State v. Carpenter
| Decision Date | 29 August 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. W2000-02610-CCA-R3-CD.,W2000-02610-CCA-R3-CD. |
| Citation | 69 S.W.3d 568 |
| Parties | STATE of Tennessee v. Robert Lewis CARPENTER, Jr. |
| Court | Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals |
Robert L. Hutton, Glankler Brown, PLLC, Memphis, TN, for appellant.
Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Michael Moore, Solicitor General; Mark E. Davidson, Assistant Attorney General; Elizabeth T. Rice, District Attorney General, for appellee, State of Tennessee.
DAVID G. HAYES, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which JERRY L. SMITH and ALAN E. GLENN, JJ., joined.
The Appellant, Robert Lewis Carpenter, Jr., was indicted by a Fayette County Grand Jury for one count of premeditated murder, one count of felony murder, one count of especially aggravated kidnapping, and one count of especially aggravated robbery. Carpenter waived both his right to a trial by jury and his right to have a jury determine punishment. On June 15, 2000, a bench trial was held and Carpenter was found guilty on all counts.1 Following the sentencing hearing, the trial court sentenced Carpenter to life without the possibility of parole, based upon its finding of three aggravating circumstances (Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(5), (i)(6) and (i)(7)). On appeal, Carpenter raises three issues for our review: (1) Whether the trial court erred in its application of aggravating circumstance (i)(5), i.e., the murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel; (2) whether the trial court erred in failing to find specific mitigating circumstances; and (3) whether Carpenter's convictions violate double jeopardy principles and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, based upon his prior convictions for federal crimes arising from the same factual circumstances. After review, we find no error and affirm the judgment of the trial court.
On June 15, 1999, Robert Lee and Barbara Ann Lee, husband and wife of thirty-nine years, were preparing for a vacation they had planned to take the next day. Mrs. Lee, the victim, had completed several errands that morning, including purchasing clothes at Eddie Bauer and the withdrawal of $200.00 from their bank account, when she stopped at the Sonic Drive-In in Collierville. The victim was driving her recently purchased 1997 green Chevrolet Blazer and was accompanied by Otis, her dog and regular companion. Because the victim frequented that particular Sonic on a regular basis, Sharon Bryson, a car hop, recognized the victim and her dog. As Bryson exited the restaurant with the victim's food, she observed the following:
Well, I was on my way out with the lady's order. I seen this black guy sitting in the back of this woman's vehicle. I knew that was strange and very odd. Normally, it would be her and her dog, and then I leaned on over a little bit, and I seen another guy standing outside the driver's side of her vehicle with a gun.
Bryson immediately ran inside and told her manager to call 911, which he did.
Detectives Scott Young and Gamon Hill, of the Collierville Police Department, responded to the 911 call. As they interviewed Bryson, she stated that the man holding the gun was wearing a light blue wind-breaker suit and had been walking around the building earlier that same day. During the investigation, officers discovered an unattended blue Buick LeSabre with a tan top parked at a NAPA auto parts store approximately 100 yards away. Further investigation revealed that the Buick was registered to the Appellant, Robert Lewis Carpenter, Jr., whom Detective Young knew personally. Detective Young immediately notified Fayette County law enforcement officers to be on the lookout for the Appellant or the victim's Blazer. Inside the car, Detective Young found a Sonic cup containing a "fresh drink." He also discovered a previous traffic citation and envelope documenting the Appellant's address as being in Fayette County.
Criminal Investigator Chuck Pugh, of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department, also knew the Appellant personally and lived two miles from the Appellant's residence. On this particular day, Investigator Pugh was at his residence eating lunch when he received a dispatch requesting that he drive by the Appellant's home in search of the Appellant or the Blazer. As Investigator Pugh was driving by the Appellant's residence, he met the Blazer coming out of the driveway. He recognized the Appellant as the person driving the Blazer and observed two other passengers in the vehicle. An immediate high-speed pursuit ensued. Detective Ricky Wilson, of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department, also personally knew the Appellant and participated in the high-speed chase. Detective Wilson likewise observed the Appellant driving the victim's Blazer and noticed two other "black males" in the vehicle with him.
At some point during the flight, the Appellant drove the Blazer across the state line into a wheatfield in northern Mississippi. The Appellant, Antonio Carpenter [the Appellant's brother], and Eric Glover [the Appellant's cousin] all fled from the vehicle. Antonio Carpenter and Glover were apprehended at the scene. Investigators seized $306 in cash and two gold earrings from Antonio Carpenter. Based upon information given to officers by Antonio Carpenter, Investigator Pugh returned to the Appellant's residence and proceeded along a dead end field road behind the house. Investigator Pugh described what he found as follows:
It's just on a road—like I say, you get up there and you just run out of anywhere to go. First thing I noticed was a big snouzer (sic) laying down. When I noticed him, I stopped my patrol car and walked down to him. The dog layed there for a minute and then kind of run off. But where he was laying, I found the body of a white female in a ditch, in an indentation that had been covered up with—I thought it was horse blankets and a large log and some bushes. It looked like an attempt to conceal the body.
Investigator Pugh also found a number of personal items belonging to the victim including her purse, credit cards, bank receipts, and identification. Approximately fifty feet from the body, officers found a sawed-off semi-automatic .22 rifle. Along the road and near the body, officers further "located a number of Eddie Bauer clothes tags—clothes tags normally attached to new items of clothes when you purchase them."
Approximately four hours later, Detective Hill discovered the Appellant hiding in an abandoned car in northern Mississippi. At the time of his arrest, the Appellant was wearing the Eddie Bauer clothing purchased by the victim earlier that day. After being taken to the Marshall County, Mississippi, Sheriff's Department, the Appellant asked Detective Hill, "Do people who kill people go to hell?" When Detective Hill didn't reply, the Appellant stated, "Well, I guess I'm going to go to hell because we killed that lady."
The following statement was provided by the Appellant to Detective Ricky Wilson:
The statements given to police by the co-defendants, however, indicate that it was the Appellant who struck the victim in the head with the stock of the rifle before twice running over her body with the Blazer.
Dr. O.C. Smith, medical examiner for Shelby County, performed an autopsy on the victim. At trial, Dr. Smith testified that the victim "died as a result of blows to the head, crushing neck injuries, crushed chest, crushed abdomen and pelvis." Dr. Smith testified that these injuries were "massive" and consistent with the victim being run over by a motor vehicle. Dr. Smith also observed the presence of tire tracks on the left side of the victim's rib cage. Dr. Smith further noted that the victim had also sustained ...
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