State v. Clark

• Citation: 24 P.3d 1006,143 Wash.2d 731
• Decision Date: 07 June 2001
• Docket Number: No. 65267-8.,65267-8.
• Parties: STATE of Washington, Respondent, v. Richard M. CLARK, Appellant.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Washington

24 P.3d 1006

143 Wash.2d 731

STATE of Washington, Respondent, v. Richard M. CLARK, Appellant.

No. 65267-8.

Supreme Court of Washington, En Banc.

Argued December 7, 1999.

Decided June 7, 2001.

Suzanne Lee Elliott, Rita Joan Griffith, Seattle, for Appellant.

Richard M. Clark, pro se.

Jim Krider, Snohomish County Prosecutor, S. Aaron Fine, Deputy, Everett, for Respondent.

SANDERS, J.

Convicting Richard Mathew Clark of aggravated first degree murder, first degree kidnapping, and first degree rape, a Snohomish County jury found he did not merit leniency, and sentenced him to death. We review his sentence and underlying convictions in the Supreme Court pursuant to RCW 10.95.100 and RAP 4.2(a)(6), uphold his convictions, but reverse the death sentence, remanding for a new special sentencing proceeding.

FACTS

A. BACKGROUND

Roxanne Doll, 7, was kidnapped, raped, murdered, and dumped in a vacant Everett field at some point late in the night of March 31, 1995, or early in the morning of April 1, 1995. That morning Gail Doll-Iffrig, Roxanne's mother, discovered her daughter missing and an intensive search for Roxanne ensued. Roxanne's body was discovered one week later, on April 8, 1995, under some lawn clippings in an out-of-the-way field in Everett.

At approximately 8:30 p.m. on March 31, 1995, Gail Doll-Iffrig put Roxanne and her two siblings to bed before leaving to see a movie with a friend. At the time, Doll-Iffrig's husband and Roxanne's father, Tim Iffrig, was next door visiting the couple's neighbors, Pat Casey and Shawn Angilley. Richard Clark was also visiting at the neighbors' house. The group was drinking prodigious amounts of alcohol and using methamphetamines. Before leaving for her movie, Doll-Iffrig took her housekeys to the Casey-Angilley residence for Iffrig. Clark and Iffrig remained there until 9:30 or 9:45 p.m., at which time Clark left in his van and Iffrig returned home. Iffrig began to cook some food in the kitchen, but then passed out on the couch.

Doll-Iffrig returned home shortly after midnight to a house full of smoke. Iffrig remained passed out on the couch, and the food he put on the stove two hours earlier was burning. She woke him up, tended to the burning food, and went to check on her daughters. She quickly turned on the light in the girls' bedroom and saw what she thought were two bodies in the top bunk of the bunk bed, Roxanne and her younger sister, Kristena. However it was unclear to Doll-Iffrig, after further thought, whether she saw her two daughters or whether there were dolls in the bed.

Clark returned to the Iffrig house at about 1:00 a.m. Between about 9:30 to 9:45 p.m. and 1:00 a.m., Clark began driving around Everett with his cousin, Jimmy Miller, who had passed out from drinking in the back of his van. Clark apparently went to the Dog House Tavern in Everett, where he was seen sometime approximately during the nine o'clock hour. Next, at 10:45 p.m., he showed up at the home of Andrew and Wendy Urness, whom he asked for gas or beer money. They did not give him any, and he left after five minutes. Next Clark went to his aunt Vicki Smith's house where he arrived at about 11:00 to 11:10 p.m. There he dropped off Miller and left after about 20 minutes. Clark arrived around midnight at his aunt Carol Clark's house, where he typically resided. He was wearing a bloodstained shirt. He changed clothes and showered. He asked his aunt to wash his shirt and left around 12:45 a.m.

A witness testified to seeing Clark's van around 12:45 a.m. on April 1 at a location near where Roxanne's body was found, and testified it was unusual to see cars parked there. Another witness testified to seeing the van in that location around 1:00 a.m. but was unsure on which day.

When Clark returned to the Iffrig house at about 1:00 a.m., the two began talking about a camping trip they had planned for later that day. Shortly thereafter they returned to the Casey-Angilley house next door and partied the rest of the night using alcohol and drugs. At 6:30 a.m. on April 1, Clark and Iffrig began packing for the camping trip and subsequently left.

Approximately one hour later, on April 1, the Iffrigs' youngest child, Nicholas, woke up Doll-Iffrig to alert her that he could not find Roxanne. As the morning wore on, Doll-Iffrig searched the house, called nearby friends and relatives, and concluded that Roxanne was not at home or in the area. She hoped Roxanne went camping with her husband that morning, but learned from her sister-in-law Kim Morrell, who had seen Iffrig and Clark on their way to the campsite, that Roxanne was not with them. Doll-Iffrig called the police, reproduced missing-person fliers with Roxanne's picture, and left for the campsite to inform Iffrig. The camping party broke up. Iffrig returned with his wife, and Clark left the campsite in his van.

Later that afternoon, at about 4:30 p.m., Clark went to the Everett police station accompanied by his aunt Vicki Smith. There they met with Lieutenant Peter Hegge, to whom they showed copies of the missing-person flier they wanted to distribute. Lieutenant Hegge asked them to go to the Doll-Iffrig house and talk to police there. Clark said he would drive over, but seeing the number of police at the house, he continued on. He told Smith at the time he was driving without a license.

The next day, April 2, Detective Lloyd Herndon interviewed Clark and asked him why he had not come out to the Iffrig house the previous day. Clark responded he was low on gas and could not make it out. When asked why he did not page Detective Herndon, Clark responded he did not want to hassle with the police. Clark consented to a cursory search by Detective Herndon of his van.

Interest in the case began to shift to Clark. On April 3, the Everett police impounded Clark's van, and received a telephonic search warrant to search it and seize any trace evidence of Roxanne's kidnapping. Clark was placed on 24 hour surveillance by the Everett police and the FBI.

That same day, Clark telephoned his step-brother, Elza Clark, asking him to lie to police about bloodstains in Clark's van; Clark asked Elza to say the blood had come from a poached deer. However Elza refused to lie.

The Everett police arrested Clark on April 7 on suspicion he was involved with Roxanne's disappearance. The following day, April 8, Roxanne's body was found by two young girls near a path on an Everett hillside, lying in a hollow and covered with yard clippings. Clark was charged, by amended information, with aggravated first degree murder, kidnapping, and first degree rape.

On April 8, from jail, Clark telephoned Toni Clark, his step-mother and mother of Elza Clark. Clark renewed his request that Elza lie about deer blood in his van. Ms. Clark asked Clark during that conversation whether he kidnapped Roxanne, whether he raped her, and whether he killed her. Clark answered that he did not know, and related the amount of alcohol and drugs he had consumed that night. He told Ms. Clark not to grieve if he received the death penalty.

While in jail, Clark had conversations with Eugene Hillius, a fellow inmate. Hillius testified at trial that Clark at one point related his anger that his brother would not lie to police about the blood in the van, and at another point stated "they took my DNA [deoxyribonucleic acid] sample out of her butt." Verbatim Report of Proceedings (RP) (Apr. 4, 1997) at 4639 (trial).

B. EVIDENCE AT TRIAL

Evidence of Roxanne's autopsy was admitted at trial. The autopsy revealed bruising and tearing in her vagina, with two lacerations two and three centimeters long, respectively. The pathologist testified these injuries were caused by the insertion of something the size of an adult penis, and could have been sufficient by themselves to cause lethal exsanguination.

However, Roxanne died because of at least seven stab wounds to her neck, one of which severed her left internal jugular vein. The size and shape of the wounds were consistent with a small, single-edged blade such as a pocketknife. Roxanne's hands also displayed knife wounds, and it was unclear whether the wounds were defensive or intentionally inflicted.

Semen was recovered from Roxanne's body and through DNA testing it was matched with Clark's to the extent the chance of a random match was 1 in 5400 or 1 in 6 quadrillion depending upon the method of testing used.

The shirt Clark wore on the night of the murder was tested, despite having been laundered, for DNA. Human blood was found containing DNA consistent with Roxanne's. The chance of a random match was estimated at 1 in 1200.

A bloodstain found on the sleeping bag seized from Clark's van was also determined consistent with Roxanne's DNA. The chance of a random match was estimated at 1 in 1000, 1 in 9400, and 1 in 5 billion, depending on the testing method used.

Microscopic carpet fibers found on Roxanne's underclothes were consistent with the carpet in Clark's van. Clark's fingerprint was lifted from Roxanne's bedroom window.

Clark's primary defense was alibi. Through cross-examination of the state's witnesses, Clark sought to establish that (a) Doll-Iffrig saw Roxanne in bed after midnight on April 1, and (b) that Clark was seen at so many different locations between 9:30 p.m. on March 31 and 1:00 a.m. on April 1 that he did not have time to commit the crime. Clark's alternative theory was the evidence was insufficient to establish premeditation.

After three weeks of trial, the jury found Clark guilty of aggravated first degree murder, first degree kidnapping, and first degree rape.

C. EVIDENCE AT PENALTY PHASE

At the sentencing hearing the state introduced evidence of Clark's nine prior convictions. These included unlawful imprisonment, second degree burglary, attempting to elude a police officer, taking a motor vehicle without permission, vehicle prowling, and second degree theft. Over vigorous defense objection the state was also allowed to...