State v. Claybrook

• Decision Date: 14 June 2021
• Docket Number: No. 80898-2-I,80898-2-I
• Court: Washington Court of Appeals
• Parties: STATE OF WASHINGTON, Respondent, v. THOMAS LYLE CLAYBROOK, Appellant.

STATE OF WASHINGTON, Respondent, v. THOMAS LYLE CLAYBROOK, Appellant.

No. 80898-2-I

COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE STATE OF WASHINGTON DIVISION ONE

June 14, 2021

UNPUBLISHED OPINION

ANDRUS, A.C.J. — Thomas Claybrook challenges his convictions for felony harassment, unlawful imprisonment, and second degree assault arising out of the brutal beating of his girlfriend, R.C. Claybrook, who represented himself at trial, contends the trial court violated his right to be present when it removed him from the courtroom during the direct examination of R.C. without first warning him that his disruptive and disrespectful behavior could lead to his removal. Claybrook also argues that convicting him of two counts of assault for what he contends was a single course of conduct violates the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy.

We conclude that the trial court erred by removing Claybrook from the courtroom without first warning him that his disruptive behavior could result in his removal but this error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. We further conclude that there is no double jeopardy violation and thus affirm his convictions.

FACTS

R.C. met Claybrook in October of 2018 and the two were dating by January 2019. Claybrook often stayed with R.C. in her Shoreline apartment. After they began dating, Claybrook became controlling, often going through R.C.'s phone to monitor her contacts with friends and requiring her to end friendships with other men.

On February 24, 2019, R.C. resigned from her job and spent the day with Claybrook. R.C. had discovered something disturbing about Claybrook's past and wanted to confront him about it.¹ Feeling upset, R.C. decided to have a few alcoholic drinks with Claybrook to "help out with the tension." When they arrived at her apartment, R.C. confronted Claybrook about his past. Claybrook, who wanted to have sex with R.C., became "more and more upset" when she refused his sexual advances and insisted on discussing his past. They argued for 15 to 20 minutes before R.C. felt that "enough was enough" and told Claybrook to leave.

R.C. testified that Claybrook then punched her in the head as she tried to walk away, causing her to see stars and fall to the floor. Claybrook straddled R.C. and threatened to kill her. Terrified, R.C. tried to appease Claybrook and offered to "go lay back in bed" and give in to being intimate with him, but Claybrook stated he did not trust her enough to let her up.

When he threatened her again, R.C. screamed for help, hoping someone nearby might hear her. Claybrook put his hands around her neck and strangled her until she blacked out. R.C. was unsure how long she was unconscious but Claybrook was still sitting on her when she regained consciousness.

R.C. told Claybrook she needed to use the bathroom, where she planned to use her phone to call for help. Claybrook let her get up off the floor, but refused to let R.C. close the door and insisted on watching her while she used the toilet.

When Claybrook turned to lock the sliding door to the apartment, R.C. ran to the kitchen in only her underwear and grabbed a small knife to defend herself. She told Claybrook she wanted to leave and would stab him if he came near her. Claybrook knocked the knife out of R.C.'s hand. R.C. attempted to escape out her front door but Claybrook slammed the door shut before she could get out. Claybrook locked the door and began beating R.C. with his fists. R.C. tried to alert her neighbors by banging on the walls and shouting for help. In response, Claybrook dragged her into the bathroom by her hair and told her to stay there until he left the apartment. She looked in the mirror and could see that one eye was swollen shut, and there was blood everywhere.

R.C. grabbed a small pair of scissors from the bathroom and again tried to escape while Claybrook was packing up his belongings. With the scissors hidden behind her back, R.C. pleaded with Claybrook to let her leave. When Claybrook tried to shove her back into the bathroom, R.C. lunged at him with the scissors. Claybrook wrestled the scissors from her and used them to stab R.C. in the backof her head, her back, and her left arm. Claybrook then shoved her back into the bathroom and closed the door.

R.C. again attempted to flee. She grabbed a decorative rock that she kept on a nearby table and struck Claybrook in the head when he approached her. Claybrook staggered backwards and R.C. ran for the door. Before R.C. could open the door, Claybrook caught her and punched her again to prevent her from leaving. While Claybrook was locking the door, R.C. picked up a metal luggage dolly and tried unsuccessfully to hit him with it. Claybrook seized the dolly from her and beat her with it, striking her multiple times in the head and torso until she was "seeing stars" and having trouble with her vision.

Claybrook continued packing his bags, and R.C. made a fourth attempt to escape. When Claybrook again tried to intervene, she kicked him in the groin and was finally able to escape. Once outside the apartment, R.C. began screaming and knocking on neighbors' doors.

R.C.'s neighbor, Margaret Studley, testified that she called 911 after hearing a loud "thump and then kind of a dragging sound," followed by a woman's voice screaming. Studley thought the noises sounded "very violent" and that the woman seemed to be "in real trouble." As Studley went into the hallway to meet responding deputies, R.C. burst out of her apartment exclaiming "he's killing me, he's trying to kill me. . . ."

Several King County Deputy Sheriffs responded to R.C.'s apartment within approximately three minutes of the 911 call. Detective Edgar Pena and Deputy Sean Nelson observed Claybrook jump down from R.C.'s low balcony and quicklywalk away. When they contacted Claybrook outside the apartment, he was sweating profusely and his face, neck, hands, and clothes were covered in blood. Suspecting Claybrook was involved in the incident, Detective Pena detained him.

Meanwhile, Deputies Robert Knight and Sean Barber entered the apartment building and found R.C. cowering in the hallway, dressed in only a T-shirt and underwear. She was "screaming, crying, and just covered in blood and had very obvious injuries." She was "bleeding from pretty much every orifice of her face," which was "extremely swollen," and she had "obvious strangulation marks around her neck." She also had a number of "small stab-type wounds." She was hysterical and extremely anxious, which made questioning her difficult, but she was able to report that Claybrook had strangled and beaten her and stabbed her with scissors. She repeatedly told officers and medical responders that she was afraid that Claybrook was going to kill her.

Deputies saw R.C.'s apartment was in total disarray. There were "items on the floor, items broken, and things knocked over." There was blood spattered on the walls and floor, a pool of blood in the living room, and blood throughout the bathroom. They also found a "fairly large" tuft of what looked like R.C.'s hair on the ground.

R.C. was transported to Northwest Hospital where her injuries, including two nasal bone fractures and multiple lacerations to her face and hands, were treated.

The State charged Claybrook with two counts of second degree assault, one count of felony harassment, and one count of unlawful imprisonment. All werecharged as domestic violence offenses. One of the assault charges further alleged that Claybrook had been armed with a deadly weapon when he hit R.C. with the metal dolly and that this assault caused a level of injury substantially greater than necessary to accomplish the crime.

Claybrook represented himself at trial. Throughout the trial and pre-trial hearings, Claybrook was unruly and disruptive. He frequently argued with the trial court and interrupted the prosecutor's examination of witnesses with non-legal objections and inappropriate commentary on the testimony. His attempts to cross-examine witnesses sometimes devolved into confused and tangential diatribes, despite the court's repeated admonitions that he needed to ask appropriate questions.

During the direct examination of R.C., Claybrook became extremely disruptive. He repeatedly "objected" and interrupted R.C.'s answers with his own testimony about the incident and began fake-coughing words like "bullshit" and "extortion." After Claybrook's interruptions became so persistent that R.C. could not focus enough to carry on with her testimony, the trial court excused the jury so that it could address the issue with Claybrook. When the trial court reprimanded Claybrook for his behavior and attempted to advise him on how to properly object, Claybrook became antagonistic. The court responded

THE COURT: You're going to be removed, and you can watch the rest—

MR. CLAYBROOK: No, f[***], I object to that, too.

THE COURT: —of the proceeding. You can watch the proceedings.

MR. CLAYBROOK: She's f[***]ing lying.

THE COURT: And then I'll bring you back for cross-examination.

Claybrook became angry and shouted at the court that his objections were proper and demanded to know what "playbook" the court was using. The trial court reiterated

THE COURT: You're going to be removed.

MR. CLAYBROOK: No, I'm not.

THE COURT: You can watch the remainder—

MR. CLAYBROOK: I object. You said 3.5.

THE COURT: —of the direct examination—

MR. CLAYBROOK: F[***] no.

THE COURT: —in a courtroom, but I am not going to—

MR. CLAYBROOK: It says right here if you're lying, I can object.

THE COURT: —listen and I'm not going to have her subjected to this type of behavior. . . . And we will set up the video cart. I'm doing this reluctantly because the witness is uncomfortable. She asked me to stop because she cannot focus. . . . We'll bring you back, but we're not going to continue like this.

The trial court had Claybrook escorted to a different room in the courthouse, in which there was a remote video screen that allowed him to watch a live camera feed of the courtroom...