State v. Harned
| Decision Date | 09 June 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 93,168.,93,168. |
| Citation | 135 P.3d 1169 |
| Parties | STATE of Kansas, Appellee, v. Jack Leslie HARNED, Appellant. |
| Court | Kansas Supreme Court |
Russ Roe, of Cami R. Baker & Associates, P.A., of El Dorado, was on the brief, for appellant.
Darrin C. Devinney, assistant county attorney, and Phill Kline, attorney general, were on the brief, for appellee.
Jack Leslie Harned entered a no contest plea to one count of first-degree felony murder in the death of Cheryl Dianne Romero. Before sentencing he moved to withdraw his plea, claiming he misunderstood the applicable penalty and entered his plea because he thought his attorney was not ready for trial. After a full hearing, the trial court denied his motion and sentenced the defendant to life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 years. The defendant appeals. We affirm.
In January 2003, Romero and Harned were living together at Romero's rural farm in Butler County, Kansas. Romero ran a horse training operation on her farm.
On January 27, 2003, Romero went to an eyeglasses shop in Wichita at 3 p.m. to have her eyeglasses repaired. The next day, Mike Griswold, who had been shoeing Romero's horses for 10 years, arrived at the farm for his regular weekly appointment. Romero was not there, which was unusual. Harned told Griswold that Romero had not returned since leaving the day before to have her eyeglasses repaired in Wichita. Griswold asked Harned if he had reported her as missing. Harned said he had not. Griswold told him to call 911 immediately. Harned then contacted the police and reported Romero missing.
A Butler County Sheriff's officer went to Romero's home that day to take a missing person's report. Harned told him that he and Romero had lived together for 4 years, and he identified himself as her "[c]ommon-law husband." He told the officer that Romero left the house at 11 a.m. the day before to go to Wichita to have her glasses repaired. He said she never returned. He also said she had taken $500 in cash with her when she left and that the repair of the glasses was going to cost around $300.
The officer obtained Romero's descriptive information, and Harned told him that Romero was driving a 2001 white Dodge dually pickup truck. He also told the officer that she would frequently visit Wal-Mart, the grocery store, or the feed store.
That afternoon, Romero's son and daughter found her pickup in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart on East Kellogg in Wichita. Wichita police confirmed the vehicle belonged to Romero, and they impounded the truck.
Later that same afternoon, Tom and Carmen Miller were walking on Boyer Road, which was near Romero's residence. They saw an object in the roadway that looked like a ham, but they did not examine it closely. The next morning, January 29, 2003, the Millers were once again on Boyer Road in the area where they had seen the object that looked like a ham. In a roadside culvert, Carmen Miller saw what she thought was the body of an animal. On closer examination, it appeared to be a human body. She then looked more closely at the ham-like object and saw that it appeared to be a human head.
Investigators arrived at the scene. They found the burned remains of a human torso on the east side of the road near a low water bridge, burned extremities on the west side of the road, and just north on the road they found a burned human head. The remains were later identified as Romero. The autopsy revealed that she had suffered multiple injuries, including two broken mandibles and broken ribs.
Officers found a bed sheet with a floral print near the extremities. Nearby, there was an upside-down metal stock tank sitting in a brush pile from under which fire debris was recovered and some Schneider Grain and Feed grain sacks that had been folded and placed in a drain pipe near the body parts.
A K-9 certified in accelerant detection was brought to the scene. The dog indicated the presence of an accelerant on the bed sheet, on the clothing that was found on the torso and the extremities, and in the fire debris that had been under the stock tank. At Romero's residence, the K-9 alerted for the presence of accelerant on a clear jug and two fuel cans in the barn. The presence of accelerant was also found on two swabs taken from the bed of Romero's pickup truck. Later, Harned's boots testified positive for the presence of gasoline.
Officers executed a search warrant at Romero's home on January 30, 2003. Inside the house, officers found a bed sheet covering a recliner that matched the color and pattern of the bed sheet that had been found with the body parts. They also found burned remnants of Schneider Grain and Feed grain sacks between the house and the horse barn. A wood saw recovered from the barn was later determined by forensics to match a cut on Romero's right shoulder blade.
In the master bedroom, officers found a pair of boxer shorts with a spatter of blood on them. DNA tests on the boxer shorts showed the blood was Romero's. Additionally, DNA from both Romero and Harned was found on the waistband of the boxer shorts, as well as a urine stain that was determined to be from Romero.
In the course of the investigation, officers obtained security tapes from the Wal-Mart on Kellogg. The tape showed Romero's truck arriving in the parking lot at 8:20 p.m. on January 27 and an individual matching Harned's description getting picked up by a taxi cab near the general merchandise doors at approximately 9:50 p.m. that same day.
The ABC Taxi Cab Company confirmed that they received a call to pick up a man named Jack at the Wal-Mart on Kellogg at 9:41 p.m. Taxi driver Luis Figueroa picked up a man from Wal-Mart that night and drove him out to a rural area between Augusta and Douglas. Butler County Sheriff's Department Detective Kelly Herzet had Figueroa pick him up at the Wal-Mart on Kellogg and take him along the same route and to the same destination as he did for the man named Jack on January 27. The destination Figueroa took the detective to was Romero's residence.
Harned was charged with one count of second-degree murder, in violation of K.S.A. 21-3402(a), a severity level 1 person felony.
At the preliminary hearing, the defense moved to block evidence about Harned's and Romero's relationship problems. The court allowed the testimony. Romero's friend Raymond Leroy Ivie testified that in 2001, Romero had a black eye and bruises on her face and that she had told him Harned had beaten her. She also told Ivie that Harned had broken into the house and had made threatening phone calls. She asked Ivie if she could borrow a gun from him because she was scared of Harned.
Romero's friend Mary Silvey testified that she was aware in November 2002 that Romero was unhappy with Harned's behavior and wanted him to move out and get out of her life; however, she was afraid of what he might do to her if she told him that.
The defendant was bound over on the charge of second-degree murder. After at least one continuance, Harned's jury trial was set to begin March 9, 2004. However, on March 8, 2004, the matter came before the court for a plea hearing.
At that hearing, Harned's attorney announced that, pursuant to plea negotiations, Harned would enter a plea of no contest to first-degree murder. Harned's counsel told the court that he had met with Harned quite a bit in preparing the case for trial and had discussed with him the possible sentences he could receive in the event of a guilty verdict. He explained that by pleading guilty to the higher charge of first-degree murder, Harned would at least be parole eligible after 20 years; whereas, if Harned were convicted of second-degree murder, with his prior criminal history under Kansas Sentencing Guidelines, he would be facing a 51-year sentence which would require that he serve no less than 43 years in the event he earned all possible good time credits.
A written Acknowledgment of Rights and Entry of Plea form was completed and signed by Harned. The written plea agreement mirrored defense counsel's statement of the agreement and the purpose behind it:
In that document, Harned acknowledged that he understood the charge to which he was entering a plea carried a sentence of imprisonment for life with parole eligibility after serving 20 years without any good time credit and further, that he understood that he may never be granted parole and, thus, may be required to serve the entire life sentence:
The State presented the court with an amended information, changing the second-degree murder charge to first-degree premeditated murder:
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