State v. Gurney

• Decision Date: 07 February 2012
• Docket Number: Docket No. Cum–11–159.
• Parties: STATE of Maine v. Chad T. GURNEY.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

2012 ME 14

36 A.3d 893

STATE of Maine

v.Chad T. GURNEY.

Docket No. Cum–11–159.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued: Jan. 10, 2012.Decided: Feb. 7, 2012.

Sarah A. Churchill, Esq. (orally), Strike, Goodwin & O'Brien, Portland, on the briefs, for appellant Chad T. Gurney.

William J. Schneider, Attorney General, and Donald W. Macomber, Asst. Atty. Gen. (orally), Augusta, on the briefs, for appellee State of Maine.

Panel: SAUFLEY, C.J., and ALEXANDER, LEVY, SILVER, MEAD, GORMAN, and JABAR, JJ.

ALEXANDER, J.

[¶ 1] Chad T. Gurney appeals from judgments of conviction for murder, 17–A M.R.S. § 201(1)(A) (2011), and arson (Class A), 17–A M.R.S. § 802(1)(A) (2011), entered in the Unified Criminal Docket (Cumberland County, Cole, J.) following a jury-waived trial.¹ On appeal Gurney argues that the court erred in (1) denying his motions to suppress evidence found on Gurney's Facebook account, laptop computer, and cell phone because the warrants obtained for the searches, and affidavits on which they were based, did not support findings that evidence of a crime would be found in those locations; (2) admitting evidence of a reference to a beheading video found in unallocated space on the hard drive of Gurney's laptop computer; (3) not addressing in its findings the journals and e-mails that Gurney offered as evidence of his preexisting and ongoing psychosis; ² and (4) finding that Gurney did not carry his burden of proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, that he suffered from a mental disease or defect that substantially affected his ability to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct, 17–A M.R.S. § 39 (2011). Finding no error, we affirm the judgment.

I. CASE HISTORY

[¶ 2] The following facts are drawn from the court's written judgment, as supported by the record, viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the State, pursuant to our standard of review of fact-findings. See State v. Milliken, 2010 ME 1, ¶ 2, 985 A.2d 1152.

Facts Underlying the Murder and Arson Charges

[¶ 3] Chad T. Gurney, then twenty-seven, met the victim, age eighteen, in Portland in March 2009, and they subsequently began a romantic relationship. Although Gurney later stated that he did not consider theirs to be an exclusive relationship, evidence indicated that Gurney had intense feelings for the victim.

[¶ 4] In May, Gurney took a one-week trip to Canada. After returning to Portland on May 20, 2009, Gurney asked the victim to take a trip with him, but she declined. Gurney made plans to leave for Thailand in late May. On or around May 23, 2009, the victim told Gurney that she had been intimate with another man while Gurney was in Canada.

[¶ 5] On May 25, 2009, the victim spent the day at Gurney's apartment. She apologized for having been intimate with someone else and took an afternoon nap in Gurney's bed in the apartment's loft. While the victim was lying on the bed, Gurney grasped the victim by the neck, head-butted her, and strangled her until she was dead. Gurney performed a sexual act on, and then decapitated, the victim's body.

[¶ 6] Gurney then showered and changed his clothes, drove to a gas station, obtained a container, filled it with gas, and brought it back to his apartment. Gurney poured gasoline on the bed, the victim's body, and all of her personal belongings, trailed the gasoline from the bed to the steps of the loft, and then ignited the gasoline. Gurney also poured gasoline in two areas in the lower level of the apartment.

[¶ 7] Gurney collected the bag and passport that he had packed for his trip abroad, his laptop computer, and an empty shotgun, and put them in his truck. He then drove to Old Orchard Beach, stopped at an ATM, and paid cash to rent a hotel room for two nights. Gurney apparently asked the motel clerk for suggestions for where to eat dinner and later used the motel's hot tub.

[¶ 8] Portland firefighters responded to Gurney's apartment at approximately 6:30 p.m. on May 25 where they discovered the victim's body.

[¶ 9] When Gurney's neighbor called him to inform him of the fire, Gurney told the neighbor that he was on his way to Lewiston and hung up.

[¶ 10] In the early morning hours of May 26, 2009, Gurney's best friend spoke with Gurney by cell phone. Gurney, sounding calm and rational, admitted to his friend that he murdered the victim, saying that the victim had done something to hurt him, that he was tired of being hurt, and had “lost it.” While he was speaking with Gurney, the friend was stopped by a Portland patrol officer for a minor traffic violation. Gurney asked his friend to explain to the police officer that Gurney had been in an accident and “might not be all there mentally” as a result. Gurney was referring to a vehicular accident in 2005 that had resulted in serious physical injuries to Gurney's legs, back, and arm and may also have caused a mild head injury.

[¶ 11] After talking to his best friend, Gurney turned himself in to the police, admitted to killing the victim, and gave a detailed account of how it occurred. In his statement to the police Gurney admitted that he knew that killing the victim was wrong. Gurney also consented to a search of his motel room and vehicle. Police seized Gurney's laptop, which was on but in “sleep” mode, from his motel room and also recovered Gurney's cell phone, a device with internet access and text messaging functions.

[¶ 12] During multiple conversations and interviews with Gurney on May 26, the police observed no evidence that Gurney was suffering from delusional thinking. Gurney explained to police that the victim was “a bright, wonderful being and I lost it and I feel terrible.” Gurney did report to a social worker during his intake at the Cumberland County Jail on May 26, 2009, that he was hearing voices and “seeing signs” before and after killing the victim. He also reported to the social worker, however, that his killing of the victim resulted partially from his “impulsive anger.” About a month after the crimes, Gurney reported to the social worker and to others that the crime “never would have happened” if he had seen love letters that the victim had written to him and that he read only after her death.

Gurney's Mental Health History

[¶ 13] In 2005, three months after the vehicular accident in which Gurney had been seriously injured, an examining physician found that Gurney had a number of cognitive defects (problems with attention, memory, language, and math), but no psychotic symptoms. In 2007, Gurney was treated for anxiety and depression and diagnosed with “organic personality disorder.” ³ Gurney was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, but there was no evidence of thought disorder or delusions. Gurney did not report to the doctor that he was hearing voices or having delusions. The doctor noted, however, that Gurney “continues to have significant distress re his relationships to women.”

[¶ 14] Gurney had been medicated for pain with a strong, prescription narcotic, from which he effectively weaned himself by March 2009. Although Gurney was given a prescription for a different, less potent, pain reliever, there is little evidence that Gurney ever took this pain reliever and no evidence that he took it in the weeks or month before he killed the victim. Gurney also self-medicated with marijuana.

[¶ 15] According to friends, it was not unusual for Gurney to “see signs” in everyday events, both before and after his 2005 accident, and to attribute importance to those signs. Gurney's friends never observed Gurney having delusions or mental health issues or heard Gurney make claims to that effect.

Procedural History and Examinations for Mental Disease or Defect

[¶ 16] Gurney was charged with one count of murder and one count of arson. He entered a plea of not criminally responsible by reason of mental disease or defect at his arraignment. Gurney underwent a three-stage examination and was assessed by several psychologists and psychiatrists. Gurney's explanation for killing the victim changed over the course of these interviews.

[¶ 17] Gurney first met with a psychologist four times in June and July 2009. Gurney explained to him that “[the victim] was just laying there. I walked up the steps, I looked at her with a blank look, and I did what I did. The last couple of days she had been at my heels. I misread it. I got arrogant rather than loving and nurturing her. I had such a problem with women that this is how it finally came out.” Gurney also stated, “You don't kill people. I knew it was wrong.” Gurney denied that the victim's recent sexual encounter with another man was related to his killing her.

[¶ 18] In three interviews with a psychiatrist occurring around this time, however, Gurney admitted that the victim's having been with someone else “hurt a lot” and “deflated” him. He also stated, “I was so sick of it—like every [expletive] girlfriend I'd ever had—every [expletive] woman.... Part of me was saying, ‘Why do you do anything nice for her? She slept with someone while you were gone one week.’ ” The psychiatrist found no evidence of Gurney's responding to internal stimuli such as hearing voices or experiencing delusional thinking.

[¶ 19] In November 2009, Gurney told a forensic psychologist that he had been listening to a particular band's music on the day of the killing, that the lyrics described how he felt, and that the “universe was pushing me to hurt her,” a disclosure that the psychologist found not credible because Gurney had never referenced it before. Gurney told the psychologist that his urge to kill the victim became “overwhelming,” so he killed her.

[¶ 20] Gurney explained to these three mental health professionals that, after he killed the victim, he figured that he had done one horrible thing already, and was just thinking about what is the next more horrible thing to do, which is why he engaged in damaging acts with the victim's body after he killed her.

[¶ 21] On August 13 and November 12,...