State v. Fryer

• Citation: 243 N.W.2d 1
• Decision Date: 19 May 1976
• Docket Number: No. 58103,58103
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. James Ray FRYER, Appellant.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Iowa

Page 1

243 N.W.2d 1

STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. James Ray FRYER, Appellant.

No. 58103.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

May 19, 1976.

Earl T. Klay and Loren J. Veldhuizen, Orange City, for appellant.

Richard C. Turner, Atty. Gen., Earl W. Roberts, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., David Casjens, Lyon County Atty., and Walter Barbee, Dickinson County Atty., for appellee.

Heard by MOORE, C.J., and LeGRAND, UHLENHOPP, REYNOLDSON and McCORMICK, JJ.

UHLENHOPP, Justice.

This appeal involves several issues which arose in a prosecution of four murder charges. The jury could find the following from the evidence.

On the night of November 17, 1973, Sandra Cheskey, age 13, and four older teenage male companies, Roger Essem, Stewart and Dana Baade, and Michael Hadrath, went in a van to Gitchie Manitou Park in Lyon County, Iowa, where they smoked marijuana.

At that time, defendant James Ray Fryer, age 21, with an I.Q. of 85 according to a test several years before, was on work release from jail in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in connection with a previous, unrelated conviction. Defendant got his brother, David Fryer, to telephone the jail, impersonating defendant's employer, and to report that defendant was needed for work and so would not return to jail that night.

Defendant, David Fryer, and a third brother, Allen Fryer, then went to Gitchie Manitou Park in a pickup truck. Each had a shotgun; defendant had a stolen 12-gauge pump gun. There they discovered the group of teenagers. David Fryer spied on that group and reported to his brothers that the group had marijuana. He suggested that the Fryers get it.

The Fryers, armed with their loaded shotguns, spread out and approached the other group. This was the site of the first confrontation. Defendant fired the first shot--according to him, into the air. The teenagers started to run and more shooting occurred. Although the evidence is not completely clear, evidently Allen fired two shots, killing Roger Essem and wounding Michael Hadrath, and David shot and wounded Stewart Baade.

According to defendant, after he fired the first shot he headed toward the victims' van where David joined him, but the keys were not in that vehicle so he and David went to the Fryer pickup truck.

Allen Fryer then marched Sandra Cheskey, Dana Baade, and the wounded Michael Hadrath to the pickup truck. Defendant dismounted from the truck. The wounded Stewart Baade then joined the group. This was the site of the second confrontation.

One of the teenagers then asked if they could sit. Defendant said, 'Stand where you are or we will blow your _ _ heads off.'

Dana and Stewart Baade and Michael Hadrath died from shotgun fire at this second site. After his arrest, defendant contended that before the second shooting occurred he obtained the keys to the van and drove it out of the park a short distance. He also contended he rejoined his brothers after this shooting when the engine on the van quit running. Sandra Cheskey's version, however, was somewhat different. She testified that Allen Fryer took her from the park in the pickup and as they left she observed defendant and David Fryer with their guns pointed at Michael Hadrath and the two Baade brothers.

Defendant and David Fryer left in the van; apparently it would run at that time. Thereafter they switched the van for David Fryer's car, joined Allen Fryer and Sandra Cheskey, and went to an abandoned farm where Allen had a job. At that place defendant had sexual intercourse with Sandra Cheskey; the jury could find that Allen and David did also. Subsequently Allen Fryer took Sandra Cheskey to her home in Sioux Falls.

The next day, Sandra Cheskey reported the occurrence to the Sioux Falls police. She later identified the Fryers.

After the homicides, defendant was confined to jail in Sioux Falls under the previous sentence. Iowa officers filed a preliminary information before a judicial magistrate in Lyon County, Iowa, and obtained an Iowa arrest warrant. They purported to serve the warrant on defendant in the Sioux Falls jail on November 30, 1973, and they also requested an extradition order. The same day the three Fryers waived extradition to Iowa.

Since defendant's sentence in South Dakota would not expire until January 10, 1974, the sheriff in Sioux Falls would not fully release defendant until then. Subsequent to defendant's waiver of extradition, agents of the Iowa Bureau of Criminal Investigation interviewed defendant in jail in Sioux Falls, after giving him the Miranda warning. He told them his version of the events at the park. The same day, December 4, 1973, South Dakota officers took defendant to Iowa where Iowa officers then took him before the Lyon County judicial magistrate, who appointed defense counsel. The South Dakota officers then returned defendant to jail in Sioux Falls. The next day they again brought defendant to Iowa, and the magistrate fixed bond. They then again returned defendant to the Sioux Falls jail.

On December 19, 1973, the South Dakota state's attorney requested the circuit court there to suspend the balance of defendant's South Dakota sentence; defendant appeared but did not join in the request, and the court denied it.

On December 20, 1973, the Lyon county attorney charged defendant with murder of the four individuals who died in the park.

On December 21, 1973, defendant withdrew his waiver of extradition from South Dakota.

On January 10, 1974, Iowa officers again requested an extradition order from South Dakota, and the Sioux Falls Municipal Court set a hearing on the request for February 7, 1974. On February 6, however, defendant petitioned the South Dakota Circuit Court for a writ of habeas corpus, challenging extradition. On February 11, 1974, the circuit court held a hearing, annulled the writ, and granted extradition. Defendant thereupon appealed to the South Dakota Supreme Court. In May 1974, defendant petitioned to dismiss his appeal and again waived extradition to Iowa. On May 17, 1974, the South Dakota Supreme Court dismissed the appeal. Iowa officers thereafter brought defendant to Lyon County, the district court in Iowa arraigned him, and defendant demurred to the county attorney's information.

On June 3, 1974, defendant petitioned for and obtained a writ of habeas corpus in Lyon County; he challenged the legality of his final transfer to Iowa. One of defendant's allegations in his habeas corpus petition related to his mental condition. The State of Iowa filed a resistance to the petition. The district court set the habeas corpus case for hearing on June 17, 1974, but on that date defendant moved for and the court granted a continuance to enable defendant to take the deposition of Dr. Fernando Ramos, who had conducted a mental examination of defendant previously. Also on that date, the State applied in the criminal case to have defendant psychiatrically examined--in view of defendant's allegations in the habeas corpus case about his mental condition. The court granted the application.

On June 18, 1974, however, defendant escaped from jail in Iowa, stole a motor vehicle, and drove to Wyoming. Federal officers subsequently returned him to Iowa under a federal warrant issued in connection with a federal charge, and in July 1974 Iowa officers obtained custody of him again, under a writ of habeas corpus ad prosequendum.

Thereafter Iowa officers took defendant to the Iowa Security Medical Facility, where he remained for examination approximately 30 days. The Facility reported that defendant was competent to participate in legal proceedings and that he did not have any mental condition which would preclude accountability for illegal behavior.

Subsequently various proceedings took place in the two pending Iowa cases, the criminal prosecution and the habeas corpus case. In the latter case the State filed an amended answer averring the intervening events, Fryer filed a motion to strike, and the State filed a resistance to the motion. The heart of the habeas corpus case was whether Iowa had personal jurisdiction of Fryer so that it could prosecute him criminally, in light of illegalities which Fryer alleged had occurred in the extradition proceedings. The parties tried the habeas corpus case on the merits, and on November 29, 1974, the district court rendered judgment annulling the writ. On December 26, 1974, Fryer appealed that case, and we today affirm the judgment. In the Matter of Fryer, filed May 19, 1976.

After the district court annulled the writ of habeas corpus, defendant, in addition to his demurrer, moved to dismiss the information in the criminal case for denial of speedy trial and, in the alternative, for stay of the criminal action pending an appeal by defendant in the habeas corpus case. Defendant also moved for permission to take an interlocutory appeal in the criminal case, and for a change of venue.

The district court held a hearing on defendant's demurrer and motions on December 3, 1974, after which the court overruled all of them except the motion for change of venue. The court sustained that motion and ordered trial held in Dickinson County. Defendant entered a plea of not guilty.

Trial of the criminal case began on December 11, 1974. On December 20, the jury found defendant guilty of manslaughter of Roger Essem and of first-degree murder of Michael Hadrath and the Baade brothers. The trial court pronounced sentence, and defendant appealed. In this court he presents several grounds for reversal.

I. Speedy Trial. Defendant's assignment regarding speedy trial contains two parts.

A. Defendant first contends the Lyon County Attorney charged him on December 20, 1973, but trial did not commence until December 11, 1974, contrary to the 60-day requirement of § 795.2, Code 1975. The question, of course, is whether good cause for the delay appears. Among the 'good causes' are delays brought about by the accused. State v. Truax, 232 N.W.2d 861 (Iowa); State v. King, 225 N.W.2d 337 (Iowa); State v....