State v. Hawkins

Decision Date01 May 2017
Docket NumberNo. W2012–00412–SC–DDT–DD,W2012–00412–SC–DDT–DD
Parties STATE of Tennessee v. James HAWKINS
CourtTennessee Supreme Court

Steven C. Bush, District Public Defender; Phyllis Aluko and Barry Kuhn, Assistant Public Defenders (on appeal); Gerald D. Skahan, Larry Nance, and Kindle Nance, Assistant Public Defenders (at trial), for the appellant, James Hawkins.

Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Andrée Blumstein, Solicitor General; Jeffrey D. Zentner, Assistant Attorney General; Amy P. Weirich, District Attorney General; Patience Branham, Marianne Bell, Jennifer Nichols, and Danielle McCollum, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Cornelia A. Clark, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Jeffrey S. Bivins, C.J., and Holly Kirby, and Roger A. Page, JJ., joined. Sharon G. Lee, J., filed a concurring opinion.

OPINION

Cornelia A. Clark, J.

A jury convicted the defendant of the premeditated first degree murder of his girlfriend, who was the mother of his three children. Tenn. Code Ann. § 39–13–202(a)(1) (2014). The jury also found the defendant guilty of initiating a false report concerning her disappearance and of abuse of her corpse, based on his sawing off her head, hands, and feet and throwing the remainder of her body over a bridge in Mississippi. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 39–16–502 (2014); id. § 39–17–312(a). At the conclusion of a separate sentencing hearing on the first degree murder conviction, the jury imposed the death sentence, finding that the prosecution had proven two statutory aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt, id . § 39–13–204(i)(2), (13), and had established that these aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt, id. § 39–13–204(g). For the remaining convictions, the trial court imposed consecutive sentences of twelve and six years, respectively, and ordered these sentences served consecutively to the death penalty. The defendant appealed, raising numerous issues, and the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his convictions and sentences. State v. Hawkins , W2012–00412–CCA–R3–DD, 2015 WL 5169157 (Tenn. Crim. App. Aug. 28, 2015). The case was thereafter automatically docketed in this Court for review, as required by statute, Tenn. Code Ann. § 39–13–206(a)(1), (c)(1). We hold that: (1) the defendant's sentence of death was not imposed in an arbitrary fashion; (2) the evidence supports the jury's findings that the aggravating circumstances were proven beyond a reasonable doubt and that these aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt; and (3) the sentence of death is neither excessive nor disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases, considering both the nature of the crime and the defendant. We also hold that: (1) admission of the defendant's statements was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt; (2) the trial court did not abuse its discretion by refusing to allow the defendant to enter guilty pleas to the noncapital offenses pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(b) at the beginning of trial, after the jury had been sworn; (3) the trial court did not err by admitting testimony about the victim's threats to call the police about the defendant's conduct as this testimony was non-hearsay; (4) the trial court did not err by admitting the victim's application for an order of protection against the defendant, pursuant to the forfeiture by wrongdoing exception to the hearsay rule; (5) the trial court did not violate Tennessee Rule of Evidence 404(b) by permitting the defendant's children to testify about his acts of violence and sexual abuse because this testimony was offered to prove motive and premeditation; and (6) any error in the prosecutorial rebuttal argument was not so improper or inflammatory as to prejudice the defendant. Accordingly, we affirm the judgments of the Court of Criminal Appeals and the trial court upholding the defendant's convictions and sentences. With respect to issues not specifically addressed herein, we affirm the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeals and include relevant portions of the intermediate appellate court's decision in the appendix to this opinion.

I. Factual Background
A. Guilt–Innocence Phase of Trial

On September 11, 2008, the Shelby County Grand Jury indicted the defendant, James Hawkins, for the premeditated first degree murder of Charlene Gaither, his girlfriend and the mother of his three children. The indictment also charged him with initiating a false report relative to her disappearance and with abuse of her corpse. The State filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty as to the first degree murder charge, relying upon two aggravating circumstances: (1) "[t]he defendant was previously convicted of one (1) or more felonies, other than the present charge, whose statutory elements involve the use of violence to the person"; and (2) "[t]he defendant knowingly mutilated the body of the victim after death." Tenn. Code Ann. § 39–13–204(i)(2), (13) (2014).1

The defendant moved pretrial to suppress a statement he gave to the police on February 16, 2008. The proof offered at the pre-trial suppression hearing and during the guilt-innocence phase of the defendant's trial2 established that the defendant, thirty years of age, and the victim, twenty-eight years of age, had dated sporadically since high school and had three children together—a twelve-year-old daughter, K.T., an eleven-year-old son, J.W.I, and a nine-year-old son, J.S.I.3 The defendant had been absent from the victim's and the children's lives since 1999 or 2000 until September 2007, when he and the victim began communicating again by telephone. At that time, the victim resided in Covington, Tennessee—forty miles from Memphis—with her husband of four years, Melvin Gaither. She worked full time at the Tipton County Adult Developmental Center, where she earned a reputation as an "extraordinary" person who was "inspiring to other people" and "a wonderful, wonderful co-worker and employee." The victim also had a good relationship with her father, Louis Irvin, Jr., and talked often with him before the defendant returned to her life.

However, on October 18, 2007, the victim and the children abruptly moved from their Covington home into an apartment with the defendant, located at 3461 Wingood Circle in Memphis. Afterwards, near Thanksgiving 2007, the victim failed to show up for work at the Tipton County Adult Developmental Center and never returned.

The victim, the defendant, and the children spent Thanksgiving 2007 at the home of the victim's paternal aunt, and the victim's father was there as well. According to Mr. Irvin, the defendant and K.T. stayed off to themselves and did not "mingle" with the rest of the family. The victim was bothered by the attention the defendant paid K.T. and asked Mr. Irvin, "[S]hould a child be so drawn to [her] father[?]" Mr. Irvin assured his daughter that K.T. was merely responding to the defendant returning to her life after a long absence.

Mr. Irvin had little contact with his daughter after Thanksgiving 2007, but other proof showed that the victim's concerns regarding the defendant's relationship with K.T. rapidly escalated, even as the victim's relationship with the defendant deteriorated. For example, the victim contacted her ex-husband, Melvin Gaither, on Christmas Day 2007, and met him for a movie and dinner. The victim told him that the defendant had been threatening her life, and Mr. Gaither encouraged her to get away from the defendant.

Records introduced from Methodist LeBonheur Children's Hospital showed that K.T. was treated on December 26–27, 2007, after she suffered a miscarriage. K.T., who was ten weeks pregnant at the time of the miscarriage, reported to medical staff that the pregnancy had resulted from her consensual sexual relationship with a school classmate, but she refused to discuss the pregnancy further or provide additional details.

Less than ten days after K.T.'s hospitalization—January 5, 2008—the victim again contacted Melvin Gaither, telling him that she "believe[d] [the defendant] want[ed] to kill [her]." Mr. Gaither again encouraged her to get away from the defendant.

A week later, on January 12, 2008, Officer Nancy Trentham of the Memphis Police Department ("MPD") responded to a call at 3461 Wingood Circle—the apartment the victim shared with the defendant. The victim, who was standing outside the apartment with her two sons, told Officer Trentham that she and her sons were leaving and that she wanted K.T. to leave with them. The victim told Officer Trentham that she believed "something inappropriate was going on" between K.T. and the defendant. Officer Trentham and another officer spoke with the defendant, who was "very cooperative ... polite ... [and] calm." Officer Trentham also talked privately with K.T. in another room of the apartment. She described K.T. as "very quiet" and "very soft spoken." After speaking with the victim, the defendant, and K.T., Officer Trentham advised the victim that the police could not remove K.T. from the defendant's custody against her will because no custody arrangement existed between the victim and the defendant. Hearing this, the victim became very upset and repeated her belief that something inappropriate was occurring between K.T. and the defendant. Although Officer Trentham completed a memorandum to the Child Advocacy Center, she did not refer the victim for an order of protection, because she did not observe any signs of abuse—domestic or otherwise.

After speaking with Officer Trentham, the victim and her two sons met Milton Harris, to whom she was married from 1998 until 2002, at a Pizza Hut. According to Mr. Harris the victim was "hysterical" and "very upset" because she had left K.T. with the defendant. However, when Mr. Harris spoke with the victim by phone the next day, K.T. was with her....

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