State v. Burge
| Decision Date | 06 October 2022 |
| Docket Number | 38560-4-III |
| Parties | STATE OF WASHINGTON, Respondent, v. RYAN MASON BURGE, Appellant. |
| Court | Washington Court of Appeals |
UNPUBLISHED OPINION
The jury found Ryan Burge guilty of second-degree murder for the tragic death of five-year-old Heather, who suffered injuries while Burge cared for her. On appeal, Burge challenges the sufficiency of evidence to convict him of second-degree murder. He also challenges the trial court's imposition of an exceptional sentence. We affirm.
The State alleged and the jury found that Ryan Burge killed five-year-old Heather, a pseudonym, on November 2, 2018. On that date, Burge engaged in a romantic association with the mother of Heather, Nataasha Tafoya. Tafoya bore and cared for two other children sixteen-year-old Thomas and fourteen-year-old Ken, both pseudonyms.
Ryan Burge and Nataasha Tafoya were high school classmates. Eighteen years after high school and in August 2018, the two reconnected and entered a relationship. Burge then lived with his sister in Longview. Beginning in September 2018, Burge stayed at Tafoya's Vancouver apartment a few nights per week. Sometimes, while Tafoya worked, she left Heather in Burge's care. Tafoya trusted and relied on Burge to watch her young daughter.
On the morning of November 2, 2018, before Nataasha Tafoya left for work, she noticed no bruises, abrasions, scrapes, or other injuries on Heather. Ryan Burge drove Tafoya to work around 7:30 a.m. Burge returned to Tafoya's apartment and, after Thomas and Ken left for school, Burge cared for Heather alone.
At 3:01 p.m. on November 2, Ryan Burge and Heather shopped at a Safeway grocery store a half a mile from Nataasha Tafoya's apartment. Safeway video surveillance showed the two leaving the store at 3:28 p.m. The footage revealed no visible injuries on Heather.
At 3:30 p.m., Thomas began a wrestling match in his high school's gymnasium. Ken waited in the gymnasium for the match to end.
At 4:04 p.m., Ryan Burge sent Nataasha Tafoya a text message that requested her to return home because Heather had "lost it." Report of Proceedings (RP) at 895. Tafoya assumed that Burge referenced Heather throwing a temper tantrum, which tantrums, according to Tafoya, Burge had always managed before. Tafoya replied by text that her sons would arrive home and assist Burge soon.
Within minutes of texting Nataasha Tafoya, Ryan Burge called his girlfriend and disclosed that he needed to call 911 due to Heather's uncontrollable behavior. Tafoya told Burge to calm down and that calling 911 over a temper tantrum would be extreme. Burge placed Tafoya on speakerphone to allow her to calm Heather by speaking on the phone. During the call Tafoya never heard Heather crying, yelling, or talking. She only heard Heather breathing.
During the phone call, Ryan Burge told Nataasha Tafoya that Heather had hit her head. Burge sent Tafoya a photograph of Heather via text message. From the photo, Tafoya could see Heather with a bloody lip. Tafoya noticed no other injuries to Heather. Nevertheless, Tafoya left work to comfort Heather.
AT&T telephone records reveal that Ryan Burge called 911 at 4:11 p.m., but terminated the call before an operator answered. Also at 4:11 p.m., 911 returned Burge's cellphone call. Burge did not answer.
During Thomas' wrestling meet, Ryan Burge called Thomas' cellphone, which phone Ken held. Ken answered and handed the cellphone to Thomas. Burge told Thomas that he and Ken needed to return home immediately because of Heather's condition. Thomas could not hear Heather in the background. Around 4:30 p.m., Thomas and Ken left for home, a six-minute walk from the school.
When Thomas and Ken arrived home, they observed Heather lying motionless on her bed in the three siblings' shared bedroom. Thomas noticed a lump on Heather's head and blood on her nose and mouth. Heather did not speak to her brothers. Ryan Burge did not describe any events leading to Heather's condition and instead instructed them to stay with her while he retrieved their mother from work. Burge told Thomas and Ken to review Heather's breathing and to call 911 if her condition worsened.
Nataasha Tafoya returned home to find Heather breathing heavily and unresponsive. Heather did not move her arms or legs. Tafoya called 911.
Vancouver paramedics arrived at Nataasha Tafoya's apartment. While tending to Heather, the medics inquired about what occurred. Tafoya said that she and Ryan Burge had sent Heather to her room due to her temper tantrum. At trial, however, Tafoya testified that she lied about earlier being at the apartment, because Burge had fretted that law enforcement would blame him for Heather's injuries.
Vancouver paramedics found Heather unconscious. Justin Huskisson, one of the medics, noted multiple injuries to the front and back of Heather's head and bruises to the girl's face and extremities. All of Heather's teeth were missing. Huskisson could not fathom how a five-year-old could sustain such injuries to both sides of her head.
Heather's condition loomed more serious than expected based on Ryan Burge's story that Heather ran into the wall and flung herself against the bunk bed.
Paramedic Justin Huskisson rotated Heather onto her back. Huskisson noticed blood and vomit in her airway, which contents paramedics suctioned. Paramedics transported Heather, while attempting interventional treatment. Heather remained unconscious.
Vancouver Police Department Officer Jesse Stokes approached Nataasha Tafoya and Ryan Burge outside Tafoya's apartment. Burge explained that Heather threw a tantrum after the two left the Safeway. Burge had denied her candy. Once home, Heather threw herself into a wall and knocked herself unconscious. Officer Stokes and Burge entered the apartment so that Burge could mimic Heather's actions. Burge explained that he ushered Heather into her bedroom without force and then placed her in her elevated bed. Burge left Heather in the bedroom, and she began kicking the wall.
Ryan Burge described to Officer Jesse Stokes that, when he reentered Heather's room, she braced herself to the railing of her bed, which railing stood one foot high. Heather proceeded to throw herself into the wall by her bed. Burge identified holes in the wall by the bed, which he claimed Heather's frenzy caused. Burge admitted that he did not call 911.
While perusing Nataasha Tafoya's apartment, law enforcement examined three impact marks in the wall next to Heather's bed. Police found Heather's hair in two of the three wall indentations. Officers determined that the third impact mark resulted from a past, unrelated incident. Police found blood on Heather's pillow and mattress.
Vancouver paramedics transported Heather to a hospital emergency department. Dr. Jon Eggen, M.D. observed forehead bruising and abrasions, contusions around her mouth, and a large bruise on her head. Heather's pupils did not react or dilate. Dr. Eggen concluded that Heather suffered a traumatic brain injury. The Vancouver hospital airlifted Heather to Portland's Randall Children's Hospital to be seen by a pediatric neurosurgeon.
Heather arrived at the children's hospital in a coma. Neurosurgeon David Adler found no brainstem function. A CT scan revealed Heather's brain suffered a lack of oxygen, lack of blood flow, and a subdural hemorrhage. Heather had suffered a stroke. Dr. Adler operated on Heather. Heather died during surgery at 8:15 p.m. on November 2, 2018.
At trial, Dr. David Adler testified that Heather's brain injury was new. He opined that earlier medical intervention likely would not have improved her odds of survival from the traumatic brain injury.
Nataasha Tafoya's apartment was equipped with two security cameras, one inside and one outside of the residence. Ryan Burge and Nataasha Tafoya had access to the cameras' footage through a cell phone application. No one else had access to the surveillance footage. The cameras and the phone application were created by Arlo Technologies (Arlo). Burge's mother, Pam Burge, met with her son and Tafoya in the lobby of the police station on the day of Heather's death. She then noticed her son viewing, on his cellphone, video footage from inside of Tafoya's apartment.
On the evening of November 2, 2018, law enforcement interviewed Ryan Burge at the Vancouver Police Department. Burge repeated his story that Heather threw a temper tantrum after he refused to buy her candy at Safeway. After sending Heather to her room, Burge heard her kicking the walls. When he entered her room, Heather hit her head against the wall by her bed. Heather used her feet to propel herself from the bed railing and thereby struck her head such that she dented the wall multiple times. Burge told officers he attempted to pull Heather from the wall by her legs, but she wrested free from him and continued to hit her head on the wall. Law enforcement asked Burge to list the injuries to Heather that he saw. He responded that she had "'goose eggs'" on her head and a mark on the side of her forehead. Clerk's Papers (CP) at 9. Burge denied causing Heather any harm.
On November 5, 2018, Martha Burt, M.D. performed an autopsy on Heather. Dr. Burt determined that Heather weighed forty to fifty pounds and measured 3 feet 4 inches in height. Dr. Burt noted Heather had multiple bruises and abrasions to her head. Burt concluded that Heather's body suffered impact points from different planes, which injuries rendered Ryan Burge's explanation inconsistent. Heather's back underwent two large contusions linear in shape. Dr. Burt found lacerations on the inside of Heather's lips and petechiae inside her eyelids and on her ears. Petechiae are pinpoint-sized spots of bleeding under the skin or...
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