State v. Harruff

• Decision Date: 29 January 2020
• Docket Number: #28886
• Parties: STATE of South Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Chance Glenn HARRUFF, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: South Dakota Supreme Court

939 N.W.2d 20

STATE of South Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee,

v.Chance Glenn HARRUFF, Defendant and Appellant.

#28886

Supreme Court of South Dakota.

ARGUED SEPTEMBER 30, 2019

OPINION FILED January 29, 2020

RALEIGH HANSMAN, CLINT SARGENT of Meierhenry Sargent, LLP, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Attorneys for defendant and appellant.

JASON R. RAVNSBORG, Attorney General, QUINCY R. KJERSTAD, Assistant Attorney General, Pierre, South Dakota, Attorneys for plaintiff and appellee.

KERN, Justice

[¶1.] A jury found Chance Harruff guilty of second-degree murder ( SDCL 22-16-7 ) for the death of Kristi Olson. The circuit court sentenced Harruff to life in prison. On appeal Harruff argues the court erred by admitting other acts testimony from three witnesses over Harruff’s objection that the testimony was cumulative in violation of SDCL 19-19-403. He also contends that the court erred in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal arguing there was insufficient evidence to sustain the conviction. We affirm.

Background

[¶2.] Kristi Olson was discovered unconscious in her Dallas, South Dakota home on June 1, 2017 at 7:00 a.m. by Samantha York, Kristi’s eldest daughter.¹ York lived in a nearby home on the same property. She had called her mother several times that morning, but received no answer. York knew Kristi should have been awake because she planned to leave her home at 6:00 a.m. to drive to Sioux Falls to trade in her truck. When York received no answer, she began to worry, so she walked over to her mother’s house and noticed the truck still in the driveway. She entered Kristi’s home through the front door, which she unlocked, and went downstairs to Kristi’s room. There, she found Kristi lying in bed, unresponsive. York frantically called 911 and woke up everyone in the home.

[¶3.] Layne Olson, Kristi’s eldest son, moved Kristi from her bed into the living room and placed her on the floor to perform CPR. Kristi’s mother, Gay Lynn Barry, and Layne performed CPR until an ambulance arrived at the home. When medical professionals arrived, they observed abrasions and discoloration around Kristi’s neck. The ambulance transported Kristi to a hospital in Gregory. Shortly thereafter, doctors at the hospital pronounced her dead.

[¶4.] The Gregory County Sheriff’s Office, with assistance from the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, immediately began investigating Kristi’s death. When Kristi’s children noticed that their mother’s cell phone was missing, they relayed that information to the officers. The children mentioned Chance Harruff, Kristi’s most recent boyfriend, who was known for having a tumultuous relationship with Kristi and taking her cell phone. Law enforcement quickly identified Harruff as a person of interest.

[¶5.] Harruff and Kristi had a history of verbal arguments and physical altercations, but Kristi refused to report the domestic violence to law enforcement. However, Kristi did confide in family and friends about the various acts of physical abuse caused by Harruff and shared photos of her injuries. A major source of contention in their relationship centered around phone calls and text messages Kristi received from other men. Kristi assigned separate ringtones to text messages and calls received from her former boyfriends. When Harruff heard the sound of these ringtones, he knew that other men were contacting Kristi and the couple would fight. On several occasions during their arguments, Harruff destroyed her cell phones.

[¶6.] Several hours after York discovered Kristi’s body, law enforcement asked Harruff to come in for questioning, and he did so voluntarily. During his first interview, Harruff provided the officers with an account of his whereabouts on the previous day. Harruff told the officers he spent the day with Kristi in Sioux Falls helping her purchase a new truck. The two returned to Kristi’s home in Dallas in the evening and had supper with her family. Harruff told officers that the last time he saw Kristi was around 6:00 p.m. when he left her house. According to Harruff, he went to Mr. G’s Convenience Store in Gregory, talked with a friend who worked there, Kristin Wallace, and then went to his apartment. After Wallace finished work, she came to Harruff’s apartment for a few beers. Around 12:30 a.m., Harruff and Wallace stepped out to get cigarettes.

They returned to the apartment, and Wallace stayed about 20 minutes before leaving. Harruff told the officers he stayed home for the rest of the night.

[¶7.] Harruff further explained that after receiving numerous text messages from Kristi, he decided to call her at 2:45 a.m. The conversation was about their relationship and the texts she received from other men, but was not an argument. Harruff ended the call so that he could talk with his new girlfriend in Colorado on and off until morning. When asked, Harruff denied driving to Dallas or leaving his apartment. Officers questioned Harruff about Kristi’s missing cell phone. He informed the officers that he did not know where it was, but that Kristi must have had it since she spoke on it and texted him well into the night. Harruff claimed the last time he saw the phone it was in Kristi’s possession when he left her home for the evening.

[¶8.] Officers contacted Kristi’s cell phone provider for the last known information on her cell phone and discovered that a ping was emitted from the phone, somewhere between Dallas and Gregory, around 4:00 a.m. A review of surveillance videos from various businesses in Gregory around that time frame revealed further evidence of Harruff’s whereabouts. Footage from Mr. G’s Convenience Store showed Harruff’s car driving into Gregory from the east and parking near the dumpster at Mr. G’s. Harruff briefly got out of his vehicle and then drove in the direction of his apartment. Officers searched the dumpster and found a broken purple iPhone in a white kitchen trash bag. Witnesses identified the phone as Kristi’s cell phone.

[¶9.] Later that evening, officers interviewed Harruff a second time to confront him with the cell phone information. After giving several conflicting explanations, Harruff admitted that he traveled to Kristi’s home around 4:00 a.m. just to "see who was at the house." Kristi’s home had a walkout basement and her bedroom was on the lower level just beyond the living room. Harruff said that he went to the door facing east on the lower level and spoke with her at the doorway. While they were talking at the walk-out basement door, Kristi’s phone received a text message from one of her male friends. The two had a verbal disagreement about the message, and he grabbed her cell phone out of her hand. Harruff claimed that Kristi hit him and in response, he shoved her in the chest with the heel of his hand "pretty hard." The punch knocked her back two steps, and she landed on a knee.

[¶10.] He told the officers that he didn't intend to hit her that hard, but he was known for his unique ability to strike hard punches with the strength of a mule kick, so much so that his former boxing coaches nicknamed him "The Mule." Harruff claimed Kristi got up, slammed the door in his face and locked it, so he drove back towards his home. When he arrived in Gregory, he tossed Kristi’s phone in the dumpster at Mr. G’s and went home. Harruff claimed that he never entered Kristi’s home during the confrontation, remaining only in the doorway, and that she was alive when he left.

[¶11.] At the State’s request, Dr. Kenneth Snell performed an autopsy on Kristi’s body. He concluded that the cause of Kristi’s death was asphyxia due to manual strangulation and that her death was a homicide. A Gregory County grand jury indicted Harruff for alternative counts of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and first-degree manslaughter.

[¶12.] During an eight-day jury trial, sixteen witnesses testified for the State, including DCI Agents, EMTs, medical professionals, forensic pathologists, and several of Kristi’s relatives and friends. The testimony of Gay Lynn Barry and Samantha York focused on the events of June 1, and the conflicts between Kristi and Harruff that occurred during their relationship. Additionally, Kristi’s friends Marissa Bridges, Kristin Wallace, and Melvin Vosika testified regarding other acts of domestic abuse, including Kristi’s statements describing her relationship with Harruff. At the close of the State’s case-in-chief, Harruff moved for judgment of acquittal. The circuit court denied the motion. Harruff called one witness in his defense, a forensic pathologist, who testified that Kristi’s death did not appear to be caused by strangulation, but instead could have resulted from her preexisting medical conditions.

[¶13.] The jury found Harruff guilty of second-degree murder in violation of SDCL 22-16-7. After the trial, Harruff renewed his motion for a judgment of acquittal, which the circuit court denied. The court sentenced Harruff to life in prison. On appeal, Harruff raises two issues which we restate as follows:

1. Whether the circuit court abused its discretion by admitting the testimony of Wallace, Bridges, and Vosika in violation of SDCL 19-19-403.

2. Whether the circuit court erred in denying Harruff’s motion for judgment of acquittal.

Standard of Review

[¶14.] Evidentiary rulings are reviewed for abuse of discretion. State v. Stone , 2019 S.D. 18, ¶ 22, 925 N.W.2d 488, 497. An abuse of discretion is "a fundamental error of judgment, a choice outside the range of permissible choices, a decision, which, on full consideration is arbitrary or unreasonable." State v. Kvasnicka , 2013 S.D. 25, ¶ 17, 829 N.W.2d 123, 127–28 (quoting State v. Lemler , 2009 S.D. 86, ¶ 40, 774 N.W.2d 272, 286 ). Under the abuse of discretion standard, "not only must error be demonstrated, but it must also be shown to be prejudicial." Stone , 2019 S.D. 18, ¶ 22, 925 N.W.2d at 497 (quoting State v. Bausch , 2017 S.D. 1, ¶ 12, 889 N.W.2d 404, 408 ).

[¶15.] The denial of a motion for judgment of...