State v. Flake

• Decision Date: 29 August 2002
• Citation: 88 S.W.3d 540
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee v. Christopher M. FLAKE.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Page 540

88 S.W.3d 540

STATE of Tennessee v. Christopher M. FLAKE.

Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Jackson.

August 29, 2002.

Opinion Denying Rehearing October 24, 2002.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General; Kim R. Helper, Assistant Attorney General; William L. Gibbons, District Attorney General, Thomas D. Henderson and John W. Campbell, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellant, State of Tennessee.

David L. Raybin, Nashville, Tennessee; Leslie I. Ballin, Memphis, Tennessee, and Steven E. Farese, Ashland, Mississippi, for the appellee, Christopher M. Flake.

OPINION

FRANK F. DROWOTA, III, C.J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which JANICE M. HOLDER and WILLIAM M. BARKER, JJ., joined.

The defendant was charged with attempted first degree murder for shooting the victim, a pastoral counselor, at a church in Memphis, Tennessee. At trial, the facts surrounding the shooting and the defendant's guilt were not contested. Instead, the defense sought to establish the affirmative defense of insanity. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-11-501. The jury found the defendant guilty of attempted voluntary manslaughter, and by this verdict, implicitly rejected the insanity defense. The trial court entered a judgment in accordance with the jury's verdict, and the defendant appealed, asserting, among other things, that the insanity defense was established by clear and convincing evidence and that the jury had erred in rejecting it. The Court of Criminal Appeals agreed, modified the verdict to not guilty by reason of insanity, and remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings in accordance with Tenn.Code Ann. § 33-7-303. Thereafter, we granted the State's application for permission to appeal to determine whether the burden of proof on the issue of insanity affects the standard of appellate review of a jury's rejection of the insanity defense. After exhaustively reviewing the record and the applicable authorities, we unanimously hold that an appellate court should reverse a jury verdict rejecting the insanity defense only if, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, the appellate court concludes that no reasonable trier of fact could have failed to find that the defendant's insanity at the time of committing the offense was established by clear and convincing evidence. Applying this standard to the record in this case, a majority of this Court is of the opinion that the jury did not err in rejecting the insanity defense. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals is reversed and the judgment of the trial court is reinstated.

Facts

As stated, the facts surrounding the shooting are not disputed. However, the issue in this appeal is whether the jury erroneously rejected the insanity defense. Because a jury may in determining a defendant's sanity consider the facts surrounding the crime as well as the testimony of lay and expert witnesses, the proof offered at trial is summarized in detail hereafter.

On March 19, 1997, the defendant, twenty-five-year-old Christopher Flake, applied to purchase a Jennings .25 automatic pistol at Guns and Ammo in Memphis, Tennessee. He completed a form, providing background information that indicated he was not addicted to drugs or alcohol and had never been hospitalized or treated for mental illness. The application was processed; the retailer received the Sheriff's Department clearance for the defendant to purchase the gun; and on April 4, 1997, the defendant picked up the weapon. At this time, the defendant completed a second form, again indicating in response to specific questions that he had not used drugs or been committed to a mental institution.

The victim, Turner Carpenter, was a pastoral counselor at Central Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Carpenter was introduced to the defendant about six weeks prior to the shooting by the senior pastor of Central Church. At that time, Carpenter was told that the defendant was an alcoholic, who despite three years of sobriety, was unable to "get any peace." The defendant scheduled three individual counseling sessions with Carpenter, but the defendant, who was working and was enrolled in a criminal justice program at the University of Memphis, cancelled on each occasion because of scheduling conflicts. After the third cancellation, Carpenter recommended that the defendant participate in supervised group sessions at Central Church until his college and work schedule improved. The defendant agreed.

Carpenter next saw the defendant at approximately 6 p.m., on Sunday evening, April 6, 1997. Carpenter was meeting with a parishioner, Patricia Ann Hoffman, in his office at the church when the defendant "stuck his head in" the door and inquired if he could meet with Carpenter. When Carpenter responded that he would meet with the defendant in fifteen minutes, the defendant shook his head in disapproval but exited the office. Several minutes later, upon hearing a door open in the waiting area outside his office, Carpenter exited his office and saw the defendant in the waiting area. After nodding to the defendant, Carpenter turned and walked back toward his office, intending to conclude his meeting with Hoffman. The defendant followed Carpenter down the hallway, however, yelling Carpenter's name and brandishing a gun. Obviously bewildered by the defendant's behavior, Carpenter asked, "Are you kidding?" The defendant responded that he was not kidding and shot Carpenter. The bullet struck Carpenter's outstretched hand, traveled between his index and ring fingers, through his arm, diaphragm, and liver, and lodged in his back, where it remained at the time of trial.

When he was shot, Carpenter fell to the floor, and in doing so, turned toward Hoffman, who was seated on a sofa not readily apparent from the defendant's position in the doorway. When Hoffman began to scream, the defendant turned toward her and held the gun to her head for some moments. The defendant did not shoot Hoffman, and after the defendant fled, Hoffman quickly summoned assistance, and Carpenter survived the shooting.

At trial, Carpenter characterized the shooting as "totally off the wall, weird, and crazy." Carpenter stated that there was no ill will between him and the defendant, and Carpenter could not provide a rational explanation for the defendant's behavior. Carpenter further testified that the defendant appeared normal and spoke in a soft voice when he first arrived at the church office. Just before the shooting, however, Carpenter described the defendant as "horrible looking," "crazed," like "the devil himself," yelling the victim's name in an "abnormal" voice.

Shortly after the shooting, Officer Robert Brandon Lampley was directed to the defendant's residence in Germantown to await the defendant's arrival. Officer Lampley parked so he could observe the defendant's driveway. About thirty to forty-five minutes later, a vehicle pulled into the driveway, and the defendant exited this vehicle. Officer Lampley and another officer walked up the driveway with guns drawn, and yelled, "Christopher." The defendant stopped, and a man, who Officer Lampley later learned was the defendant's father, walked out of the house and instructed the defendant to cooperate. After conducting a pat-down search, the officers handcuffed the defendant and placed him in the patrol car. Officer Lampley said the defendant showed no emotion when he was arrested.

A short time later Detective Johnny Brown verbally advised the defendant of his Miranda rights and asked the defendant if he knew why the officers were there. The defendant responded, "yes." When Detective Brown told the defendant he needed the weapon, the defendant advised that it was located in the vehicle's glove compartment. Detective Brown read a consent to search form to the defendant, and the defendant executed the form, which was witnessed by two officers. Detective Brown then opened the glove compartment and seized the pistol. Detective Brown said the defendant looked "tired" and "kind of distraught," at this time, but he was otherwise behaving normally.

In support of the affirmative defense of insanity,¹ the defendant offered the testimony of several mental health professionals, including, Dr. Lynne Zager, Dr. Hilary Linder, Rebecca Smith, a psychiatric social worker, Dr. Rokeya Farooque, Dr. Sam Craddock, and Dr. John Hutson.

Dr. Lynne Zager is a clinical psychologist and Director of the Forensic Services Program at Midtown Mental Health Center, a private not-for-profit mental health center. Dr. Zager evaluated the defendant pursuant to a court order from October 17, 1997 to January 28, 1998, to determine his competency to stand trial and his mental state at the time of the shooting. Dr. Zager was certified as a forensic evaluator in 1983 and had conducted such evaluations since that time, often testifying as an expert witness, including a prior hearing to determine the defendant's competency to stand trial where she testified for the prosecution. In conducting the competency evaluations, Dr. Zager personally interviewed the defendant and reviewed the results of psychological tests previously administered. Dr. Zager opined that on April 6, 1997, the defendant suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, a severe mental disease or defect. She also opined that the defendant had been unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct in shooting Turner Carpenter. In forming these opinions, Dr. Zager relied in part upon Dr. Janet Johnson's medical records,² which indicated that Dr. Johnson saw the defendant twice during the week prior to the shooting, once for a regular appointment on April 1, 1997 and again on April 3, 1997, three days prior to the shooting, at the request of the defendant's father "because of [the defendant's] bizarre behavior." One example of the defendant's bizarre behavior described in Dr....