State v. Henry
| Decision Date | 26 April 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 83,705.,83,705. |
| Citation | 273 Kan. 608,44 P.3d 466 |
| Parties | STATE OF KANSAS, Appellee, v. RODNEY WAYNE HENRY, JR., Appellant. |
| Court | Kansas Supreme Court |
John Edward Cash, of Kansas City, Missouri, argued the cause, and Kimberley Kellogg, of Leawood, was with him on the brief for appellant.
Steven J. Obermeier, assistant district attorney, argued the cause, and Paul J. Morrison, district attorney, and Carla J. Stovall, attorney general, were with him on the brief for appellee.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Defendant was convicted of first-degree murder, rape, and aggravated criminal sodomy. Defendant was sentenced to life in prison without eligibility for parole for 40 years for murder, 194 months for rape, and 146 months for sodomy. The rape and sodomy counts were run consecutive to the murder count. Defendant appeals, claiming (1) prosecutorial misconduct in the closing argument; (2) the trial court erred in admitting testimony of the victim's mother; and (3) the trial court erred in admitting the defendant's confession.
At approximately 10:50 a.m. on April 26, 1998, Lenexa police were dispatched to the Howard Johnson's motel in response to a call concerning a possible murder. In one of the guest rooms, the body of a nude white female was found in the bathtub lying on her back. The woman was identified as Claire Marie Monti. The officer noted a number of bruises on the woman's arms, chest, and legs, and a distinctive red mark under her left breast. There appeared to be pooling of blood in her lower extremities. A liquid, later determined to be shampoo, covered the woman's body. The bedspread from the motel's bed was missing. Officers checked nearby dumpsters for evidence. A forensic neuropathologist examined the body before it was moved. Lividity was present. Abrasions and contusions were noted. The neuropathologist determined that Monti had been dead for a number of hours.
The following day, an autopsy was conducted. The coroner found 18 abrasions, 19 contusions, and 4 subgaleal hemorrhages (bleeding between the scalp and skull), and determined that there were probably four distinct blows to the head. All the abrasions were about the same age and had been inflicted shortly before death. Many of the abrasions had a faint woven pattern resulting from blows inflicted through cloth, such as clothing. One abrasion appeared to have resulted from the forward edge of a heel, suggesting that Monti had been stomped.
An internal examination of the body revealed a laceration to the liver, which was associated with approximately 50 milliliters of blood in the abdomen. Considerable force was necessary to lacerate the liver. All the injuries had been inflicted 4 to 6 hours prior to death and would have been painful.
The examination further revealed a significant amount of petechial hemorrhaging, which is consistent with a struggle. There was bruising in the muscles of the neck, indicating constriction of the neck by hands or a rope. The coroner observed asphyxial injuries to the exterior of the body, indicating strangulation. Petechial hemorrhages were concentrated over the eyes and forehead. There were scleral hemorrhages in both eyes.
The coroner also noted indications of sexual activity. There were three separate lacerations near the anus, suggesting anal penetration. All of the injuries were pre-mortem.
The forensic DNA analyst with the Johnson County Crime Laboratory collected swabs at the autopsy. The swab collected from the deceased's thigh contained semen. There was also semen on a towel recovered from the floor of the motel room.
John Applebury, a contractor in the remodeling business, employed Rodney Henry, and Henry's friend, Carl Dean Rails. Rails, who was lead carpenter/supervisor, had worked for Applebury for slightly more than 1 year. Henry had started working for Applebury as an assistant carpenter in February 1998. On Monday, April 27, 1998, Rails paged Applebury, requesting an immediate return call. When Applebury returned the call, Rails told Applebury that he and Henry needed to talk to him because "something crazy had happened." Applebury told Rails to come his job site in Kansas City, Missouri, and they would discuss the problem.
When Rails and Henry arrived, they informed Applebury that they had murdered someone. Although Rails assumed the lead in telling Applebury the story, both men contributed to the conversation. They stated that they met a woman who was parked on the street. The woman indicated that she wanted to be with them, so they followed her in separate cars to her motel. Along the way, when Rails was pulled over by the police, Henry and the woman stopped their cars to wait for Rails. After the traffic stop, the three of them continued to the woman's motel room.
The men told Applebury that in the motel room the woman wanted to have sex with them, but "went stupid on [them]." Henry stated he helped Rails get control of the woman by pulling her arm behind her. Henry believed that he broke the woman's arm in the process. Rails stated to Applebury that he knew he had to kill the woman because the incident had escalated to where he was guilty of rape and battery, and at that point, he had no choice.
After the woman was killed, Rails and Henry cleaned up the room, removed the curtains, sheets, ashtrays, and everything else that might have fingerprints. They bundled the items in a bedspread, and later placed the bundle in a dumpster and lit a fire.
Henry wanted to cut up the woman's body and remove it in pieces from the motel room. Rails, who was worried that they would be observed taking the body out, suggested that, if discovered, they kill any witnesses. The men told Applebury that they had decided to leave the woman's body in the bathtub filled with water. At that point, Applebury told the men he did not want to hear any more about the murder.
The men had informed Applebury about the murder because if they became suspects, the police might contact their employer to locate them. They requested that Applebury give them an early warning if the police came looking for them. Applebury asked the men if they thought they could live with what they had done. Both replied they could live with it. Applebury later called the TIPS Hotline from a public telephone. Applebury stated what he had been told and provided the police with the names and social security numbers of Rails and Henry.
After Henry was arrested, detectives interviewed him. Henry confessed to the murder. The interview was videotaped, and the tape was played to the jury at trial. On the videotape, Henry described meeting a woman from out of town in Westport. After the woman had drinks with Henry and Rails, they went to the woman's motel room. When the woman refused Rails' sexual advances, Rails "just lost it" and began hitting the woman. Rails attacked the woman on the floor, putting his hands around her throat and starting to choke her. She pleaded with him to stop and agreed to do anything Rails wanted. Rails said that it was too late and kept choking her.
When the woman began scratching Rails' face, Rails looked to Henry for help. Henry grabbed the woman's right arm and pulled it behind her back. The woman stopped moving and went limp. Rails kept squeezing the woman's neck. When Rails' hands began to tire and hurt, he asked Henry to get a towel. Henry got a towel and gave it to Rails. Rails wrapped the towel around the woman's neck and twisted it. Rails kept looking at the woman asking, "Are you dead, bitch?" Rails then ripped off the woman's clothes and began molesting her. After molesting the woman, Rails stepped on her chest, tried to rip her nipples off, kicked her in the chest, and then shoved a towel into her anus.
After the woman had died, the two men threw her body in the bathtub. Henry turned on the hot water. Rails laughed, grabbed shampoo, and poured it over the woman's body. Rails and Henry then wiped down everything in the room, left, and drove to a warehouse where they placed the woman's clothing and bed articles in a dumpster. They then lit the contents of the dumpster on fire to destroy the evidence.
Henry and Rails were charged and separately tried for the murder, rape, and sodomy of Monti. Henry testified at his trial. He admitted his role in the murder, but defended by asserting that because of a mental defect, he had been incapable of forming the requisite intent for intentional murder.
Henry was convicted of the crimes charged and later sentenced. Henry appealed, asserting that he was denied a fair trial because of the prosecutor's improper comments in closing argument, the erroneous admission of testimony of Monti's mother, and the erroneous admission of his confession to the police.
In Davis v. United States, 512 U.S. 452, 129 L. Ed.2d 362, 114 S. Ct. 2350 (1994), the United States Supreme Court set out the circumstances for law enforcement to consider in determining whether a suspect has invoked or waived Miranda rights during questioning.
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