State v. Groth

• Decision Date: 12 September 2011
• Docket Number: No. 64029–1–I.,64029–1–I.
• Citation: 163 Wash.App. 548,261 P.3d 183
• Court: Washington Court of Appeals
• Parties: STATE of Washington, Respondent,v.James Eric GROTH, Appellant.

163 Wash.App. 548

261 P.3d 183

STATE of Washington, Respondent,

v.James Eric GROTH, Appellant.

No. 64029–1–I.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 1.

Sept. 12, 2011.

Elaine Winters, Washington Appellate Project, Seattle, WA, for Appellant.Andrea R. Vitalich, King County Prosecuter's Office, Seattle, WA, for Respondent.ELLINGTON, J.

[163 Wash.App. 551] ¶ 1 In 1975, Diana Peterson was murdered. In 2009, James Groth was convicted in the crime. In the interim, most of the physical evidence was destroyed. Groth presents a number of issues on appeal. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

¶ 2 Early on the morning of February 15, 1975, George Peterson discovered his 16–year–old daughter's body lying face up in the backyard. He told his wife, called the police and a priest, and covered her body with blankets. Before detectives and crime laboratory personnel could process the scene, the priest, medics, and a deputy sheriff also approached the body.

¶ 3 On his arrival, King County Sheriff's Detective Rolf Grunden observed two sets of fresh footprints at the scene and took photographs. One set of prints had a “stars and bars” tread pattern.¹ Grunden took care that the footprints would not be stepped on by others. Detectives prepared casts of three footwear impressions.

[163 Wash.App. 552] ¶ 4 Diana Peterson's body remained as her father found it until personnel from the medical examiner's office arrived at about 2:15 p.m. Only then was the body moved and the cause of death revealed: a large, bone-handled hunting knife penetrating her back. A single stab wound caused her lung to collapse.

¶ 5 Interviews with Diana's mother Leanne and sister Marilyn established that Diana was killed shortly after 10:30 p.m. on Friday, February 14. Leanne heard Diana come home at approximately that time, and soon afterward she and Marilyn heard noises in the backyard. Leanne thought she heard Diana scream, but not in a way that caused her alarm. Marilyn thought she heard someone say “stop it” or “don't” in a playful way.² Leanne opened the window, told her daughter to be quiet and saw “two shadows, very close together,” which appeared to be Diana and another person playing or struggling.³

¶ 6 Leanne walked outside and called Diana's name, but there was no response. She assumed Diana had snuck out of the house as she often did, so she let Diana's dog out and locked the door.

¶ 7 The police initially focused their investigation on Diana's 19–year–old boyfriend and next-door neighbor, Tim Diener. Diener owned the hunting knife that killed Diana. But all the neighborhood kids knew about and liked to handle the knife, which Diener kept in plain view in his basement bedroom. The basement door was always unlocked, meaning that anyone who knew about the knife had access to it.

¶ 8 When police first interviewed Diener on February 15, 1975, he reported that he had been at a friend's house the night before until around 11:00 p.m., and that he heard Diana's dog barking in the yard when he got home. Diener's friend Dean Blackburn confirmed that Diener was with him until shortly after 11:00 p.m.

¶ 9 Diener was arrested on February 19, 1975. Police seized the clothing and boots he was wearing and also the clothing he had been wearing on the night of the murder. Diener was released the next day and never charged.

¶ 10 James Groth lived two houses away from the Petersons and often spent time at their home. He was a little younger than Diana and liked to hang out with her and her sisters. Some witnesses suspected he was infatuated with Diana.

¶ 11 Groth was at the Peterson's home on the night of the murder but left after Diana went to get pizza with her friends. In his first interview with police, Groth said he went to a friend's house, then to a neighborhood bowling alley, and arrived home after 12:30 a.m. On his way home, he checked Diener's house and found him asleep. Groth did not mention seeing Diana's body.

¶ 12 In a second statement to police three days later, however, Groth admitted his first statement was incorrect. He said that he left the bowling alley at about 10:10 p.m. and checked Diener's house but no one was there. Groth said he then cut through the Petersons' backyard on his way home, and found Diana's dead body “laying face down right by the rockery” with “a knife handle sticking out of her back.” ⁴ Groth said he was frightened and ran to Richmond Beach to think. He then went briefly to the bowling alley and returned home. Groth said he did not tell anyone what he had seen because he did not want to get involved or be accused.

¶ 13 The police twice interviewed Steve Larson, another neighbor of the Petersons. His written statement, prepared by Detective Roger Dunn, indicated that when Larson came home from a friend's house about noon on the day Diana's body was found, Groth told him Diana had been killed, probably beaten, and Diener told him Diana had been “knifed.” ⁵ This occurred more than two hours before the medical examiner turned Diana's body over and discovered she had been stabbed. At trial, however, Larson testified he had a “vivid picture” of the interaction and was “almost certain” it was Groth, rather than Diener, who told him Diana had been knifed.⁶ The detective testified he may have inadvertently switched the names in preparing Larson's statement.

¶ 14 About six weeks after the murder, Eric Hansen was working at a Seattle Times newspaper shack when he had a confrontation with Groth. Groth pushed Hansen and knocked his glasses off. When Hansen threatened to tell his father, Groth replied, “I've killed a girl and I can kill again.” ⁷

¶ 15 The investigation went cold.⁸ Although two detectives filled out forms in 1976 and 1978 requesting that the physical evidence be preserved indefinitely, in 1987, a sergeant ordered destruction of all the physical evidence except the murder weapon and the crime scene photographs. No fingerprints were found on the knife when it was tested in 1995, and no DNA profile could be obtained in 2004.

¶ 16 In April 2006, Detective Jim Allen reopened the investigation. He searched for lab reports from any tests that might have been conducted before the evidence was disposed of, but found none. Allen concluded from Leanne's and Marilyn's statements that Diana was stabbed between 10:35 and 10:45 p.m. on February 14, 1975. He focused his attention on Groth because Diener's friends had established he was not in the area at that time.

¶ 17 Detective Allen interviewed Groth in May 2006. During their first meeting, Groth made no mention of finding Diana's body until Allen pointed out that he had talked about that in his second statement to police in 1975. During his second interview, Allen accused Groth of holding back information. Groth slumped in his chair, put his head down, and “teared up a little bit.” ⁹ Groth became angry and agitated when pressed for details about finding the body. He did not deny killing Diana until Allen pointed out that he had not denied it, and his subsequent denial was “very weak.” ¹⁰ At the end of the interview, Groth agreed to provide a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sample and indicated he wanted to talk with detectives again to clear things up.

¶ 18 Groth showed up at the next meeting, but had decided “he wanted to talk to some people before he really sat down with [the detectives] again and talked any further.” ¹¹ In response to Detective Allen's comments and questions, Groth agreed that he had something important to tell them “such as [Groth] was there at the time of the murder or [had] some explanation.” ¹² He spoke to police again, but did not submit to additional interviews.

¶ 19 In December 2007, Groth was arrested and charged with murder in the first degree. His motion to dismiss on grounds that the State violated his due process rights by destroying material evidence was denied.

¶ 20 The crime scene photographs included a picture of Groth's shoes, showing Vibram brand soles. Detective Allen provided the photographs to Joel Hardin, a master tracker, and asked if he could find any evidence of those shoes having been at the scene.

¶ 21 Hardin testified he examined the photographs and concluded that there were “two persons in the same area moving their feet about, but not really going anywhere” at “virtually the same time” on the night of the murder. ¹³ One person was wearing stars and bars tread boots consistent with Groth's Vibram soles; the other was wearing a flat, gum rubber-soled shoe consistent with Diana's “Wallabees.” ¹⁴ Hardin also testified he could tell that all of the stars and bars patterned shoe prints were made by the same individual, and that that individual stepped in blood at approximately the same time the blood dripped onto the ground.

¶ 22 The defense experts strenuously disagreed with Hardin's conclusions from the photographs. Forensic scientist William Bodziak testified he could discern no impressions from a flat-soled shoe, saw no evidence that footwear impressions were intermingled, and stated it was not possible to determine the time at which any of the partial impressions were left.

¶ 23 The jury found Groth guilty of the lesser-included offense of murder in the second degree. He was sentenced to a maximum term of life with a recommended minimum of 200 months.

DISCUSSION

Destruction of Evidence

¶ 24 Groth first contends the destruction of physical evidence violated due process and required dismissal under the standard established by Arizona v. Youngblood ¹⁵ and State v. Wittenbarger.¹⁶ Because the evidence at issue was only potentially useful, and no bad faith on the part of law enforcement has been established, we must disagree.

¶ 25 Under Youngblood and Wittenbarger, whether destruction of evidence constitutes a due process violation depends on the nature of the evidence and the motivation of law enforcement. If the State fails to preserve “material exculpatory evidence,” criminal charges must be dismissed. ¹⁷ But under Youngblood a...