State v. Campbell
| Decision Date | 17 August 2018 |
| Docket Number | No. 116,430,116,430 |
| Citation | 423 P.3d 539 |
| Parties | STATE of Kansas, Appellee, v. Derek CAMPBELL, Appellant. |
| Court | Kansas Supreme Court |
Korey A. Kaul, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, argued the cause and was on the brief for appellant.
Matt J. Maloney, assistant district attorney, argued the cause, and Marc Bennett, district attorney, and Derek Schmidt, attorney general, were with him on the brief for appellee.
A jury convicted Derek Campbell of first-degree premeditated murder of his wife, Rebecca Campbell. The district court sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years. Campbell now makes four arguments for reversal of his conviction: (1) the State improperly rehabilitated a jailhouse informant by introducing testimony of past instances when the informant was credible; (2) the district court erred by admitting testimony from another witness who described Campbell as controlling of Rebecca; (3) the district court erred in failing to instruct the jury on voluntary manslaughter; and (4) cumulative error. Finding no reversible error, we affirm.
Shortly after midnight on April 8, 2015, Campbell called 911 from his home to report that he had shot his wife. Campbell told the dispatcher that his handgun inadvertently discharged when he removed it from its holster. Rebecca was sitting in a recliner when the bullet struck her. Campbell stated she was bleeding from the head but still breathing. He also said he was a "concealed carry holder" and did not know why the gun discharged.
An officer arrived while Campbell was speaking with the dispatcher. When asked what happened, Campbell told the officer that the gun "just went off" when he removed it from its holster. Campbell repeated that he was a concealed carry holder and "very careful with firearms." He also told the officer he had just returned from being out on a drive. At some point, Campbell claimed to have vertigo and asked to sit.
By this time, Rebecca was dead. At trial, a forensic pathologist testified she died as a result of a gunshot wound to her head. In the living room, officers found a .38 caliber revolver on a coffee table. And next to it were four cartridges and one spent cartridge.
A few hours later, two different officers interrogated Campbell. After waiving his Miranda rights, Campbell gave them his version of the events. Earlier that evening, Campbell drove around and visited with Tiffany Libel, who he said was an old friend he had not seen in several years. He arrived home around midnight and went inside to his daughter's bedroom. He kissed his daughter and told her he loved her. Campbell then went to the living room where Rebecca was sitting in a recliner. He handed Rebecca his cell phone and told her the battery was low. According to Campbell, he removed the holster from his waistband while Rebecca was plugging in the phone. And when he removed the revolver from the holster, it inadvertently discharged. Shocked, he immediately opened the cylinder and saw Rebecca "slump" in her chair. Campbell tossed the revolver on a table and looked for a phone to call 911.
As the interview progressed, the officers pressed Campbell to explain how the revolver could have accidentally discharged. Campbell posited that because he suffered from vertigo, he may have lost his balance while setting down the gun, causing it to discharge. Later he hypothesized the revolver could have been inadvertently cocked before he went inside the house—though Campbell admitted the revolver had a "firm cocking mechanism."
The State charged Campbell with a single count of premeditated first-degree murder. The district court conducted an eight-day jury trial during which the State called 20 witnesses to testify. Both the video of the custodial interrogation and the recording of the 911 call were admitted into evidence and played for the jury.
Libel testified she knew Campbell and Rebecca from high school. After high school, Campbell and Libel dated for about one year. Even after they separated, Campbell and Libel maintained "off and on" contact. Three days before Rebecca's death, the two began speaking through Facebook Messenger. The next day, Campbell surprised Libel by showing up at her work while she was on her lunch break. Campbell said he was miserable in his marriage and wanted a divorce. He told Libel that he was frustrated because Rebecca "wouldn't give" him a divorce, so he planned to file a divorce form that did not require Rebecca's signature.
The following evening Campbell and Libel drove around and spoke. Campbell repeated that he was miserable in his marriage and wanted a divorce. He had presented Rebecca with divorce papers, but she refused to sign them. Campbell also complained that Rebecca was clingy, constantly wanting to be with him. That night while Libel and Campbell were together, Rebecca called Campbell a couple times. She wanted to know where he was and when he would be home. After the call ended, Campbell mocked Rebecca.
The State also introduced the Facebook messages sent between Campbell and Libel the days before the shooting. Several of them confirmed Campbell's displeasure with Rebecca. He told Libel that he had mentioned divorce to Rebecca "a lot recently." Campbell said he wanted to have another child but "not with Becky [because there was] too much drama and stress." Although Campbell at first enjoyed being married, over time Rebecca became "worse and worse" about always wanting to be around him.
Other messages were sexual in tone. Campbell told Libel he had found "some very interesting pics" of her. Libel testified these were photos of her "in a state of undress." He also asked Libel for recent photos of her and reminisced about "the stuff [they] used to do." When Libel mentioned that she had recently seen Campbell in Wal-Mart, Campbell replied: "[Y]ou could [have] made me follow you into the family restroom and had your way with me." Had they not split up, Campbell thought they would be married with kids. He told Libel he missed the closeness and intimacy of their relationship. Campbell could not remember why they separated.
A search of Campbell's computer revealed that during the months before Rebecca's death, Campbell searched several times for divorce-related information. He also visited several dating websites.
While awaiting trial in the Sedgwick County Jail, Campbell talked to another inmate, Ronald Rudisill, about the shooting. Rudisill said he and Campbell were friendly with each other. Rudisill claimed Campbell at first told him that he lost his balance while unholstering his gun, which caused him to squeeze the trigger and inadvertently shoot Rebecca. When Rudisill learned the gun was a revolver, he told Campbell that he thought the story was "BS" because Rudisill knew a revolver had to be cocked with "so many pounds of pressure to pull the trigger."
Rudisill testified that Campbell eventually confessed that he intentionally shot Rebecca. Rudisill also claimed that Campbell told him how it happened. That evening, Campbell drove around with his ex-girlfriend, ignoring Rebecca's phone calls. When he arrived home, Rebecca started yelling at him. Campbell went outside, cocked the gun, went back inside, and shot Rebecca while she was sitting in a recliner. Campbell concocted the story about losing his balance as a cover. Rudisill said Campbell drew him a diagram of the house, which Rudisill later reproduced from memory.
On cross-examination, defense counsel asked Rudisill about his criminal history, including a forgery conviction that he did not mention on direct examination. The State later tried to rehabilitate Rudisill with testimony from an Assistant United States Attorney who had worked with Rudisill in prior criminal cases. The attorney told the jury she had "found Ronnie Rudisill to be extremely credible on each occasion that [she] dealt with him."
Tonya Campbell—who was married to Campbell's brother—testified she had known Campbell since 1999. She thought Campbell and Rebecca seemed "relatively happy" early in their relationship, but their affections for each other changed over time. Later in their relationship, Tonya noticed Campbell and Rebecca were always together as if "one of them didn't trust the other one or it was kind of mutual distrust." She never saw any signs of physical violence, but Tonya observed that Campbell often belittled and criticized Rebecca.
When the State asked Tonya about her discussion with officers, defense counsel objected, claiming any testimony that Campbell was "controlling" of Rebecca was irrelevant. But the court overruled the objection. Tonya said Campbell and Rebecca's relationship could be described as "controlling" because
Campbell testified in his own defense. He claimed that when he returned from driving around with Libel, he removed the gun from the holster and unloaded the bullets into his hand. He put the bullets in his pocket and returned the gun to its holster. After checking on their daughter, he went to the living room where he spoke with Rebecca. At this point, he handed her his cell phone and asked her to charge it. While waiting for Rebecca to plug in the phone, he removed the gun from its holster and started "messing around with" it. Campbell "started dry firing it, and on the third dry fire it went off." He was shocked. And upon opening the chambers, he discovered a spent cartridge. He then noticed Rebecca slump in her chair and begin bleeding.
When asked why he had never provided this explanation before, Campbell said he "was in shock and scared and I didn't even understand what truly had happened until later on." Campbell claimed that Rebecca knew he had been with Libel, and she did not complain about him spending time with her. Campbell also denied telling Rudisill that he intentionally shot...
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