State v. Gaylor, No. 37011-5-II (Wash. App. 5/5/2009)
| Decision Date | 05 May 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. 37011-5-II.,37011-5-II. |
| Court | Washington Court of Appeals |
| Parties | STATE OF WASHINGTON, Respondent, v. TODD ERIC GAYLOR, Appellant. |
Appeal from Clark Superior Court. Docket No: 06-1-00359-4. Judgment or order under review. Date filed: 11/08/2007. Judge signing: Honorable Robert L Harris.
Counsel for Appellant(s), Anne Mowry Cruser, Law Office of Anne Cruser, Po Box 5000, Vancouver, WA, 98666-5000.
Counsel for Respondent(s), Michael C. Kinnie, Attorney at Law, 1200 Franklin St, Po Box 5000, Vancouver, WA, 98666-5000.
UNPUBLISHED OPINION
Todd E. Gaylor appeals his jury conviction for third degree assault of an emergency room nurse.1 He argues that (1) the evidence was insufficient to disprove his self defense claim; and (2) he received ineffective assistance of counsel when his trial counsel proposed a jury instruction misstating the law of self defense by requiring that he be in reasonable fear of great bodily harm. We affirm.
At 12:45 am, on November 20, 2005, Todd E. Gaylor voluntarily admitted himself to the Southwest Washington Medical Center Emergency Room (ER) because he was suffering from blood sugar issues resulting from insulin-dependent diabetes. Gaylor also suffered from depression, had recently broken up with his girlfriend, had not eaten or taken his insulin for more than two days before he arrived at the ER, and told the hospital staff that he was too depressed to care for himself. Gaylor had been to the ER for similar blood sugar issues less than a week earlier and had been treated by Dr. Cornelia Taylor.
After Gaylor arrived at the hospital on November 20, hospital staff hooked him up to an intravenous (IV) line to replenish fluids and attached him to an electrocardiogram (EKG). At 1:20 am, Nurse Katherine Scorvo took over Gaylor's care as he waited for the ER doctor, Dr. Wobig, to assess him. Hospital staff had not administered any medications before Scorvo took over his care. When Gaylor complained of nausea and a sour stomach, Scorvo gave him medications for those conditions; she also started an insulin drip through his IV lines.
At about 2:00 am, after Dr. Wobig had briefly examined Gaylor, Dr. Taylor took over Gaylor's care. Gaylor apparently told Dr. Taylor that he wanted to kill himself or that he intended to stop eating and to stop taking his insulin. Dr. Taylor responded that (1) she could not help him with that and that he needed to see someone else; or (2) if he refused to take care of himself, he would end up killing himself. Dr. Taylor then walked out of the treatment room.
As Dr. Taylor left the treatment room, Gaylor tore the IV lines out of the attached bags and bottles of fluid, and the fluids began to leak into the electrical IV pump. Michael Jeffers, an emergency room technician, was passing by when he overheard the conversation between Gaylor and Dr. Taylor. Jeffers immediately ran into the room, saw Gaylor (on the gurney) rip out his IV lines, stopped the fluids, moved Gaylor away from the electrical equipment, and called for assistance. Another female nurse, Nurse Allison, was in the room when Jeffers entered. Scorvo was outside the room at this time. Gaylor told Jeffers that if the staff called a "Code Armstrong"2 or brought restraints into the room, he (Gaylor) would "start gouging eyes out and he would grab the first female that he could grab." Report of Proceedings (RP) at 71. Gaylor repeated these statements more than once. Jeffers was concerned about Gaylor's threats because Allison was standing nearby with her back to Gaylor.
As Jeffers was tending to Gaylor's IV lines, someone announced a "Code Armstrong" on the overhead paging system, and a security officer entered the room with a box of restraints. Gaylor was still making threats. Jeffers "reminded him that it was a felony offense to assault a health care worker," told him that they were not going to let anything happen, and explained that he (Jeffers) did not want anyone to get hurt. Gaylor responded that he did not care about the penalties for assaulting healthcare workers and repeated his threats two or three more times.
According to Jeffers, when Gaylor saw the security officer with the restraints, Gaylor ripped off the EKG leads; jumped off the gurney on the side near Nurse Allison, who was about three feet away; and lunged toward her.3 As Gaylor lunged toward Nurse Allison, Jeffers reached over the gurney, grabbed Gaylor from behind, and pulled him back onto the gurney. The two then struggled, moving out of the treatment room and into the hallway. During the struggle, Gaylor hit Jeffers in the mouth, poked Jeffers in the eye, and bit Jeffers' hand.
After Jeffers pinned Gaylor to the ground and extracted his (Jeffers') hand from Gaylor's mouth, Gaylor bit a male nurse's shoe, leaving behind a "pretty good set of teeth marks." After Gaylor released his teeth from the nurse's shoe, Jeffers and a team of others lifted Gaylor back onto the gurney, placed him in "four-point restraints,"4 and wheeled him back into the treatment room.
After the staff restrained Gaylor, Nurse Scorvo resumed his care. Scorvo gave Gaylor a shot of the sedative Atavan to calm him down, reestablished the IV lines so she could administer more insulin and fluids, and rechecked his blood sugar levels. Gaylor stated that he was going to sue the hospital because it was supposed to protect him but had failed to do so; he also repeated that he was going to continue to refuse to take his insulin and to eat and that this was the hospital's fault.
At about 3:30 am, Gaylor's blood sugar levels had dropped sufficiently that Scorvo stopped the insulin drip so she could treat Gaylor's blood sugar issues in manner that would prevent his blood sugar levels from dropping too rapidly. She also administered another dose of sedative through Gaylor's reattached IV lines.
After Scorvo finished administering the sedative, Gaylor grabbed her left hand, and started squeezing it, announcing that he was going to hurt her. At this point, Scorvo had not been attempting to administer any additional medications. When she told him that he was hurting her, he refused to let go. After Gaylor had squeezed Scorvo's hand for about 30 seconds, other staff members helped her to free it from Gaylor's grasp. Scorvo's hand continued to hurt for several more weeks.
The State charged Gaylor by amended information with two counts of third degree assault, one against Nurse Scorvo (count I) and the other against technician Jeffers (count II); and two counts of misdemeanor harassment (counts III and IV). Gaylor underwent a variety of mental health evaluations.
At Gaylor's trial, the State's witnesses testified to the above facts. None of the State's witnesses testified that they had heard Gaylor request that they terminate his medical treatment or that he wanted to leave to go elsewhere for treatment.
Gaylor claimed self defense. He admitted that when he checked himself into the hospital, he had not taken his insulin or eaten for several days and he had been drinking alcohol.5 Gaylor testified that (1) he was unable to care for himself because he was severely depressed; (2) he was aware that his behavior could kill him; (3) he was not suicidal; (4) he had checked himself into the hospital to ensure he received the care he was unable to provide himself precisely because he did not want to die; (5) when Dr. Taylor contacted him, she was already angry because she had recently seen him in the ER under similar circumstances; (6) when he told Dr. Taylor that he was too depressed to care for himself and that he wanted the hospital to take care of him, she told him that she wished he had killed himself because, if he had, she would not have to deal with him now; (7) Dr. Taylor encouraged Gaylor to kill himself, and her responses made him angry; (8) he told Dr. Taylor that he wanted to leave the ER and go to another hospital for a "second opinion"; (9) he expected Dr. Taylor to respond by advising him about leaving the hospital against medical advice, but instead, she left the room; and (10) he ripped his IV lines in half and tore off the EKG leads because he did not want to be treated by a doctor who did not care if he lived or died. Gaylor did not recall Nurse Allison's having been in the room when Dr. Taylor left.
Gaylor also testified that (1) someone had told him the hospital staff had misdiagnosed him as having overdosed on aspirin, which he denied; (2) he believed the hospital had given him improper treatment on based on this misdiagnosis; and (3) he had intended to discuss this concern with Dr. Taylor, but after her comment, all he wanted to do was leave the hospital and go elsewhere for treatment. Gaylor later testified that he had been told about the improper medication when he was in intensive care, sometime after Scorvo had administered the Atavan, thus contradicting his earlier assertion that before his struggle with Jeffers and his assault on Scorvo, he had been afraid he had been given the wrong medication.
Gaylor further testified that (1) when Jeffers saw him tear out his IV lines, Jeffers ran into the room yelling for "straps"; (2) Jeffers would not listen when he (Gaylor) told him (Jeffers) the straps were unnecessary and offered to explain the situation; (3) he (Gaylor) believed the hospital had given him the wrong medication and, therefore, feared for his life and attempted to run for the door when he heard the "Code Armstrong"; (4) he had intended to leave the hospital even before the "Code Armstrong"; and (5) when he got off the gurney, he was telling staff that he wanted to get a second opinion.
Gaylor admitted that (1) he had struggled with Jeffers, but he...
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