State v. Henretta, No. E2007-01750-CCA-R3-DD (Tenn. Crim. App. 4/14/2009)
| Decision Date | 14 April 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. E2007-01750-CCA-R3-DD.,E2007-01750-CCA-R3-DD. |
| Parties | STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JOHN P. HENRETTA |
| Court | Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals |
Appeal from the Criminal Court for Bradley County; No. 97-334; R. Steven Bebb, Judge.
Judgments of the Criminal Court Affirmed.
Charles G. Currier, Madisonville, Tennessee (on appeal and at trial); Steven B. Ward, Madisonville, Tennessee (on appeal); and Charles Corn, District Public Defender (at trial), for the appellant, John P. Henretta.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General; Mark E. Davidson, Senior Counsel; Jerry Estes, District Attorney General; and Sandra Donaghy, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
James Curwood Witt, Jr., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Norma McGee Ogle and D. Kelly Thomas, Jr., JJ., joined.
A Bradley County Criminal Court jury convicted the defendant, John P. Henretta, of premeditated murder, see T.C.A. § 39-2-202(a)(1) (1982), felony murder, see id., two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, see id. § 39-2-501(a), two counts of aggravated rape, see id. § 39-2-603(a), and two counts of aggravated kidnapping, see id. § 39-2-301. The trial court merged the felony murder and premeditated murder convictions into a single conviction, and the jury imposed a sentence of death after determining that the State had proven four aggravating circumstances and that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt. See id. § 39-22-03. The trial court also merged the non-capital convictions into a single conviction of each offense and imposed concurrent, Range II sentences of 45 years for robbery with a deadly weapon, 50 years for aggravated kidnapping, and 50 years for aggravated rape. The court ordered the effective 50-year sentence to be served consecutively to the sentence of death. In this appeal, the defendant challenges his conviction of first degree murder and the accompanying death sentence as well as his conviction of aggravated kidnapping. He contends (1) that the trial court erred by refusing to dismiss the indictment for a lack of jurisdiction; (2) that the trial court erred by refusing to suppress evidence obtained pursuant to a search of his person; (3) that the trial court erred by refusing to dismiss the death penalty notice on the basis of the delay between his confession and indictment; (4) that the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction of aggravated kidnapping; (5) that the trial court's refusal to instruct the jury on the effect of a non-unanimous verdict at the capital sentencing hearing deprived him of due process; and (6) that Tennessee's death penalty scheme violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Discerning no error, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. Following our mandatory review, see T.C.A. § 39-13-206(c)(1) (2006), we also affirm the sentence of death.1
The proof at trial established that in November 1988, the defendant robbed, kidnapped, raped, and murdered Rose Crabtree, a thirty-two-year-old mother of two. At the time of the offenses, the defendant and an accomplice, Michael Goodhart, were on parole and fleeing authorities in a stolen car when they stopped in Cleveland, Tennessee. Ms. Crabtree's murder remained unsolved for several years until continuing investigation into the case led state and federal authorities to the pair. Upon meeting with investigators at Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas, where he was incarcerated for unrelated crimes, the defendant gave a full confession to the victim's murder.2
In November 1988, the victim and her sister, Helen Williams, both worked at the Salvation Army Thrift Store in Cleveland, Tennessee. Ms. Williams described the victim as a very friendly, very likeable person who was never rude to anyone. Although Ms. Williams worked only part-time, the victim worked full-time to support her two children, ages 11 and 13, and the family lived from paycheck to paycheck. On November 30, 1988, the victim worked the closing shift at the thrift store. Ms. Williams telephoned the victim between 4:30 and 5:00 p.m. to discuss their plans to meet at church later that evening around 7:00 p.m. and go together to visit a local nursing home. The store's closing procedure required the remaining employee first to lock the front door, then empty the cash register, count the money, and place it into a bag in preparation for a bank deposit. Fifty dollars was always left in the cash drawer to provide change for the following day's transactions, while the daily proceeds were deposited at the bank. The final cash register receipt on November 30, 1988, reflected a print time of 5:12 p.m. and daily proceeds of $139.69.
When the victim did not arrive at church at 7:00 p.m. as planned, a church member and his son went to the thrift store to check on the victim. They found the victim's car in the parking lot and the store's front door locked. Ms. Williams then went to the store with her boyfriend, Ray. She unlocked the door with her own key, and they began looking for the victim. When Ray turned on the lights at the back of the store, Ms. Williams saw the victim's lunch box and coat lying on the sales counter at the front of the store, but they did not find the victim. The store appeared to be in normal condition; the sales floor was "orderly." Two rooms at the back were cluttered with items taken in for sale. A door at the very back of the store opened to the street, and the Cleveland Police Station was located directly across from the thrift store.
According to Ms. Williams, the victim paid for all of her expenses on a cash basis and had just received $420 from an inheritance. Ms. Williams believed that the victim had the $420 in her possession on the day of the offenses. Ms. Williams never found either the victim's purse or the bank deposit in the store.
Officers who were called to the store found the cash drawer insert, a number of receipts, and one of the victim's shoes on the floor in the middle section of the store. Officers found an empty money bag just inside the back room. They found the victim's partially covered body at the back of the store near a large pool of blood, her right leg and right arm exposed and her other shoe nearby. The victim was clothed in a blue jean skirt, a pink pull-over top, and a bra, but her underwear had been removed. Officers never found the victim's purse or any cash.
An autopsy of the victim's body, performed by Doctor Fenton Scruggs, revealed three stab wounds to the victim's neck, two on the left side and one on the right side. A three-inch wound to the top left side of the neck severed her jugular vein. A one-inch wound to the bottom left side of the neck did not cut any major veins or arteries. A wound immediately below the right ear, which Doctor Scruggs described as "particularly damaging," severed the carotid artery and the jugular vein and extended so deep that it severed the ligaments holding the backbone vertebra together, exposing the spinal cord. Doctor Scruggs testified that this most severe wound, which was the first such wound that he had seen, resulted from "great force" and would have rendered the victim unconscious within approximately 30 seconds. The autopsy report reflected that the victim ultimately died of the loss of blood resulting from the stab wounds to her neck.
Early into their investigation of the murder, detectives developed several suspects, but deoxyribonucleic ("DNA") analysis failed to connect any of the suspects to the evidence collected at the crime scene. As a result, no arrests were made for several years.
In January 1994, Bradley County detectives and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") received information that led them to speak first with Michael Goodhart and then the defendant, who was then a federal inmate in Leavenworth, Kansas. Before meeting with the defendant, authorities obtained a search warrant to procure blood, hair, and saliva samples from the defendant. After securing the specimens, authorities took the defendant's sworn statement. The defendant confessed to killing the victim and committing the related offenses. In addition, he drew a diagram of the store, and in the process, he described various features of the store and designated the locations where he had killed the victim, "rolled her over," and "covered her up."
According to the defendant, he was on parole and "on the run" from authorities in Pennsylvania when he and Mr. Goodhart left Pennsylvania in a stolen car. The two men traveled across Florida, Georgia, and Alabama before stopping in Cleveland, Tennessee. They began "drinking and stuff" at a bar near the Salvation Army Thrift Store, and, after waiting approximately two hours, the defendant and Mr. Goodhart "went back by the store," where they remained until closing time. The defendant explained that Mr. Goodhart hid inside the store and after the store closed, let the defendant in the back door. The men, both armed with knives, grabbed the victim at the "store room entrance." Mr. Goodhart raped the victim while the defendant searched through her purse and found several hundred dollars. The defendant also admitted taking the cash from a money bag he found.
After gathering the cash, the defendant raped the victim. He stated that the victim did not struggle or scream during the assault and, as the men were preparing to leave, even advised them against using the back door to exit because the police station was located there. At that point, the defendant asked Mr. Goodhart whether he should kill the victim. Mr. Goodhart said yes, and the defendant stabbed the victim "one time in the neck." After Mr. Goodhart "poked her with his knife to make sure" she was dead, the defendant placed a blanket...
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