State v. Canaday

• Citation: 79 Wn.2d 647,488 P.2d 1064
• Decision Date: 23 September 1971
• Docket Number: No. 41370,41370
• Parties: The STATE of Washington, Respondent, v. John Dwight CANADAY, Appellant.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

Page 647

79 Wn.2d 647

488 P.2d 1064

The STATE of Washington, Respondent, v. John Dwight CANADAY, Appellant.

No. 41370.

Supreme Court of Washington, En Banc.

Sept. 23, 1971.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 7, 1971.

Phil Mahoney, Bill Lanning, Seattle, for appellant.

Christopher Bayley, Pros. Atty., for King County, Patricia G. Harber, Deputy Pros. Atty., Seattle, William L. Kinzel, Former Deputy Pros. Atty., Bellevue, for respondent.

HALE, Associate Justice.

The separate and mysterious disappearances of Mary Bjornson and Lynne Tuski were not solved until after John Thomas, a young naval officer, arranged to drive his sister Eunice to their parents' home for a weekend visit. Eunice failed to appear. Thomas, alarmed at her disappearance, made numerous inquiries, began a search, and reported her absence to the Seattle police. Finally, he found her to learn she had been forcibly detained for nearly 3 days by the defendant, John Dwight Canaday. In rushing to defendant Canaday's house to rescue his sister, John Thomas set in motion an inquiry that revealed what happened to Mary Bjornson and Lynne Tuski.

Learning that Eunice had been seen leaving Canaday's car and entering his house, Thomas notified the police and drove at once to Canaday's residence. He arrived just as his sister, with rope burns on her neck and large bruises at the corner of her mouth, ran toward him from the house. A few brief remarks from her showed that she had been held prisoner by Canaday at a cabin at Rainbow Springs for 2 nights and forcibly brought in his car to his house in Seattle. Police officers summoned by John Thomas arrested Canaday for kidnapping a few minutes after Eunice had run from the house, but that was only the beginning.

When John Thomas led Seattle police officers to the home of John Dwight Canaday about February 22, 1969, to rescue his sister, no one involved in those events except Canaday had any idea that he was in any way involved in the disappearances of Lynne Tuski and Mary Bjornson. Taken then into custody on February 22, 1969, for the abduction of Eunice Thomas, Canaday revealed that not long before he had assaulted another young woman, one B.B., with a knife and then raped her. When a justice court complaint was filed against him on March 1, 1969, for that rape and assault, the police still had no evidence to connect Canaday to the disappearance of the two missing young women, Lynne Tuski and Mary Bjornson. Then, about 2 weeks later, on March 13th, while the defendant remained in custody in King County on the pending assault and rape charges, one William Kramer found a young woman's nude body partly concealed in the snow alongside the Index River Tract Road near Index in Snohomish County. The dead girl was Lynne Tuski. She had been raped and strangled to death with a rope.

Two days after the discovery of Lynne Tuski's body, on March 15, Mr. Donald Priest, Snohomish County deputy prosecuting attorney, after fully warning the defendant of his constitutional and statutory rights and privileges, interviewed him at the King County courthouse and questioned him about the kidnapping and assault case, the assault and rape case, the murder of Lynne Tuski, and the disappearance of Mary Bjornson. At trial, testifying about that March 15th interview, he said that Canaday told him he had no knowledge whatever about either the Tuski homicide or the disappearance of any other girl.

Mary Bjornson had been missing from her apartment in the University District of Seattle since January 4, 1969, and her whereabouts were still a mystery to the police on March 19, 1969. On that day, defendant, after consulting with his attorneys, informed the police and the prosecuting attorney's office that he might be able to shed some light on the disappearance of Lynne Tuski and Mary Bjornson.

The next day, March 20, 1969, in the presence of his counsel, defendant gave a detailed oral confession to police detectives and the prosecuting attorney delineating how, on separate occasions, he had lured the two young women into his car, threatened them with a knife to keep them there, tied their hands with rope, and ultimately murdered each girl by strangulation. He told them where and how he had disposed of their bodies and described how, after each killing, he had removed the dead girl's clothing and taken it to his house in Seattle and there burned it in the fireplace. He later that day gave a detailed written confession concerning his assault upon and attempted rape of and his murder of Lynne Tuski; this statement was signed by him. The following day, March 21, after leading the police, sheriff's deputies, and members of the prosecuting attorney's staff to the area where he had disposed of the two victims, Canaday signed a confession which described how he had contrived to get Mary Bjornson into his car, had threatened her with a knife, tied her hands, raped her, and then killed her and disposed of her body. He signed this confession.

Corroborating his confessions and statements, Canaday, on March 21, 1969, led a group of officers from the King County Sheriff's office and the Seattle Police Department and other law enforcement officials to a rural area in Snohomish County near Index. He gave them detailed directions advising them in one instance not to cross a bridge but instead to turn left onto what is called the Garland-Hotsprings Road, and told them that, after passing a gravel pit with a shed in the middle of it, the body of a young woman would be found on the north side of the road, just beyond a mound of snow. There, as the defendant had indicated, the officers found the body of Mary Bjornson, dead from strangulation as the defendant had said it would be.

Count 1 of the amended information charged defendant with the attempted rape of Mary Annabelle Bjornson on January 4, 1969, and count 2 with her murder in the first degree. Count 3 charged him with the rape of one B.B. on January 23, 1969, and count 4 with assault in the second degree with a deadly weapon upon her on that same day. Count 5 charged the defendant with the rape of Lynne Carol Tuski on January 25, 1969, and count 6 with her murder in the first degree on that date. May 5, 1969, he entered a plea of guilty to count 3, charging the rape of one B.B., and was sentenced to life imprisonment as a sexual psychopath; later, on July 8, 1969, defendant entered a plea of guilty to count 4, charging assault in the second degree. Brought to trial July 8, 1969, on counts 1, 2, 5 and 6, charging respectively the attempted rape of Mary Bjornson and her murder alleged to have been committed January 4, 1969, and the rape and murder of Lynne Carol Tuski on January 25, 1969, the defendant pleaded not guilty by reason of mental irresponsibility existing at the time of the crimes charged and persisting at the time of trial. A jury found Canaday guilty as charged on counts 1, 2, 5 and 6, and imposed the death penalty for the murder of Mary Bjornson as charged in count 2 and imposed the death penalty for the murder of Lynne Tuski as charged in count 6. Defendant now appeals the judgments and sentences of 20 years' and life imprisonment imposed respectively on counts 1 and 5 of the amended information and the death penalty imposed in accordance with the verdict of the jury on courts 2 and 6.

The defendant confirmed his earlier confessions and admissions under oath on both direct and cross-examination at the trial. Taking the witness stand after the state had rested its case in chief, John Canaday, on direct examination, after testifying that he was at the time of trial 24 years old, a high school graduate, an honorably discharged Navy veteran, the father of two children and divorced, and acknowledging that he had two attorneys representing him after his arrest, testified as follows:

Q. You had an attorney in the city? A. Yes. Q. Who was that? A. Whipple, I believe. Q. And then did you have an attorney in the county? A. Yes. Q. Who was that? A. Phil Mahoney. Q. And did you have a discussion with Mr. Mahoney regarding the incidents with which you are charged here, that is, the death of Lynne Tuski and Mary Bjornson? A. Yes. Q. And did you express to him a desire to do something about it? A. Yes. Q. Did you request that he contact the authorities in relation to the matter? A. Yes. Q. Now, do you remember having a conversation with Mr. Mahoney and Mr. Carroll and Mr. Kinzel, Chief Nault and Lt. Schoener and myself in Mr. Carroll's office? A. Yes. Q. And after this discussion with those persons, did you then give written statements to Lt. Schoener in respect to the deaths of Lynne Tuski and Mary Bjornson? A. Yes. Q. Now, it is not your desire that you be turned loose at this time, is it? A. No. Q. Do you feel that you are dangerous to be at large at this time? A. Yes. Q. Now, at the very time that these incidents occurred, do you have a clear recollection of the incidents? A. If I sit down and think about it. Q. If you sit down and think about it? A. Yes.

On cross-examination, the defendant, referring to a piece of rope found by the police in his car, admitted that he had burned its ends to keep it from unraveling--something he had learned in the Navy; described his work for the Seattle Water Department; identified pictures of his automobile; and then proceeded to testify concerning the attempted rape and the murder of Mary Bjornson:

Q. Okay. Now, when you went to the apartment that is located on Northeast 42nd, this was around January, the first part of January; is that right? A. Yes. Q. You indicated that you were looking for a girl at that time; is that right? You said that in your statement? A. Yes. Q. Is there any reason, Mr. Canaday, why you happened to select that particular apartment? A. No. Q. Do you recall whether you saw this girl, the brunette--do you recall this as being the girl, the brunette girl, at this apartment? A. No. Q. We've been talking of a girl by the name of Mary...