State v. Cellier

• Decision Date: 31 October 1997
• Docket Number: No. 74976,74976
• Citation: 948 P.2d 616,263 Kan. 54
• Parties: STATE of Kansas, Appellee, v. Lance Charles CELLIER, Appellant.
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

Page 616

948 P.2d 616

263 Kan. 54

STATE of Kansas, Appellee, v. Lance Charles CELLIER, Appellant.

No. 74976.

Supreme Court of Kansas.

Oct. 31, 1997.

Syllabus by the Court

1. A verdict or finding shall not be set aside, nor shall the judgment or decision based thereon be reversed, by reason of the erroneous admission of evidence unless there appears of record objection to the evidence timely interposed and so stated as to make clear the specific ground of objection.

2. When a motion to suppress is denied, the moving party must object to the evidence at trial to preserve the issue on appeal.

3. When a statute is challenged as unconstitutional, this court's standard of review is de novo.

4. A party who raises the issue of competence to stand trial has the burden of going forward with the evidence, which will be measured by the preponderance of the evidence standard.

5. When the court itself raises the issue of the competency of the accused, the court is not a party and cannot be responsible for coming forward with the evidence, but it can assign that burden to the State because both the court and the State have a duty to provide due process and to provide a fair trial to an accused.

6. There is a presumption that a defendant is competent to stand trial.

7. When the sufficiency of the evidence is challenged, the standard of review is whether, after review of all the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, the appellate court is convinced that a rational factfinder could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Jean K. Gilles Phillips, Special Appellate Defender, argued the cause, and Jessica R. Kunen, Chief Appellate Defender, was with her on the brief, for appellant.

Joe E. Lee, County Attorney, argued the cause, and Carla J. Stovall, Attorney General, was with him on the brief, for appellee.

ABBOTT, Justice:

This is a direct appeal by the defendant, Lance Charles Cellier, from his convictions for first-degree premeditated murder and aggravated kidnapping. The defendant challenges the admissibility of four statements, the voluntariness of his waiver of his Miranda rights, his competency to stand trial, the constitutionality of the competency statute, and the sufficiency of the evidence to find that he was not insane when he committed the acts at issue.

It is not disputed that Cellier killed Scott Payton, age 19, on February 25, 1994, by shooting him at close range with a shotgun. In order to understand this sad case, it is necessary to set out the bizarre facts that preceded Payton's death.

Cellier has a history of mental disorders. In August 1993, Cellier heard a story at a party about a person who had his penis cut off. Cellier believed that Payton, along with some other men, had cut off the man's penis and had set up Cellier to make it look like he (Cellier) cut off the man's penis. Cellier also believed that the injured man had connections to the Mafia and that the Mafia was out to get Cellier and his family to take revenge for Cellier's apparent participation in cutting off the man's penis. Cellier rationalized that if he committed suicide, the Mafia would be satisfied and would not kill his family. In an attempt to commit suicide, Cellier ingested 100 aspirin and model airplane glue. Cellier was taken to a hospital in Emporia and survived.

As a result of his suicide attempt, Cellier was committed to the Topeka State Hospital for an evaluation. The hospital diagnosed Cellier as suffering from a severe mental disorder, paranoid schizophrenia. Cellier was released from the hospital on an outpatient basis to the Mental Health Center of East Central Kansas.

The Mental Health Center assigned Cellier's case to a student intern who met with Cellier on a weekly basis. During these meetings, Cellier talked about finding employment and his future plans. Cellier told the intern that he had not had any delusional thoughts or paranoia, and he appeared to be fine to the intern. At a meeting on February 17, 1994, Cellier told the intern that he had lost his medical card and that he needed to get a new one.

Cellier met only twice with a psychiatrist from the Mental Health Center--on December 6, 1993, and on February 8, 1994. The psychiatrist asked Cellier if he had been hallucinating and Cellier said, "No." Cellier answered the doctor's questions appropriately, appeared to be in touch with reality, and stated that he was planning to move to Texas to look for a job. The doctor did not see any evidence of psychosis.

Cellier did not take his medication as prescribed. From pharmacy records, it appears that Cellier only took his medication on and off and that he potentially could have been without medication for 48 of the 50 days immediately prior to February 25, 1994, the day of the shooting.

Cellier's friends testified about his behavior and actions once he was released from the Topeka State Hospital on December 7, 1993, and before the shooting occurred on February 25, 1994. A week or two before the shooting, Cellier showed his friend, Nishantha Pitigala, a long-barrelled gun he had in the trunk of his car. Cellier told Pitigala that he bought the gun for protection and to eliminate somebody. Cellier said he was going to shoot Scott Payton. When Pitigala questioned Cellier about his plans to shoot Payton, Cellier would not give a straight answer. Instead, Cellier talked about the Mafia trying to kill him. Pitigala knew Cellier had talked about the Mafia before being committed to the Topeka State Hospital, and he testified that Cellier also had these delusions in February, shortly before the shooting.

Another friend of Cellier's, Donald Miles, testified that a week or two before the shooting, he visited Cellier and Cellier asked for help in assembling a shotgun that he had just purchased. Miles said that Cellier had also purchased shells from Wal-Mart and a little tape recorder which he planned to use to record a confession from Payton. Cellier carried the gun in his car and said he needed it for protection. Miles and Cellier could not assemble the gun, so they took it to a shop to be assembled. After the gun was assembled, the two practiced shooting it. Several days before the shooting, Cellier told Miles that he was not taking his medication. Miles testified that during this time, Cellier got progressively more "whacked."

In February 1994, Cellier told Miles for the first time that he was going to kill someone. Later, Cellier specified that the person he was going to shoot was Payton. On February 25, 1994, the day of the shooting, Cellier stopped by Miles' home at 8:30 a.m Miles said that Cellier was very paranoid and hyper. Cellier stated that he was going to get Payton to confess to a crime on tape, kill Payton, and then take the tape to the authorities. At one point, Cellier talked about shooting a person's penis off, and Miles told Cellier that he could not do that because it would kill the person. Miles also stated that Cellier had discussed a plan to cover up the murder because he had plans for his life and he did not have time to go to prison. Cellier told Miles that part of his plan involved turning himself in after he shot Payton.

At 11:30 a.m. Cellier drove Miles to work. He then went to Payton's house. According to Payton's father, Payton and Cellier left the house together shortly after Cellier arrived.

At approximately 12:15 p.m., Cellier entered the lobby of the Lyon County Sheriff's office, bloody and hysterical. Cellier was yelling for help and stating that he had shot someone. When Officer Eric Brunner tried to find out what had happened, Cellier told him he had shot somebody and he thought the person was dead. Cellier stated that he and Payton had been hunting when Payton tried to shoot him (Cellier) for being a "fag." So, Cellier took the gun from Payton and shot him in self-defense. Cellier gave directions to the shooting scene, but the directions were nonsensical. The officer looked at Cellier's car and noticed blood splattered on the doors and fenders.

The Lyon County Sheriff took Cellier from the lobby to an empty office and asked Cellier what had happened. Cellier stated that he and Payton went to smoke marijuana together and that Payton had pulled a gun on him and said, "I'm going to shoot you, you fag." At this point, Cellier claimed he took the gun away from Payton and shot Payton in self-defense. Cellier then came to the sheriff's office and said he was afraid Payton might be dead. Cellier agreed to direct the sheriff to the shooting scene, and he was escorted to the sheriff's car. At this time, Cellier was not handcuffed; he was simply walking with the officers. When they got to the car, the sheriff sat in the driver's seat, Cellier sat in the back passenger-side seat, and another officer sat in the back driver's-side seat.

Despite erratic directions, Cellier led the sheriff to the scene of the shooting. There, in a field, lay the body of Payton. During this period of time, Cellier was responding to questions. As they got closer to the crime scene, Cellier got more agitated, and when he could see the body, he became upset and started saying, "Oh, I killed him, I killed him." A third officer, who had followed in a different car, walked into the field and checked the body. He confirmed that the victim was dead. The victim had been shot in the abdomen. Cellier told the officer that the victim was Scott Payton, and then he said, "I shot him, I shot him." At this time, the officer who sat in the back seat of the sheriff's car with Cellier arrested and handcuffed Cellier. As they left the crime scene, the officer advised Cellier of his Miranda rights, and Cellier indicated that he understood these rights.

Upon return to the sheriff's office, Cellier was questioned by Officer Gary Sadowski and Detective Carlton Heller. The interview began at 1:32 p.m. on February 25, 1994. The officers did not check into Cellier's...