State v. Deanda

• Decision Date: 23 May 2014
• Docket Number: No. 107,477.,107,477.
• Parties: STATE of Kansas, Appellee, v. Joaquin A. DeANDA, Appellant.
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

299 Kan. 594

324 P.3d 1115

STATE of Kansas, Appellee,

v.Joaquin A. DeANDA, Appellant.

No. 107,477.

Supreme Court of Kansas.

May 23, 2014.

Recognized as Unconstitutional

West's K.S.A. 21–4635

Syllabus by the Court

Kansas' former statutory procedure for imposing a hard 50 sentence as provided in K.S.A. 21–4635 violates the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution as interpreted in Alleyne v. United States, 570 U.S. ––––, 133 S.Ct. 2151, 2155, 2162–63, 186 L.Ed.2d 314 (2013), because it permitted a judge to find by a preponderance of the evidence the existence of one or more aggravating factors necessary to impose an increased mandatory minimum sentence rather than requiring a jury to find the existence of the aggravating factors beyond a reasonable doubt.

Korey A. Kaul, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, argued the cause, and Shawn E. Minihan, of the same office, was on the brief for appellant.

Linda J. Lobmeyer, assistant county attorney, argued the cause, and Susan Richmeier, county attorney, and Derek Schmidt, attorney general, were with her on the brief for appellee.

The opinion of the court was delivered by MORITZ, J.:

Following his guilty plea, Joaquin DeAnda was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for 50 years (hard 50). In this direct appeal of his sentence, DeAnda asserts the district court erred in admitting hearsay evidence at his sentencing hearing and in imposing a period of lifetime postrelease supervision. Further, DeAnda contends the district court's imposition of the hard 50 sentence violated his rights under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution because a judge rather than a jury found the facts necessary to increase the mandatory minimum sentence.

Following our holding in State v. Soto, 299 Kan. 102, Syl. ¶ 9, 322 P.3d 334 (2014), we conclude Kansas' former statutory procedure for imposing a hard 50 sentence as provided in K.S.A. 21–4635 is unconstitutional. More specifically, the procedure utilized here violated the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution as interpreted in Alleyne v. United States, 570 U.S. ––––, 133 S.Ct. 2151, 2155, 2162–63, 186 L.Ed.2d 314 (2013), because it permitted a judge to find by a preponderance of the evidence the existence of one or more aggravating factors necessary to impose an increased mandatory minimum sentence rather than requiring a jury to find the existence of the aggravating factors beyond a reasonable doubt.

Based on this conclusion, we vacate DeAnda's hard 50 sentence and remand for resentencing. Therefore, we do not address DeAnda's claims of error regarding the admission of hearsay evidence at the sentencing hearing and imposition of an unauthorized lifetime postrelease supervision period. But, for purposes of remand, we consider and reject DeAnda's claim that the evidence was insufficient to support the aggravating circumstance.

Factual and Procedural Background

In December 2008, Garden City police discovered the body of 16–year–old J.Q. in a trash dumpster behind the home 17–year–old DeAnda shared with his mother. Following an investigation, the State charged DeAnda as a juvenile with first-degree murder, rape, and aggravated criminal sodomy. After a hearing, the district court certified DeAnda for adult prosecution and bound him over for trial on all charges.

Before trial, DeAnda entered into a plea agreement with the State, agreeing to plead guilty to one count of first-degree premeditated murder in exchange for the State's agreement to dismiss the remaining charges with prejudice, and the State reserved the right to seek a hard 50 sentence. At the plea hearing, defense counsel provided the following factual basis for DeAnda's guilty plea:

“[O]n December 13th of 2008, [J.Q.] arrived at the home of Joaquin DeAnda and his mother, Margie Romero. They went down to his basement bedroom, which is downstairs of the home on Fourth Street here in Garden City, Finney County, Kansas. They watched a movie and visited for a while. At some point Mr. DeAnda began to choke [J.Q.]. As he was choking her, he realized what he was doing could lead to her death, but continued to choke anyway until [J.Q.] fell unconscious, and Mr. DeAnda believed she was dead.

“He then waited for [his mother and her friend], who were present in the upstairs portion of the home, to leave the home to attend some—a parade and some other festivities in town. After they left, Mr. DeAnda moved [J.Q.'s] vehicle from the front of his home to another location here in Garden City, Finney County, Kansas, came back, and then after several—I'm sorry, before—when he came back, before moving her body, he then stepped on her neck to make sure that she was dead. And then proceeded to attempt to get her body up the stairs unsuccessfully, but eventually got her up the upstairs portion to the main level of the house, and then drug her out to the backyard, and then placed her body into a dumpster in the back alleyway behind the house, where her body was later discovered on or about December 16th of 2008.”

The district court accepted the plea and convicted DeAnda of first-degree premeditated murder. Before sentencing, the State filed notice of its intent to seek a hard 50 sentence, alleging DeAnda committed the murder in an especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel manner. See K.S.A. 21–4636(f).

At the sentencing hearing, the State presented evidence from several witnesses to support the alleged aggravating circumstance. Detective Mark Johnson testified he found J.Q.'s body in a dumpster located behind the DeAnda residence and that J.Q. had bruising on her face and cut marks on her neck just below her chin.

Kathy Gill–Hopple, a sexual assault nurse examiner, examined J.Q.'s body before the autopsy and found three 1–millimeter abrasions on the posterior tissue of J.Q.'s vaginal opening. Gill–Hopple testified these abrasions were consistent with a sliding force injury. Further, Gill–Hopple testified she found three contusions, or bruises, at the juncture of J.Q.'s hymen and labia minora and that these contusions were not postmortem injuries.

Over DeAnda's objection, the State introduced an autopsy report and evidence about the cause and manner of J.Q.'s death through the testimony of Dr. Jamie Oeberst, the Sedgwick County district coroner and chief medical examiner. Another medical examiner, Dr. Bamidele Adeagbo, had performed the autopsy and had testified at DeAnda's preliminary hearing. But by the time of DeAnda's sentencing, Dr. Adeagbo was no longer employed by Sedgwick County.

Dr. Oeberst testified the manner of death was homicide and the cause of death was “asphyxia associated with blunt-force injuries.” She described the blunt-force injuries as abrasions and contusions on J.Q.'s face, a contusion on the inside of the scalp on the top of J.Q.'s head evidencing a blow to the head, and a hemorrhage on the anterior aspect of J.Q.'s cervical spine, evidencing “[p]ossibly a twisting motion” or “side-to-side or front-to-back” movement of the tissue around the spine.

According to Dr. Oeberst, some of J.Q.'s injuries, including “fingertip contusions” on her thighs, indicated a struggle preceded her death. Dr. Oeberst further testified J.Q. had multiple abrasions, scrapes, and contusions on her face, chest, abdomen, back, and extremities; postmortem incisions on her neck and arms; and postmortem burns on her back. Finally, Dr. Oeberst testified she reviewed microscopic slides of tissue samples from J.Q.'s vaginal contusions and concluded the vaginal contusions occurred “within probably a couple of hours” of J.Q.'s death but not after her death.

Kelly Edison, a psychologist formerly employed by Larned State Hospital, conducted a court-ordered mental evaluation of DeAnda and testified about DeAnda's statements to her during that evaluation. According to Edison, DeAnda said that on the night of J.Q.'s death, he and J.Q. were cuddling, listening to music, and making out when he began choking J.Q. because he wanted to be “Nick Gonzo.” DeAnda explained to Edison that “Nick Gonzo” was not a real person but “ ‘the person [he] aim[ed] to be.’ ” J.Q. fought back but was unable to scream because DeAnda was choking her. After choking J.Q., DeAnda placed his hands on the ceiling to brace himself and stood on J.Q.'s neck to make sure she was dead. Then, before going upstairs to eat, he placed J.Q. in the bed to look as if she was sleeping. After his mother left the house, DeAnda returned to the basement and had sex with J.Q.'s dead body.

DeAnda also told Edison he hid J.Q.'s body under the bed and then took her bag and cell phone and drove her car to the zoo. After parking J.Q.'s car at the zoo, DeAnda walked back to his home, dragged J.Q.'s body across the floor, and dumped it in a trash dumpster.

Testifying for the defense, Dr. Corrie May, a forensic pathologist, identified numerous errors she found in the autopsy report, including the incorrect use of anatomic and technical pathology terms; multiple diagnoses of the same wound beneath the left collarbone ; and a statement that “[t]he cervical vertebrae was ... out of alignment,” although x-rays showed the area as “normal.” Dr. May also testified the autopsy report mislabeled several cuts on the body as stab wounds and failed to indicate the medical examiner performed the autopsy over the course of 2 days.

Dr. May agreed that J.Q.'s death resulted from asphyxiation and that sharp cuts across J.Q.'s throat were inflicted postmortem. According to Dr. May, she could not determine whether a sexual assault occurred, but she agreed that if DeAnda claimed he sexually assaulted J.Q., she had “no evidence to the contrary.” Dr. May also testified she did not have all of the investigative lab reports, but she admitted that if the reports indicated the presence of DeAnda's semen in the vaginal wall, “common sense would tell you there must have been some sexual...