DNA sampling. One of the State's experts testified that the match between defendant's DNA and the semen found in Scoville's underwear was conclusive; the chance of the match happening by coincidence was “one in 230 quadrillion.”

¶ 12. On March 30, 2005, defendant was arrested and brought to the St. Johnsbury State Police barracks. After being given his Miranda rights, defendant admitted to having had sex with Scoville. Defendant expressed concern that, because he had admitted to having sex with Scoville, the police would “automatically ... charge [him] with murder because [he] knew that was the outcome of that situation.” Defendant then invoked his right to have a lawyer present before the police could engage in any further questioning.

I.

¶ 13. We first address defendant's argument that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Defendant faces a heavy burden in arguing on appeal that we should overturn the jury's unanimous verdict: in reviewing a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, “this Court will review the evidence presented by the State viewing it in the light most favorable to the prosecution and excluding any modifying evidence, and determine whether that evidence sufficiently and fairly supports a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” State v. Brochu, 2008 VT 21, ¶ 21, 183 Vt. 269, 949 A.2d 1035 (quotation omitted). Thus, although defendant presents alternative explanations for much of the evidence presented against him at trial, the only question for us on appeal is whether the State's theory of the evidence supports a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. See id.; see also State v. Couture, 169 Vt. 222, 226, 734 A.2d 524, 527 (1999) (“[A] judgment of acquittal is proper only if the prosecution has failed to put forth any evidence to substantiate a jury verdict.”).

¶ 14. Defendant was convicted of aggravated murder. To obtain a guilty

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verdict for aggravated murder, the State's burden at trial was to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant “commit[ted] a first or second degree murder” when an aggravating factor was present. 13 V.S.A. § 2311(a). Here, the alleged aggravating factor was that “[t]he murder was committed in perpetrating or attempting to perpetrate sexual assault or aggravated sexual assault.” Id. § 2311(a)(8). In short, to obtain a conviction for aggravated murder in this case, the State had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant committed a combined rape and murder of Scoville. To prove that a sexual assault occurred, the State had to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant “engage[d] in a sexual act with another person and compel[led] the other person to participate in a sexual act without the consent of the other...