State v. Evans, 59282

Decision Date23 November 1977
Docket NumberNo. 59282,59282
Citation259 N.W.2d 789
PartiesSTATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Herman EVANS, Appellant.
CourtIowa Supreme Court

Philip M. Reisetter of Iowa City, and Thomas P. Curran of Minneapolis, Minn., for appellant.

Richard C. Turner, Atty. Gen., J. Susan Carney, Asst. Atty. Gen. and Jack W. Dooley, Johnson County Atty., for appellee.

Heard by MOORE, C. J., and RAWLINGS, REES, UHLENHOPP and McCORMICK, JJ.

UHLENHOPP, Justice.

This appeal involves guilty-plea proceedings on a charge of malicious injury to a building. Defendant Herman Evans suffers from schizophrenia with manic depressive components. At times, especially when off medication, he loses touch with reality and suffers severe mood problems.

Defendant has a history of being in and out of mental health institutions and of some criminal activity. On November 20, 1975, neighbors made a complaint to the Iowa City police that defendant was creating a disturbance at an apartment. When the police arrived, defendant was shouting and muttering incoherently, and the police observed burning papers against a door. They took defendant to the station house where, during booking, defendant held a plastic evidence envelope over a burning lighter "to form a light like a falling star."

As a result of the latter incident the county attorney charged defendant with attempting to burn the booking room. The officers placed defendant in jail, where he tore a lavatory and a commode from their moorings.

The trial court appointed an attorney for defendant, and thereafter entered an order reciting that defendant "committed acts of arson and vandalism while within the confines of the Jail, such as to bring into serious doubt Defendant's sanity at this time" and transferring defendant to Iowa Security Medical Facility (ISMF) for psychiatric examination, evaluation, and treatment and for return upon completion.

On January 21, 1976, ISMF through Dr. R. T. Lara reported to the court. We quote portions of the report:

Mr. Evans is well known to the local authorities and to all psychiatric hospitals in the area. In a true sense, he is a chronic community problem. In July, 1974, he was discharged from this faculty as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia with depressive components. It was recommended that he be civilly committed to a V.A. setting. At that time, it was already appreciated that Mr. Evans was not only chronically mentally ill, that his present wife, Dee, condoned and fostered his illness. . . .

On admission, Mr. Evans was inaccessible to interview. He was a well-muscled, sinewy man who wore earrings. He kept hopping from foot to foot and leaped atop the commode. He proclaimed that today was "Judgment Day." Very quickly, he was placed on anti-psychotic medications, and he responded predictably. He was preoccupied with the question of which came first, a chicken or an egg? Only he had the answer. When prodded, he solemnly replied, "a rooster." . . .

After two weeks, a leaden curtain of depression came over him. Although there was evidence of depression on his last admission, it had not been as severe as this, nor was it as recalcitrant to chemotherapy. Insofar as he still had to appear in criminal court, we avoided the use of shock treatments. This would be clinically beneficial, but could present problems of possible amnesia when it comes to cooperating with his counsel in discussing the allegations.

Despite that, there has been slow but noticeable improvement. As again, the gamut of our tests show him to be a physically healthy man. Our present psychological tests are comparable to that of his last which show him to have an IQ of 83, placing him in the dull normal range of intelligence. The battery of tests support our clinical observations of a thinking and a mood disorder, the latter more pronounced on this admission. It would appear that Mr. Evans has presented different facets of his illness to different institutions. If only for classification purposes, this condition is probably best subsumed by the diagnosis of Schizophrenia, schizo-affective type, APA Code 295.7, with paranoid features.

Although still ill, he has sufficiently remitted to be again competent for trial. He understands the nature of the proceedings against him and is able to cooperate with his counsel in his defense.

It is our considered opinion that his capability to distinguish right from wrong at that critical time (apparently at time of alleged crime) was impaired by reason of mental illness. He had an awareness of what he was doing, but this was most superficial. His judgment and recognition of the consequences of his behavior were gone. As an example, this examiner has seen him set a match to his fallen hair which he had collected in a small mat. He was utterly oblivious to the social context in which he did this. . . .

He is being returned as being reasonably remitted for trial to continue. He is being discharged on Haldol, 16 mgs. daily; Congentin, 2 mgs. daily, and Flavil, also 200 mgs. daily.

The defense attorney appointed by the trial court investigated the case and recommended that defendant plead not guilty to the charge of attempted burning. Defendant, however, insisted on pleading guilty. On January 26, 1976, defendant tendered a guilty plea, but after a hearing the trial court refused to accept it.

On January 30, following, the county attorney dismissed the attempted burning charge and charged defendant with malicious injury to the jail. Defendant was unable to make bail on the charge, and the officers believed that the jail was not equipped to handle him. The Veterans Administration hospital located in Iowa City would only accept defendant if committed under the Iowa statute on civil commitment of mentally ill persons (see Code 1977, ch. 229). Defendant was so committed and placed in that hospital on February 2, 1976. Subsequently the hospital placed defendant on outpatient basis but did not discharge him.

On February 5, 1976, the trial court arraigned defendant on the malicious injury charge. Defendant again insisted on pleading guilty against his attorney's advice. The trial court conducted a lengthy hearing and extensively interrogated defendant. The court then accepted the plea, ordered a presentence investigation, subsequently passed sentence, and committed defendant to the penitentiary.

Defendant later moved in arrest of judgment. He did not attend the hearing on that motion, as the deputy sheriff who went to the penitentiary to transport him could not get him to leave his cell. The deputy testified:

Q. Did he appear rational to you? A. The man definitely had a problem. . . . At first he wasn't aware who I was. After I stood and talked to him about myself for awhile I thought at one point I possibly had him just to the point where he would start would maybe start cooperating a little bit and possibly come back to Iowa City with me. One of his counselors walked in and after about five minutes in the presence of his counselor it was out of the question because he went into an outrage at that time.

Q. You couldn't communicate with him? A. No, not after that, no. He was yelling and shaking his fist and stuff like that, no way possible.

Dr. Lara among others testified at the hearing on the motion in arrest. He was of the opinion that defendant could stand trial. He also acknowledged, however, the contents of his report, from which we have quoted. Dr. Richard Fowler of the Veterans Administration Hospital also testified at the hearing on the motion. He had known defendant from four or five previous hospital admissions. Dr. Fowler engages in medical care of psychiatric patients, research, and teaching medical students. His diagnosis of defendant was manic depressive illness. He testified inter alia regarding defendant, "He has also stated a belief at times when he's been quite active that...

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2 cases
  • State v. Kempf
    • United States
    • Iowa Supreme Court
    • 29 Agosto 1979
    ...also said the determination of the existence of a reasonable doubt involved an exercise of judicial discretion. E. g., State v. Evans, 259 N.W.2d 789, 792 (Iowa 1977). Despite this, upon review we made our own independent examination of the record to determine whether a reasonable doubt exi......
  • State v. Lucas, 67269
    • United States
    • Iowa Supreme Court
    • 25 Agosto 1982
    ...question exists. Further, the determination of the court under section 783.1 was an exercise of judicial discretion. State v. Evans, 259 N.W.2d 789, 792 (Iowa 1977). Section 812.3, on the other hand, requires the court to make the determination as a matter of law. Kempf, 282 N.W.2d at 706. ......

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