State v. Frazier, 22024.
| Citation | 646 N.W.2d 744,2002 SD 66 |
| Decision Date | 05 June 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 22024.,22024. |
| Parties | STATE of South Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Dawn FRAZIER, Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | Supreme Court of South Dakota |
Mark Barnett, Attorney General, Grant Gormley, Assistant Attorney General, Pierre, for plaintiff and appellee.
Bruce A. Hubbard of Hansen & Hubbard, Sturgis, for defendant and appellant.
[¶ 1.] Dawn Frazier (Frazier) was convicted by a jury for the kidnapping and felony murder of Morning Star Standing Bear (Standing Bear). She was sentenced to life imprisonment. Frazier now appeals the conviction and the sentence. We affirm.
[¶ 2.] On June 15, 1999, Frazier, Chaske White (White), Robert Horse, and Jerry Horse were partying at a friend's home in Rapid City. During the course of the evening, they left the house and went to a bar. While at the bar, Jerry Horse picked up Standing Bear, a young woman with whom he was acquainted. When the bar closed, Standing Bear accompanied the group back to the friend's home to drink more beer. Standing Bear was visibly intoxicated at this point and passed out on the couch for a short time. Eventually, Frazier, White, Robert Horse, Jerry Horse and Standing Bear all left the house in Frazier's vehicle.
[¶ 3.] After dropping Jerry Horse off at his home, the remaining four continued to drive around the area of north Rapid City while White and Robert Horse joked about killing Standing Bear. By this time, Standing Bear was nearly unconscious.2 Ultimately, the group stopped on a gravel road outside Rapid City where Standing Bear was forcibly removed from the car by White and Robert Horse. She was kicked, beaten and stabbed numerous times. Standing Bear died as a result of injuries inflicted, in part, by a car jack and a broken beer bottle. Her naked body was dragged into a ditch, where it was discovered the next morning.
[¶ 4.] On the evening of June 17, 1999, Frazier was interviewed five times.3 During the final interview,4 Frazier gave a detailed description of what had happened during the early morning hours of June 17, 1999. She claimed that White directed her where to drive. Frazier said she repeatedly requested to go home, but White refused. She believed Robert Horse, and possibly White, were "just going to" rape Standing Bear. White instructed Frazier to stop the car on Meade County Road 11L where Standing Bear was killed. Frazier claimed that White ordered her to stay in the car and not to watch what White and Robert Horse were doing. She stated that while looking in the rear view mirror, she witnessed White and Robert Horse beating Standing Bear. Frazier got out of the car on a number of occasions, once to open the trunk of her car, several times to urge White and Robert Horse to "hurry up," and each time returning to the car upon threats from White. Every time she left the car, she witnessed further beating, but according to her statement, she did not actually participate. Finally, after Standing Bear's lifeless body was dragged across the road into a ditch, Frazier drove White and Robert Horse back into Rapid City.
[¶ 5.] At trial, Frazier claimed she was a victim of Battered Woman's Syndrome and she obeyed White only out of fear for her safety. While their relationship had started well, White began drinking and hitting her with his fist. Frazier testified that White had beat, raped, and sodomized her to the point where, on at least one occasion, she had to go to the emergency room. White was charged with simple assault as a result of that beating, but was released when Frazier recanted. Two of Frazier's co-workers and Frazier's cousin all testified to White's abuse of Frazier and her fear of him. White's ex-girlfriend testified that she had experienced the same treatment from White when she was with him. Carol Maicki (Maicki), a consultant in the field of Battered Woman's Syndrome, testified to its symptoms, many of which matched Frasier's behavior. Maicki was not, however, familiar with the specific facts of this case.
[¶ 6.] On June 14, 2000, the jury convicted Frazier of both kidnapping and felony murder. The circuit court sentenced her to life imprisonment on both counts with sentences to run concurrently.5 Frazier appealed the conviction and sentence. On March 29, 2000, this Court reversed the conviction on the basis that the trial court had erroneously admitted the unreliable statements of Jerry Horse, a fugitive at the time of trial, in violation of the confrontation clause. See Frazier I, 2001 SD 19 at ¶ 33, 622 N.W.2d at 259.
[¶ 7.] Frazier was retried June 4 through June 15, 2001, and was found guilty of the kidnapping and felony murder of Standing Bear. She was again sentenced to life imprisonment. Frazier now appeals both the conviction and the sentence, raising the following issues:
1. Whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain a jury verdict of guilty on the kidnapping and felony murder charges.
2. Whether South Dakota's felony murder statute is unconstitutional.
[¶ 8.] We review a motion for judgment of acquittal by deciding "whether [the] State set forth sufficient evidence from which the jury could reasonably find the defendant guilty of the crime charged."
State v. Holzer, 2000 SD 75, ¶ 10, 611 N.W.2d 647, 650.
In determining the sufficiency of the evidence on review, the question presented is whether there is evidence in the record which, if believed by the fact finder, is sufficient to sustain a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. In this review, we must accept that evidence, and the most favorable inferences to be fairly drawn therefrom, which will support the verdict. In determining the sufficiency of the evidence, this Court will not resolve conflicts in the evidence, pass on the credibility of witnesses, or weigh the evidence. No guilty verdict will be set aside if the evidence, including circumstantial evidence and reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, sustains a reasonable theory of guilt.
State v. Buchholz, 1999 SD 110, ¶ 33, 598 N.W.2d 899, 905 (quoting State v. Knecht, 1997 SD 53, ¶ 22, 563 N.W.2d 413, 421).
[¶ 9.] We review constitutional claims de novo. City of Pierre v. Blackwell, 2001 SD 127, ¶ 7, 635 N.W.2d 581, 584
(citation omitted).
[¶ 10.] 1. Whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain a jury verdict of guilty on the kidnapping and felony murder charges.
[¶ 11.] Frazier contends that the evidence in this case was insufficient to sustain the jury's verdict. Essentially, Frazier argues that the evidence relating to her alleged fear of White and her suffering from Battered Woman's Syndrome, outweighs the evidence that she not only facilitated the crime by driving Standing Bear to her death, but also that she may have actively participated in the crime. We disagree.
[¶ 12.] Frazier was convicted of kidnapping in violation of SDCL 22-19-1, which provides, in relevant part:
Any person who shall seize, confine, inveigle, decoy, abduct or carry away any person and hold or detain such person, except in the case of an unmarried minor by a parent thereof, for any of the following reasons: ... (2) To facilitate the commission of any felony or flight thereafter; (3) To inflict bodily injury on or to terrorize the victim or another;... is guilty of kidnapping. Kidnapping is a Class 1 felony, except if the person has inflicted a gross permanent physical injury on the victim, in which case it is a Class A felony.
In addition, Frazier was convicted of felony murder pursuant to SDCL 22-16-4, which provides, "[h]omicide is murder in the first degree when ... committed by a person engaged in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, any arson, rape, robbery, burglary, [or] kidnapping ...." Therefore, we first determine whether the evidence supports the kidnapping conviction.
[¶ 13.] Frazier drove her car to the secluded area where Standing Bear was killed. She likely overheard White's and Robert Horse's jokes about killing Standing Bear. Frazier had ample opportunity to stop driving or turn the car around. In her statement to law enforcement and in her brief, Frazier concedes she "suspected that Standing Bear was going to be raped." Evidence suggested that the beating may have lasted more than twenty minutes. Yet, Frazier did not sound the horn to attract help from the nearby farm house or try to leave the scene. In fact, Frazier retrieved items from the trunk of her car for White and Robert Horse to use in the beating. She may even have actively participated by throwing the tire jack at Standing Bear's body and by kicking her.6
[¶ 14.] After Standing Bear's body was dragged into the ditch, Frazier helped clean up the crime scene. She offered a bag to put the bloody clothes in, refused to put Standing Bear's body in the trunk of her car, and admonished White and Robert Horse not to touch anything with their bloody hands. Then she drove White and Robert Horse back to Rapid City, where she fell asleep on a couch with White. Later, she drove Robert Horse to his house to change clothes. When the group met Jerry Horse for breakfast, White told Jerry Horse "we killed Morning Star." Jerry Horse asked Frazier whether it was true and Frazier "just shook her head yes." Frazier went to work the next two days and was safely away from White, but she did not report the crime. The jury could reasonably have believed that these were not the actions of someone who only "obeyed" out of fear. Frazier has failed to show, in light of all the evidence, that no reasonable jury could have found her guilty of kidnapping.
[¶ 15.] It is undisputed that Standing Bear died as a result of the actions of Frazier, White and Robert Horse. We have concluded the evidence is sufficient to affirm the trial court's ruling as to the charge of kidnapping. Accordingly, we must also conclude the evidence is sufficient to support the trial...
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