State v. Connolly
| Decision Date | 01 July 1997 |
| Citation | 700 So.2d 810 |
| Parties | 96-1680 La |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
M. Craig Colwart, Franklin, for Applicant.
Richard P. Ieyoub, Attorney General, Bernard E. Boudreaux, Jr., New Iberia, James R. McClelland, Franklin, for Respondent.
[96-1680 La. 1] KIMBALL, Justice. *
A St. Mary Parish Grand Jury indicted John Malachi Connolly, III for the first degree murder of Shane Michael Pullen, in violation of La. R.S. 14:30. After a trial by jury, Defendant was found guilty as charged and sentenced to death based upon the jury's finding of three aggravating circumstances. The trial judge sentenced Defendant to death in accordance with the jury's recommendation. This is the direct appeal of Defendant's conviction and sentence.
On appeal, Defendant relies on seven assignments of error. For the reasons that follow, we find no merit in any of Defendant's assignments and affirm Defendant's conviction and sentence.
On the evening of October 7, 1992, Shane Michael Pullen, a nine year old boy, was murdered behind the First Baptist Church of Morgan City. The victim had attended church services that evening with his mother, father, and older brother. After the service ended, the victim mingled with other members of the congregation. Sometime around 7:30 p.m., the victim's family noticed he was missing. The Pullen family and other church members searched the church building and grounds for the victim. Defendant, a Sunday school teacher at the church who had also attended church services that night, persuaded the victim's father, Perry Pullen, to search [96-1680 La. 2] behind the church for his son. Behind the church, Perry Pullen discovered his son's bloody body lying on the ground.
With the help of Reverend Johnson and Defendant, Perry Pullen took the victim to Lakewood Medical Hospital in Morgan City. At the hospital, the victim who had sustained several knife wounds including a fatal cutting of the throat, was pronounced dead. In the course of examining the victim, doctors noted that the victim's anus was widely dilated, a finding consistent with sexual penetration.
Police questioned various witnesses at the hospital about the murder. The investigation quickly focused on Defendant, who was acting strangely. Detective Banks initially questioned Defendant in the X-ray room at the hospital. After being informed by police that he was not under arrest, Defendant agreed to accompany the police to the Morgan City Police Station.
At the station, Defendant was again informed he was not under arrest and was also given his Miranda rights. Defendant signed a waiver of rights form. Detective Banks, Detective Peterson and Agent Marino interviewed Defendant. While Agent Marino was speaking to Defendant, he confessed to killing Shane Pullen. Subsequent to his initial confession, Defendant gave a taped confession and took the officers back to the church to walk them through the events which led to the victim's death, and to show them where he had hidden the knife and the victim's shirt.
According to Defendant, after church services, he went behind the church to catch lizards to feed to his pet reptiles. While behind the church, Defendant stated he experienced an attack of anger. Defendant maintains he frequently experienced anger attacks which were triggered by his memory of being molested when he was a young boy by an acquaintance of his father, Mr. Cox. To handle these anger attacks, Defendant would go off by himself to punch and kick the ground. Defendant recounted that the victim observed him bending down on his hands and knees punching the ground. Defendant claims he thought the victim was Mr. Cox, when the victim asked Defendant what was wrong and put his hand on Defendant's shoulder. Defendant grabbed the victim around the neck and pulled out his butterfly knife, and slashed the victim.
In his confession, Defendant contended he did not realize the victim was Shane Pullen, and not Mr. Cox until after he dropped the victim on the ground. At that point, Defendant claims he [96-1680 La. 3] removed the victim's shirt to use it to try and stop the bleeding. However, there was so much blood that Defendant panicked, stuffed the shirt in his pocket, and walked away. Later, Defendant discarded the shirt under a shed, washed his hands in the bathroom, and hid the knife in the trunk of his car. Defendant maintained he did not sexually molest the victim. 1 At the guilt phase of his trial, Defendant admitted all of the above facts to the jury; however, Defendant contended he was only guilty of manslaughter and not first degree murder.
While Defendant was at the church with the police officers recreating the events surrounding Shane Pullen's murder, one of the officers asked Defendant if he had ever killed anyone before, and if in 1989, he killed a boy from Berwick named Lawrence Topham. At that point, Defendant admitted to killing Lawrence Topham, who was twelve years old at the time of his death. Defendant stated he and Lawrence Topham lived in the same trailer park and that Topham would often visit the Defendant at his trailer. According to Defendant's confession, Defendant went into the woods at the trailer park so he could be alone. Topham asked Defendant what was he doing out in the woods since the woods were flooded. Instead of answering Topham, Defendant stated he grabbed the boy and choked him until his body went limp, and dropped him into a ditch filled with about eighteen inches of water. At the time of Topham's death, both the coroner and the police attributed his death to accidental drowning. In addition to confessing to the police, Defendant also confessed his involvement in Topham's death to his attorney, to Reverend Johnson, and to members of his own family. However, Defendant later recanted his confessions concerning his involvement in Topham's death. Defendant stated he confessed to killing Topham because he just wanted to die for killing Shane Pullen. Defendant has been indicted for the second degree murder of Topham, but has not yet gone to trial on that charge. Evidence concerning the death of Lawrence Topham was not admitted in the guilt phase of the trial; however, it was admitted in the penalty phase of the trial.
On January 26, 1995, the jury found Defendant guilty of first degree murder. The jury returned a guilty verdict under a charge which defined first degree murder disjunctively as the specific intent homicide of a person under the age of twelve years or a specific intent homicide [96-1680 La. 4] committed in the course of an aggravated rape. The jury returned a penalty of death based upon their finding of three aggravating circumstances: (a) defendant was engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of aggravated rape; (b) the offense was committed in an especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel manner; and (c) the victim was under the age of twelve years. In accordance with the jury's recommendation, the trial judge formally sentenced Defendant to death.
On appeal, Defendant alleges seven assignments of error, 2 which this court will address in the following order: pre-trial issues and penalty phase issues, as there are no assignments of error pertaining to the guilt phase.
Defendant contends his conviction and sentence should be reversed based upon the trial court's failure to grant his motion for a change of venue on the grounds that the extent and nature of pretrial publicity and many of the prospective jurors' responses on voir dire show it was impossible for him to have received a fair and impartial trial in St. Mary Parish. The trial judge deferred ruling on the motion until voir dire was conducted.
La.C.Cr.P. art. 622 3 governs the grounds for a change of venue. To obtain a change of [96-1680 La. 5] venue in any case in which the trial atmosphere has not been "utterly corrupted by press coverage," Murphy v. Florida, 421 U.S. 794, 798, 95 S.Ct. 2031, 2035, 44 L.Ed.2d 589 (1975), a defendant "must prove that there exists a prejudice in the collective minds of the community that would make a fair trial impossible." State v. Lee, 559 So.2d 1310, 1313 (La.1990), cert. denied, 499 U.S. 954, 111 S.Ct. 1431, 113 L.Ed.2d 482 (1991). However, "extensive knowledge in the community of either the crimes or the putative criminal is not sufficient by itself to render a trial unconstitutionally unfair." Dobbert v Florida, 432 U.S. 282, 303, 97 S.Ct. 2290, 2303, 53 L.Ed.2d 344 (1977). La.C.Cr.P. art. 622 requires that the defendant "must prove more than mere public knowledge of facts surrounding the offense to be entitled to have his trial moved to another parish." State v. Comeaux, 514 So.2d 84, 90 (La.1987).
Defendant's trial began in January 1995, over two years after the murder and first flurry of publicity. Three newspaper articles concerning the murder of Shane Pullen were introduced by the defense. Immediately after the murder, The Banner Tribune printed an article detailing the basic facts surrounding the crime. On July 20, 1993, The Daily Review printed a brief article concerning the basic facts surrounding the crime. The Daily Review also printed an article on June 24, 1994, which stated that Defendant's trial had been rescheduled and mentioned the fact that Defendant was involved in the murder of Lawrence Topham. According to the defense, details concerning the Pullen murder were also aired on television and radio stations which were broadcast in St. Mary Parish. These brief factual accounts of the murder did not result in a trial atmosphere which was utterly corrupted by press coverage. Thus, under Lee, 559 So.2d at 1313, Defendant must prove there existed such prejudice in the minds of the community from which the venire was selected that he was prevented from receiving a fair trial.
According to the information gathered through voir dire,...
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