State v. Hilyard

• Decision Date: 19 August 2022
• Docket Number: 123,323
• Citation: 515 P.3d 267
• Parties: STATE of Kansas, Appellee, v. Rachael C. HILYARD, Appellant.
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

515 P.3d 267

STATE of Kansas, Appellee,

v.Rachael C. HILYARD, Appellant.

No. 123,323

Supreme Court of Kansas.

Opinion filed August 19, 2022.

Randall L. Hodgkinson, of the Kansas Appellate Defender Office, argued the cause and was on the briefs for appellant.

Matt J. Maloney, assistant district attorney, argued the cause, and Marc Bennett, district attorney, and Derek Schmidt, attorney general, were with him on the brief for appellee.

The opinion of the court was delivered by Wilson, J.:

This is Rachael Hilyard's direct appeal after the district court imposed a hard 50 prison sentence for her first-degree premeditated murder conviction. Hilyard appeals on several theories, including insufficient evidence to support premeditation, erroneous jury instruction, ineffective assistance of counsel, prosecutorial error, and the district court's abuse of discretion. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm Hilyard's conviction and sentence.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In April 2017, then 9-year-old J.G. accompanied his grandmother, Micki Davis, to the home of Rachael Hilyard, his dad's ex-girlfriend. Davis had received a phone call from Hilyard to pick up J.G.'s dad's things or Hilyard would leave them at the curb. While gathering those things at Hilyard's home, Hilyard and Davis got into a fight. According to J.G., Hilyard suddenly pushed Davis from behind and began attacking her.

As soon as J.G. saw the attack, he ran to Davis' pickup parked in the driveway, locked himself inside, and called 911. While J.G. was in the truck, Hilyard approached the truck and talked to J.G., asking him to let her in. She eventually left to go back into the house.

J.G. left the truck and began running. He eventually stopped at the home of Brandon Martinez, who was out in his garage. Martinez took over the 911 phone call for J.G., and law enforcement soon arrived. With J.G. safely in the patrol vehicle, Officers Crouch and Spicuglia tried to make contact at Hilyard's house by knocking on the front door, looking through windows, and trying the back door—all with no response. Finally, Officer Spicuglia lifted the single-stall garage door. Inside, he saw a female body near a large pool of blood. The body's head was missing.

Officer Crouch moved to cover the perimeter of the house to contain whatever evidence and suspects might be in the residence until more officers could arrive. When more officers arrived on the scene, they entered the house and found Hilyard on the floor of the bathroom. Hilyard immediately complied with all the officers' verbal commands. She did not have any weapons and did not resist officers as they took her into custody. The officers then found Davis' head in the kitchen sink. CSI collected two bloody kitchen knives from near Davis' body.

While being transported, Hilyard overheard some radio traffic where the dispatch gave the incorrect address for her home; without prompting, Hilyard coherently gave the officers her correct address. After being placed in an interrogation room, Hilyard made an unprompted statement to an officer to the effect of "this is my fault."

During an autopsy, the coroner found bruises on Davis' head, face, breast, and lower back, as well as eight fractured ribs

: all evidence of blunt force trauma. The coroner testified there was no way to know whether someone had lost consciousness based only on this type of bruising; but it was possible. The coroner then detailed the sharp force injuries to Davis' neck; he could not tell exactly how many stab wounds there were but was confident it was not just one uninterrupted cut through the neck. The coroner explained that to sever the head from a torso, one must use significant effort. The coroner also said he found blood in Davis' lungs, leading him to believe she was still breathing while her throat was cut. Ultimately, the coroner ruled the cause of death was sharp force injuries through the neck.

The physical evidence found in Hilyard's garage also suggested Davis was likely alive while being decapitated. Crime scene investigators found blood spatters at the scene which they believed had been caused by arterial spray—which generally requires an amount of blood pressure or a pumping heart.

Hilyard was charged with first-degree premeditated murder. Initially, she was found incompetent to stand trial and was ordered to undergo treatment at Larned State Security Hospital. After treatment and a competency evaluation from Larned, the district court found Hilyard competent to stand trial.

During the defense's opening statement, counsel acknowledged this was not a "whodunit" case; there was no issue about who killed Davis. Rather, defense counsel told the jury "when you have all of the evidence, I expect you will render a guilty verdict to my client on the appropriate charge."

Hilyard testified as part of her defense. She acknowledged she was expecting Davis and J.G. to pick up some of her ex-boyfriend's things and said she'd known Davis for probably 20 years. While discussing a painting Hilyard wanted to give to Davis, Hilyard thought Davis flinched at her. She "reacted," and they wrestled from the adjoining laundry room into the garage, where Hilyard believed J.G. to be. Hilyard admitted Davis did not touch her before the scuffle. Hilyard did not perceive Davis as a threat but was "on edge" because she thought someone was coming to kill her. Hilyard did not remember the details of the fight, but she knew she and Davis wrestled to the garage. Contrary to the blunt force injuries found during the autopsy, Hilyard denied remembering punching Davis at all. She did remember both herself and Davis "resisting."

Hilyard remembered J.G. running out of the garage during the fight. Hilyard testified that when the fight ended, Davis was lying on the garage floor. She avoided looking at Davis because she feared someone was watching her—Hilyard—through her own eyes. She closed the garage door.

Hilyard testified that she then went into the house looking for J.G. Upon realizing he was not in the house, she walked outside and found him in the truck. She approached the truck and was confused as to why he was so scared; Hilyard told J.G. he did not need to be scared. J.G. told Hilyard he was calling 911, at which point Hilyard returned to the house.

Hilyard explained that once she was back in the house, she got one knife and went back out into the garage. She testified she did not know Davis was still alive, nor did she know Davis was breathing. But Hilyard also testified she went to the garage "to go make sure [Davis] was okay still" ... "'cuz [Hilyard] thought [Davis] was gonna get back up."

Hilyard then began severing Davis' head because "things" told Hilyard she had little time and she needed to get Davis' head away from her body so her soul could get free and go to heaven. As Hilyard was cutting through Davis' neck, the first knife broke. She had to stop and go get another knife from the kitchen. After severing Davis' head, Hilyard walked into the kitchen and placed Davis' head in the sink. Then she went into the bathroom, where she believed she stayed until the police arrived.

During closing, defense counsel again summed up its position as, "[m]y client killed Ms. Davis, but there's no premeditation." Counsel supported this by highlighting Hilyard's belief that Davis was already dead. Other than Hilyard's own testimony, defense counsel presented no evidence.

The court instructed the jury on three lesser included offenses, but the jury ultimately convicted Hilyard of premeditated first-degree murder. The district court sentenced Hilyard to life in prison with no chance of parole for 50 years. Hilyard filed a timely notice of appeal.

ANALYSIS

SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE

Hilyard's first issue on appeal is whether there was sufficient evidence to support the jury's finding of premeditation. She argues there was not. We find sufficient evidence in the record to support a finding of premeditation and no error below.

Preservation

Generally, there is no requirement for a criminal defendant to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence before the trial court to preserve it for appeal. State v. Farmer , 285 Kan. 541, 545, 175 P.3d 221 (2008). We find no exception in this case to that general rule.

Standard of Review

There must be evidence supporting each element of a crime to meet the sufficiency of the evidence standard. An appellate court reviews sufficiency by looking at all the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution to determine whether a rational factfinder could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In making that determination, the appellate court will not reweigh evidence, evaluate witness credibility, or resolve conflicts in the evidence. State v. Gonzalez , 307 Kan. 575, 586, 412 P.3d 968 (2018).

Discussion

"Premeditation is the process of thinking about a proposed killing before engaging in the homicidal conduct." State v. Scott , 271 Kan. 103, 108, 21 P.3d 516 (2001). Thus, Hilyard argues she could not have formed premeditation unless she knew, or reasonably should have known, that Davis was still alive before Hilyard dealt the fatal cut.

Premeditation need not be proved by direct evidence. Premeditation may be shown by circumstantial evidence, provided inferences are reasonable. Our caselaw identifies five factors to consider when deciding whether circumstantial evidence gives rise to an inference of premeditation: " ‘(1) the nature of the weapon used; (2) lack of provocation; (3) the defendant's conduct before and after the killing; (4) threats and declarations of the defendant before and during the occurrence; and (5) the dealing of lethal blows after the deceased was felled and rendered helpless.’ " State v. Kettler , 299 Kan. 448, 467, 325 P.3d 1075 (2014) (quoting State v. Scaife, 286 Kan. 614, 617-18, 186 P.3d 755 [2008] ). Inferences reasonably drawn are not driven by the number of factors present in a particular case, because in some cases...