State v. Engelhardt
| Decision Date | 16 September 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 90,674.,90,674. |
| Citation | 119 P.3d 1148 |
| Parties | STATE of Kansas, Appellee, v. Robert J. ENGELHARDT, Appellant. |
| Court | Kansas Supreme Court |
Michael P. Whalen, Law Office of Michael P. Whalen, of Wichita, argued the cause, and Mary Curtis, assistant appellate defender, was with him on the briefs for appellant.
Kristafer R. Ailslieger, assistant attorney general, argued the cause, and Phill Kline, attorney general, was with him on the briefs for appellee.
Defendant Robert J. Engelhardt appeals his conviction for first-degree premeditated murder and his hard 50 sentence, raising several issues on appeal. This court has jurisdiction under K.S.A. 22-3601(b)(1) ().
Engelhardt was on parole but had not reported to his parole officer as directed. He lived in Wichita with his girlfriend, Michelle Drake, and his friends, Brian and Dorothy Smith. One evening Drake tried to telephone her mother, but Engelhardt became concerned that she was going to call the police and turn him in. Both couples began screaming. Drake described Engelhardt as "irate." Eventually they all left the house in Brian's car, with Engelhardt driving. At some point, Engelhardt stopped the car by the side of the road, and he and Brian got out to talk at the back of the car, discussing whether to kill the two women.
The group traveled to the trailer home of Engelhardt's cousin, Kevin Eveland, and Kevin's wife, Christina, in Newton, Kansas. Christina awoke to yelling outside the trailer. When she tried to wake Kevin, Engelhardt came in and told her and Kevin to get up and go into the living room. Michael Smith, an acquaintance of Kevin's, had come over to stay for a couple of days and was lying on the couch in the living room. Apparently, Kevin told Engelhardt that Michael had been in prison before. Michael awoke when Engelhardt and Brian started yelling at him, leaning over him, and asking him questions. Engelhardt, in a loud and threatening tone, asked Michael who he was, why he was there, if he had ever "done jail time," and if he was a "narc" who had been planted there by the cops. Michael was unable to answer the questions to the satisfaction of Engelhardt and Brian, who were both drunk and "out of control." At one point, Engelhardt made Michael lift up his shirt and pull down his pants so that Engelhardt could look for a recording device.
Engelhardt then went to the kitchen, came back into the living room, and demanded that Dorothy, Drake, Christina, and Kevin go to the trailer's back bedroom. The four of them did so, and Engelhardt and Brian stayed in the living room with Michael.
More yelling then emanated from the living room. Christina, who was pregnant, lay down on the bed in the back bedroom and held her hands over her ears. Kevin and Drake also had their hands over Christina's ears, and Kevin placed a pillow over her head because of Michael's screaming. Michael, sounding terrified, repeatedly said, "No." When asked later why she did not call the police, Christina testified that Engelhardt had directed them to unplug the phone when he first arrived. Engelhardt had said that "they were fighting," and he did not want the police to be called.
James Striplin also lived in the trailer. He was asleep in another bedroom and woke up when Engelhardt and the others arrived. From his room, Striplin heard arguing, crying, and yelling. He later testified that he heard a discussion with Michael about prison and a cemetery around a prison. He also heard Michael say, "No, no, no." Striplin stayed in his room because he thought Michael was being smacked around and "it wasn't [his] place" to get involved. When the screaming stopped it "just went quiet," and Striplin fell asleep.
During the attack on Michael and its immediate aftermath, Drake emerged from the back bedroom three times. The first time she walked down the hall toward the living room, looked in, and walked back to the bedroom. At that time, Engelhardt and Brian were hovering over Michael, and Michael was screaming; both Engelhardt and Brian were attacking Michael, but she could not see much because of the angle of the couch. When Drake came out a second time, Engelhardt took her back to the bedroom and told her to stay there. The third time Drake left the bedroom, the screaming had stopped. She walked out to the kitchen and saw Engelhardt and Brian standing there, both covered with blood. Engelhardt held a large bloody butcher knife in his hand. Drake walked over to Michael and found him dead; there was blood everywhere, and Michael was, using her word, "demolished." The entire event lasted 20 or 30 minutes.
Drake helped Engelhardt and Brian put Michael's body on a shower curtain and into the back seat of Michael's car. Engelhardt drove Michael's car into the country, and Drake and Brian followed in Brian's car. Engelhardt and Brian dropped Michael's body into a ditch. The two men then drove Michael's car (and Drake followed) to another location and left it. They returned with Drake to the trailer.
Christina later testified that, after the trailer got quiet, Engelhardt had come back to the bedroom and told her, Kevin, and Dorothy in a threatening tone to stay there until he returned. Engelhardt had blood on his clothes and his hands. Drake then left with him. When they returned, according to Christina, Engelhardt was covered "from head to toe" with blood. Engelhardt said Michael was there to "narc," so he "took care of the problem." Dorothy testified that Engelhardt said he had killed Michael.
Engelhardt told the others to clean up the trailer. In the living room there was blood on the walls, on the ceiling, in two puddles on the floor by the couch, and all over the couch. They dismantled the couch, tore out the carpet, and put everything that had blood on it into the back of Kevin's truck. Engelhardt and Striplin took the items in the truck and burned them.
Kevin went with Engelhardt to Wichita to get paint and carpet from the home of Paul Dickerson, Drake's former boyfriend. Kevin overheard Engelhardt tell Dickerson, "We just killed somebody." Dickerson later testified that Engelhardt said, "I killed somebody." Back at the trailer, Engelhardt told the others to tell police that the couch was gone because Striplin had fallen asleep on it with a cigarette and the couch had "burned up."
Michael's decomposing body was found 6 days after he was killed. He had been stabbed approximately 55 times in the head and chest. Michael's car also was found nearby, its keys still in the ignition. When evidence led police to the trailer, Kevin initially told them that Michael had left to get some food and never returned. When asked about the missing couch, Kevin and Christina said Striplin had fallen asleep with a burning cigarette and set the couch on fire, as Engelhardt had instructed them. However, after arson investigators started examining the scene, Kevin approached one of the detectives and said, "They killed a man on my couch, they stabbed him and we've been forced to help."
In Drake's original statements to police, she placed the blame for the killing on Brian. This was the story she, Engelhardt, Dorothy, and Brian had discussed and agreed upon. Engelhardt had told Drake she would go to jail for 40 years because she was an accessory; after the State granted her immunity, she agreed to testify against Engelhardt. According to Drake's testimony, Engelhardt told her he sliced Michael's throat and stabbed him in the heart to "put him out of his misery."
Brian testified against Engelhardt pursuant to a plea agreement in which Brian agreed to plead guilty to second-degree unintentional murder. Brian told police that he and Engelhardt had come up with a plan for Brian to take most of the blame for the killing; if witnesses became a problem, Engelhardt was to kill them. Brian said he had agreed to the plan to protect Dorothy and admitted to police that he "just goes off on people" when drunk. Brian further admitted that he and Engelhardt had been drinking on the night of the murder and said that they tended to "feed" off each other during altercations.
Brian had three different interviews with police. In all three he admitted that he was the first to stab Michael. And initially, as planned, he took the blame for the murder. By the time of the second interview, Brian said everything in his first statement was true except that he had left out that Engelhardt helped him "`do this dude.'" At some point, Brian also told police that Engelhardt was trying to lay the whole blame on him and that Brian did not understand why.
According to Brian, Engelhardt told Michael to answer his questions or Brian would kill him. During one police interview, Brian admitted to being the first to take a paring knife from a kitchen drawer. Then Engelhardt got a second paring knife and a butcher knife from the kitchen. In another version of Brian's story, Brian obtained the butcher knife from the kitchen. As Brian was stabbing Michael, Engelhardt told Brian to "cut him deeper." In yet another version of Brian's story, Brian said Engelhardt tried to pull him off of Michael and make him stop. Brian also said that, after he and Engelhardt had inflicted multiple wounds but Michael was still talking, Engelhardt said, "We have to kill him, we'll go to jail for what we've done." Brian said that was when Engelhardt cut Michael's throat and stabbed him in the chest.
Police discovered blood on Striplin's socks and shoes, and he eventually led police to the location where he and Engelhardt had burned the bloody items from the house. Officers also found seven knives at the burn site, including paring knives and a larger knife. They found another knife in a...
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