State v. Brewer
| Decision Date | 12 October 2022 |
| Docket Number | 28120,Appellate Case 2020-001345 |
| Parties | The State, Respondent, v. Angela D. Brewer, Petitioner. |
| Court | South Carolina Supreme Court |
Heard February 2, 2022
Appeal from Pickens County Perry H. Gravely, Circuit Court Judge.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEALS
Appellate Defender Susan Barber Hackett, of Columbia, for Petitioner.
Attorney General Alan McCrory Wilson, Senior Assistant Deputy Attorney General William M. Blitch, Jr., both of Columbia and Solicitor William Walter Wilkins, III, of Greenville, all for Respondent.
HEARN JUSTICE.
Angela Brewer was convicted of homicide by child abuse after her thirteen-month-old grandson died from drinking lemonade mixed with oxycodone. Brewer contends the court of appeals erred in upholding the trial court's admission of an interrogation video when she was under the influence of medication. This case also requires us to determine the scope of the Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause when the State seeks to introduce the contents of a toxicology report from an out-of-state laboratory through a pathologist who did not perform the actual testing. The trial court concluded the toxicology report was not testimonial in nature, thereby removing it from the confines of the Sixth Amendment, and the court of appeals affirmed. While we find no error in admitting the interrogation video, we reverse Brewer's conviction and sentence based on a violation of the Confrontation Clause.
FACTS/PROCEDURAL POSTURE
On October 17, 2014, at approximately 5:30 p.m., paramedics arrived at Brewer's home after receiving a 911 call about an infant who was not breathing. The child had no pulse presented a blueish-gray color, and was cool to the touch. Paramedics transported the child to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The child, three of his siblings, his mother, and his mother's fiancé all lived with Brewer and her husband. On the day of the child's death, Brewer's husband left for work around 5:00 a.m., and the child's mother and fiancé dropped off one child at school before returning back to Brewer's house. Later that morning, the mother, fiancé, and another child left for mother's work followed by a trip to Georgia to pick up used furniture for a home the mother was furnishing. Thus, from around 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Brewer was the only adult in her house as she cared for the child and his one-month-old sister. According to Brewer, she gave the child lemonade around 1:15 p.m. and then placed him in his Pack 'n Play. She claimed the child woke up and smiled at her around 3:00 p.m. Brewer watched television until she received a call around 4:10 p.m. from her husband as he left work. During this conversation, Brewer informed her husband that the child was sleeping, and he suggested waking him up so that he would sleep better at night. Brewer attempted to awaken the child, but he was unresponsive. Once Brewer's husband arrived home, he began CPR, and Brewer called 911.
Paramedics transported the child to the hospital, and law enforcement arrived there a short time later. Officers did not take any written statements at that time due to the traumatic events, but Brewer was overheard saying that the child had been "fussy and fretful" all day. An officer asked Brewer's husband whether law enforcement could search the residence, and he agreed. During the search, officers documented a daily pill container on the counter and collected two sippy cups, one containing a reddish-colored liquid and the other a yellow-brownish-colored liquid.
Dr. James Fulcher, a pathologist, performed the autopsy. He submitted tissue and blood samples to the National Medical Services (NMS) laboratory-a private laboratory in Pennsylvania-for further testing because at that point, he could not determine a cause of death.
Brewer voluntarily met with a Pickens County detective in his office on November 6, 2014. She rejected the detective's suggestion that it may have been possible that the child could have taken her prescription OxyContin. According to the detective, Brewer became argumentative and combative during that line of questioning, as she informed the detective that it was not possible for the child to accidently ingest her OxyContin because she kept that medicine in her purse at all times.
On November 17, 2014, Fulcher completed his report after receiving the toxicology results (NMS report) and concluded the cause of death was "acute oxycodone toxicity." While Fulcher sent the child's samples to the private lab, investigators used SLED to test the items recovered from the house, including the two sippy cups. The yellow-brownish liquid tested positive for methamphetamine and caffeine, and the reddish liquid tested positive for oxycodone. No report indicated that the child ever tested positive for methamphetamine.
Following the results from NMS and SLED, Rita Burgess of the Pickens County Sheriff's Office and Christine Cauthen of SLED interviewed Brewer. This interview began around 11:40 a.m. on December 18, 2014, in a formal interview room where Brewer was read her Miranda rights and signed a form stating she understood and waived them. Burgess and Cauthen asked Brewer whether she was under the influence of any medication, and Brewer informed them she took her prescription OxyContin at around 6:00 a.m. that morning. Later in the interview Brewer mentioned she took Valium shortly before arriving at the sheriff's office, sometime between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. Approximately forty-five minutes into the interview, Burgess and Cauthen walked outside with Brewer to give her a break because Brewer was slurring her words and struggling to stay awake. The three returned and continued the interview until Brewer requested a lawyer. At that point, the investigators ended the interview, sought an arrest warrant, and charged Brewer with homicide by child abuse.
During a pretrial Jackson v. Denno hearing, defense counsel sought to exclude the December 2014 interrogation video, arguing Brewer was too intoxicated to waive her constitutional rights. Burgess and Cauthen testified that Brewer appeared coherent and capable of understanding the agent's questions at the beginning of the interview, but her demeanor worsened as the interview continued. The trial court viewed the video and acknowledged that Brewer slurred her words from the outset, but determined she was still capable of giving a voluntary statement-at least initially. However, the court determined the second portion of the video was inadmissible because Brewer's condition deteriorated to the point where she was too intoxicated to understand what she was saying.
Turning to the NMS lab report that served as the basis for Fulcher's testimony about the cause of death, defense counsel argued Fulcher could not testify as to the amount of oxycodone in the child because the only support for that conclusion was the lab report. Because the State did not plan to call anyone who actually performed the tests as part of the NMS report, defense counsel argued this violated Brewer's Sixth Amendment right to confront her witnesses. The trial court concluded since the NMS report was not testimonial in nature, the Confrontation Clause was not implicated. Further, the court noted that defense counsel could cross-examine Fulcher.
Fulcher testified the child died from a high concentration of oxycodone, and that the specific amount found in the child could have killed anyone, even an adult. He recounted that he routinely uses the NMS lab for toxicology reports, upwards of 650 autopsies per year. Fulcher testified that this lab offers the best product he can purchase, and he would not sign his official report if he had any indication that the lab did not provide reliable testing. Fulcher also opined that the oxycodone was dissolved into a liquid substance because Brewer's medication was in a pill form designed to provide longer lasting relief. Brewer's neurologist, David Rogers, contrasted Brewer's medication with other oxycodone products intended to provide immediate, short term relief-three to four hours as opposed to twelve hours. Fulcher noted this difference as well and testified that a person can abuse the longer lasting medication by cutting the pill and dissolving it into an acidic substance, thereby increasing the amount of oxycodone because it would remove the ability of the pill capsule to provide a steady rate of medication. This testimony was crucial for the State, as it served to disprove the defense's theory of accidental ingestion.
Ultimately, the jury found Brewer guilty, and the trial court sentenced her to twenty years imprisonment, the mandatory minimum for homicide by child abuse. The court of appeals affirmed, and we granted certiorari.
ISSUES
I. Did the court of appeals err in affirming the circuit court's admission of Brewer's statement to law enforcement on the ground that the totality of the circumstances evinced voluntariness despite evidence she was intoxicated?
II. Did the court of appeals err in affirming the circuit court's admission of the NMS report on the ground that the test results were nontestimonial, and thus did not implicate the Confrontation Clause?
STANDARD OF REVIEW
Generally "[o]n appeal, the conclusion of the trial judge on issues of fact as to the voluntariness of a confession will not be disturbed unless so manifestly erroneous as to show an abuse of discretion." State v. Rochester, 301 S.C. 196, 200, 391 S.E.2d 244, 247 (1990); see also State v. Saltz, 346 S.C. 114, 136, 551 S.E.2d 240, 252 (2001). "This Court does not re-evaluate the facts based on its own view of the preponderance of the evidence but simply determines whether the trial judge's ruling is supported by any evidence." State v....
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