State v. Hornoff

• Decision Date: 24 October 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-508-C.A.,99-508-C.A.
• Citation: 760 A.2d 927
• Parties: STATE v. Jeffrey Scott HORNOFF.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

760 A.2d 927

STATE v. Jeffrey Scott HORNOFF.

No. 99-508-C.A.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

October 24, 2000.

Present: WEISBERGER, C.J., LEDERBERG, BOURCIER, FLANDERS, and GOLDBERG, JJ.

Aaron Weisman, Annie Goldberg, Assistant Attorneys General, for plaintiff.

Susan B. Iannitelli, for Defendant.

OPINION

GOLDBERG, Justice.

On the morning of August 11, 1989, Victoria Cushman (Victoria) failed to appear for her scheduled shift at the Alpine Ski & Sports store on Maple Street in Warwick, Rhode Island. A friend and coworker, concerned about her unexplained absence, enlisted the aid of two fellow coworkers, and all three walked to her apartment, adjacent to the Alpine store in search of their friend. Instead of finding the smiling young woman whom they had all come to know, they found Victoria lying in a pool of blood on the living room floor, obviously dead from severe head trauma. She had been brutally beaten with a heavy fire extinguisher that lay on the floor next to her body. Doctor William Q. Sturner (Dr. Sturner), who at the time of the murder was the chief medical examiner for the State of Rhode Island, later testified that the victim had suffered numerous fractures to her skull as a result of repeated blows with the seventeen-pound fire extinguisher. The autopsy also revealed evidence of asphyxiation, an initial disabling injury, that in Dr. Sturner's opinion, rendered Victoria unconscious before she was beaten to death. Doctor Sturner testified that Victoria died as a result of cranial cerebral trauma resulting in three distinct sets of fractures to the vault of the skull. Doctor HenryLee, a noted criminologist, testified that the low level at which blood had been splattered around the body established that the final deadly blows were inflicted after Victoria had been strangled and rendered unconscious on the floor.

Almost six years later, after separate investigations by the Warwick Police Department and the Rhode Island State Police, the defendant Jeffrey "Scott" Hornoff (Hornoff or defendant), was found guilty of the murder of Victoria Cushman following a jury trial in the Providence County Superior Court.¹ He was thereafter sentenced to a mandatory term of life imprisonment. The defendant has appealed.

Facts and Travel

Kerri Martin (Kerri), the friend who first arrived at Victoria's apartment on the morning of the murder, testified that she initially encountered Victoria's cat and was immediately clawed by the traumatized animal. Sensing that something was amiss, Kerri sought the assistance of two other fellow employees, Deborah Laffey and Gary Anderson (Gary). When Gary finally entered the apartment, he discovered the lifeless body of twenty-nine-year old Victoria Cushman, a graduate of the University of Maryland and former United States Army Intelligence Officer. The police were summoned to the scene.

The decedent was found behind a chair on the living room floor, clothed in a pink bathrobe; her head lay in a pool of blood. A fire extinguisher, a pair of yellow dishwashing gloves that were apparently hastily removed with the inside of the gloves turned out, and an open handbag containing Victoria's wallet with cash and credit cards were found adjacent to the body. Although there was noindication of forced entry into the apartment, the crime scene consisted of an open window with a screen leaning against the wall just to the right of the victim's feet. According to the first officer on the scene, nothing in the apartment appeared to have been disturbed except the fire extinguisher and an overturned plant. A piece of rotted wood from the building was discovered in the garden outside the open window, and the flowers below the window had been trampled. The officers also discovered muddied scuff marks adjacent to a pipe on the outside of the building. These factors led the investigators to conclude that the open window, trampled flowers and scuff marks on the building were an attempt by the defendant to stage a break-in, thereby suggesting that an unknown intruder had gained entrance to Victoria's apartment and killed her.

The defendant, a detective with the Warwick Police Department, a member of its Dive Team, and a frequent Alpine patron, came under suspicion almost immediately after the discovery of the body. He was not indicted, however, until 1994, some five years after the murder and only after the Rhode Island State Police took over the investigation from the Warwick Police Department. Hornoff's extramarital affair with the victim led the investigators to suspect that he was the perpetrator. An envelope addressed to "Scott Hornoff" containing a letter written by the victim to Hornoff was found at the crime scene. The letter disclosed the relationship between the decedent and Hornoff and indicated that despite defendant's efforts to terminate their relationship, Victoria did not want the affair to end.² The letter's accuracy was confirmed, and defendant's involvement in an extramarital affair with the victim was established in the early stages of the investigation. At the time of the murder, Hornoff was married to Rhonda Hornoff and was the father of an infant son. Although accounts of his relationship with the victim ranged from a few brief and isolated sexual encounters, to a continuous and somewhat serious affair, it was clear that during the period immediately preceding the murder, the defendant and the victim were involved in an extramarital affair and that defendant had attempted to terminate their relationship.

The evidence disclosed that four or five weeks before the murder, Victoria began to confide in a fellow Alpine employee, Joanne Archetto (Ms. Archetto), that she was dating a Warwick police officer who was married but planning to end his marriage so they could embark upon a more permanent relationship. By August 9, 1989 however, Victoria's hopes had deteriorated. She arrived at work that day visibly upset, and explained to Ms. Archetto that the police officer had ended their relationship ostensibly to spend more time with his family. Victoria was described as surprised and angry at this sudden turn of events.

On the night of August 10, 1989, a party was held at the home of Warwick Police Officer Raymond Galluci and his wife, Deborah. Hornoff attended the party with his wife and their young son. Shortly after 10 p.m., Rhonda Hornoff and the baby left the party. An argument developed when Hornoff refused to accompany them home and opted to remain at the party, informing his wife that he would get a ride home with someone else. The evidence disclosed that the defendant consumed a significant amount of alcohol that evening, including beer and punch spiked with hard liquor. It is also clear that defendant was in a rather jovial mood; he had been drinking socially, and continued to interact with the other guests. He and his brother, John "David" Hornoff (David), also a detective with the Warwick Police Department, left the party between 10:30 and 11 p.m. Hornoff and his brother gave different accounts about whether or not defendant actually entered his house. What is clear, however, is that Hornoff returned to the Gallucci party in the early morning hours of August 11, 1989. At this point, defendant was in a very different state of mind. He was no longer a social and talkative partygoer, but rather, by all accounts, he looked pale, dazed, sick, with a blank, staring look on his face.

David Hornoff, having learned of the murder on the midday newscast and aware of defendant's relationship with the victim, immediately called his brother with the gruesome news. However, when Hornoff arrived at the police station for his afternoon shift, he feigned ignorance and inquired about the identity of the victim. When informed by a group of detectives that the victim was Victoria Cushman, defendant appeared to be shocked and volunteered that he had been closely acquainted with the decedent. He then picked up the phone, dialed a number and stated that it was Victoria Cushman who had been killed. Later, when the Warwick detectives mentioned the name Victoria Cushman to the defendant, he immediately responded that the name did not ring a bell. While defendant was being questioned at the station, other detectives went to defendant's home to speak with his wife about the events of the previous evening. Rhonda said that she arrived home with the baby between 11 and 11:30 p.m., and that she heard her husband come home at approximately midnight. With the exception of a brief exit to tend to the family dogs, Rhonda maintained, her husband was in bed sleeping beside her for the entire night. After the detectives left, however, Rhonda called Steve Branch, another Warwick police officer and a close friend of the defendant's, and inquired about her husband's travels the previous evening.

When questioned further about his whereabouts that fateful night, defendant gave a version different from that of his wife. He initially stated that his brother had taken him home from the Gallucci party at about 11 p.m., after his wife and son had departed. He said that he did not go into the house right away because he decided to return to the Gallucci party in his own car to retrieve some cassette tapes that he had left at the party. Later, in yet another version, defendant told the State Police that he had no recollection of what happened that evening and that he would therefore rely upon his wife's memory. David Hornoff also told a different story. It was his contention that after dropping his brother off at home, he actually saw the defendant enter the house.

Confronted with these wholly incongruous and self-serving statements, as well as the other circumstantial evidence presented at trial, a jury convicted Jeffrey Scott Hornoff of murder in the first degree. On appeal, the defendant has raised numerous issues, some that we deem to be repetitious and others that were not adequately preserved for...