State v. Dunlap
| Decision Date | 23 August 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 94-1777,94-1777 |
| Citation | 73 Ohio St.3d 308,652 N.E.2d 988 |
| Parties | The STATE of Ohio, Appellee, v. DUNLAP, Appellant. |
| Court | Ohio Supreme Court |
On October 6, 1991, at a Cincinnati park, defendant-appellant Timothy Dunlap used a crossbow to shoot two arrows into his girlfriend, Belinda Bolanos. After Dunlap left Bolanos to die, he drove her Chevette across the country until he arrived on October 16 at Soda Springs, Idaho. There, Dunlap used a sawed-off shotgun to rob a bank and kill bank teller Tonya Crane. Idaho police captured him that afternoon. Dunlap now appeals his Ohio conviction and death sentence for the aggravated murder and robbery of Bolanos. 1
In June 1991, Dunlap traveled from Indiana to Cincinnati, where he found casual labor jobs and lived on the streets and in inexpensive motels. That summer, he met Bolanos in Cincinnati, where he worked as a temporary worker. They began dating, traveled to Florida, and in mid-September started living together in her early 1980s Chevette hatchback. In late September, Dunlap bought a crossbow and thought about killing Bolanos.
On Sunday morning, October 6, 1991, Dunlap asked Bolanos to go with him for a picnic near the Ohio River. When they arrived at a river park, Dunlap told her he had a surprise for her. Dunlap described later how he "blind folded her, walked her into the woods, had the cross bow with me, shot her once in the neck, she fell to the ground, then I shot her once in the head." He shot her in the neck so "she wouldn't be able to scream." In the head, he chose "the closest place to the temple, softest part of the skull." Dunlap killed her to "get her car, credit card and checks." When he left her, he drove her Chevette to Louisville, Kentucky.
In Louisville, Dunlap purchased a 12-gauge shotgun and then drove for several days through Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho until he arrived at Soda Springs, Idaho. Along the way, he sawed several inches off the shotgun barrel. During his journey, he assumed the fictitious name of Steve Bolanos and used Belinda's credit card to pay for gas, meals and lodging.
On October 12, while Dunlap was driving across the country, Bolanos's body was discovered in the woods. The coroner found that Bolanos died as a result of wounds caused by two arrows: one arrow went through her throat almost five inches, and the other arrow, shot into the right side of her head, pierced her brain for six inches. Despite these injuries, Bolanos probably lived for fifteen to thirty minutes after she was shot.
Around 9:30 a.m., October 16, Dunlap walked into a Soda Springs, Idaho bank with the sawed-off shotgun and asked teller Crane for all of her money. According to one teller, Dunlap shot Crane "as quickly as he grabbed the money." Dunlap was described as "very cool, very calm, and very collected," with "the coldest eyes." Another teller confirmed that Crane "did everything" Dunlap asked, "and he shot her for no reason." Crane died as a result of the shotgun blast to her chest. A bystander wrote down a description of Dunlap and the car, including the license number.
Later that afternoon, Dunlap abandoned the Chevette after a chase and escaped into nearby woods, but was later apprehended. After being advised of his Miranda rights, Dunlap admitted he had robbed the Soda Springs bank and shot the teller.
During interviews on October 17 and 19, Dunlap again admitted to police that he robbed the bank and shot Crane, because "she set the alarm to the police and she didn't give me all the money." Dunlap asserted, however, he "never intended to kill her." Because he had loaded the shotgun with bird shot, he thought she would just wind up in the hospital.
In the same interviews, Dunlap admitted he shot Bolanos with the crossbow in order to get her car, check book, and credit cards. Dunlap recognized He felt a "little bit of sadness" because "I liked her a little bit." In the October 19 interview, Dunlap also claimed that an ex-boyfriend of Bolanos gave him money to kill her, but no evidence at trial supported that assertion.
On October 16, Dunlap consented to a search of the car. On October 18, police searched the Chevette and found the crossbow, the shotgun, numerous credit card receipts signed by Dunlap as "Steve Bolanos," Belinda's personal belongings, and a large quantity of loose cash.
The grand jury indicted Dunlap for two aggravated murder counts relating to Bolanos, murder done with prior calculation and design (count I) and felony murder (count II), as well as aggravated robbery (count III). Each murder count included two death penalty specifications alleging murder as a "course of conduct" and murder during an aggravated robbery in violation of R.C. 2929.04(A)(5) and (7). At trial, Dunlap asked his attorneys not to challenge the prosecution's guilt-phase evidence or to cross-examine prosecution witnesses. Defense did move to suppress Dunlap's pretrial statements to police and also contested Dunlap's guilt as to the "course of conduct" death penalty specification. The jury convicted Dunlap as charged.
Dunlap's mother, Patricia Dunlap, testified that Dunlap was born in August 1968, and his stepfather adopted him in 1969. As a youth, Dunlap played sports, served as an altar boy, a school crossing guard, and a cub scout, and was in the county sheriff's cadet program. In high school, he was in several plays and played the school mascot. In two years of college, he studied business law, communications, and drama and had the lead in a college play. When he was twenty-one, he got married and had a son, but the marriage lasted less than a year. Until his divorce, he was never in trouble with the law, and he even ran for political office twice.
John Dunlap, his stepfather, testified he was a good son, who was introverted in grade school, but he blossomed in high school. At eighteen, he was rebellious. Dunlap's grandmother spoke highly of him. His sister testified that he had few friends and started rebelling against his parents in high school. In college, Dunlap did well and loved acting. After his marriage, his wife had a child, and he was "a very loving father." He went "over the edge" when his wife divorced him less than a year later.
His mother thought Dunlap "always had mental problems." When he was twelve, his mother took him for counseling and therapy, but that stopped when he told her, "I just can't go anymore." He reportedly had comprehension problems and a learning disability. In January 1991, police arrested Dunlap for harassing his ex-wife. After some time in jail, he was admitted at a mental health facility. That facility's records report that Dunlap was "manipulative" and prone to violence, and he had a history of depression, temper outbursts, and possible hallucinations. Those records reflect a diagnosis of disassociative disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, depressive disorder, and personality disorder with a possible partial complex seizure disorder.
When released from that facility, Dunlap went back to jail and then to Madison State Hospital in Indiana. In June 1991, he escaped from Madison and went to Cincinnati. His family did not see him again until after his October 1991 arrest in Idaho.
When his family first talked and met with Dunlap after his October arrest, he seemed like a different person. Dunlap's voice showed "no feeling, no warmth, no emotion." Dunlap had an unfamiliar "hideous laugh" and "cold, glaring stare." Yet his mother, sister, and grandmother all agreed that Dunlap, after time, showed remorse in jail. Dunlap told his grandmother he was sorry for what he had done and had asked God to forgive him.
In an unsworn statement, Dunlap said, "I am but a man who thought he was pushed to the edge of desperation, living in dire straights [sic ]." Now, he felt "sorry for what [he's] done." As to the bank robbery, he "did not intend, calculate or design the death of the teller." When he thought she pushed the alarm, his "anger and frustration turned to rage," and he shot her. The "same pent up anger and rage led to [his] crime here in Ohio." On the streets of Cincinnati, he lived "on the razor's edge of sanity struggling every day to survive." He had nowhere to stay but in Bolanos's car. He had He challenged the jury that "If any one of you can * * * place yourself in my situation and state of mind, [and say] you would have done different, then you're simply dealing in lunacy and can't possibly say one way or the other."
He told the jury, Further, he said, "I care about my family, my friends, and my son, and the people I hurt, and ask them to forgive me." Now, he hopes for "a chance to rehabilitate" himself in prison. "And though I took two lives, I do not deserve to die."
In rebuttal, Dr. Michael Estess, a board-certified psychiatrist, testified via videotape that he had interviewed Dunlap and reviewed various records. In his view, Dunlap had "personality disorders," including "passive-aggressive," "histrionic" and "explosive" disorder. These disorders did not constitute a mental disease or defect, and Dunlap understood right from wrong and could conform his actions to law. Estess agreed that Dunlap might possibly have some organic brain dysfunction, but even if that were true, it had no particular significance or relevance. Estess disbelieved Dunlap's claims of occasional blackouts or hallucinations; instead he thought Dunlap was prone to "theater," "embellishment," and even "malingering." 2
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