State v. Houston
| Decision Date | 19 August 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. 98,373.,98,373. |
| Citation | 213 P.3d 728 |
| Parties | STATE of Kansas, Appellee, v. Michael D. HOUSTON, Sr., Appellant. |
| Court | Kansas Supreme Court |
Michael D. Houston, Sr., was convicted of intentional second-degree murder for shooting Joshua Johnson and received a sentence of 165 months' imprisonment. He appealed, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. State v. Houston, No. 98,373, 2008 WL 4140640 unpublished opinion filed September 5, 2008. We granted Houston's petition for review under K.S.A. 60-2101(b).
Houston's issues on appeal, and our accompanying holdings, are as follows:
1. Did the trial court prevent Houston from fully presenting his theory of defense by refusing to admit certain evidence about Johnson's prior acts of violence against Houston's family? No.
2. Did the prosecutor commit reversible misconduct in eliciting testimony from Houston about his stay at Larned State Hospital? No.
3. Did the trial court commit reversible error in admitting testimony about Johnson's statement that Houston had a gun hours before the shooting occurred? No.
4. Did the trial court commit reversible error in refusing Houston's request to instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of involuntary manslaughter? No.
5. Did cumulative error deny Houston a fair trial? No.
6. Did the trial court violate Houston's Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights under Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), when sentencing him to the aggravated sentence in the grid box without requiring that the aggravating factors be charged in the complaint, put before a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt? No.
Accordingly, we affirm.
The defendant, Michael D. Houston, Sr., lived on Delavan Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas, with his wife and children. Around 2000, Houston became friends with Joshua Johnson. Johnson did not live in the neighborhood, but his grandparents lived next door to Houston, and Johnson's mother lived across the street.
The friendship soured in 2001 when Johnson learned that Houston had a sexual relationship with Johnson's girlfriend, Natasha Tavai. One of Houston's sons also allegedly had sex with Tavai.
Johnson and Tavai continued to date, but the Houston and Johnson families became embroiled in an ongoing feud that involved threats and acts of violence by both sides. This feud lasted for more than a year and a half. During this time, Tavai gave birth to Johnson's son, and the three continued to visit his family members in Houston's neighborhood.
Both families filed complaints against the other, with some resulting in municipal court cases. Sherri Houston, Houston's wife, testified that there was always something going on between the two families, and that she kept a journal documenting the incidents. According to Sherri, on one occasion Johnson drove by and directed racial slurs at her family; her son ended up hurt the next day. She could not recall exactly when this incident occurred. Sherri also testified that she tried to get help from the police department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Department of Justice, and the community police officer.
On March 24, 2003, the day of Johnson's death, Houston was driving three of his children home when a bottle flew across his windshield. He quickly turned and saw Johnson and Tavai going by in a minivan. There were no other cars nearby. Houston followed them to Leonard's auto body shop. When he arrived, he got out of his car, approached Johnson, and the two men got into a heated argument on the lot.
Houston claimed to have seen Johnson reaching into Tavai's minivan for a baseball bat during one point in the argument. After several bystanders gathered, the argument ended, and Houston drove away. Johnson remained at Leonard's for about 2 hours waiting on his car to be repaired.
Linda Parker, Johnson's grandmother, testified that she and her husband, Donald drove past Leonard's during the altercation. Linda and Donald both testified that there was a lot of yelling and cussing. According to Linda, Houston told Johnson, "[C]ome on, big boy, come on."
Houston's versions are mixed on exactly what he did after leaving Leonard's. According to his statement to the police the next day, he drove to a liquor store and purchased a 6-pack of beer. He then drove to his house, where the children got out. Houston told the police he went into the house and got his loaded shotgun out of his closet, got back into the car with the gun, and then called his son, Mike, Jr., to tell him about the argument. He then drove to Conoco to get more cigarettes.
At the later trial, however, Houston testified that he went to the liquor store and bought some liquor and a 6-pack of beer. According to his testimony, he went to his house where the children got out and he called 911; he was advised that police would not be dispatched. Houston then got his shotgun out of the closet, returned to his car, smoked the last of his cigarettes, and went to Conoco for more cigarettes.
Jeff Betts, who witnessed the earlier altercation from his auto shop next door to Leonard's, testified that Houston called him afterward. According to Betts, Houston told him about an ongoing feud with Johnson. Betts also testified that Houston told him that someone had hit one of his sons with a crowbar or pipe, and indicated—but did not say—it was Johnson.
Johnson's mother, Lora Walker, testified that Johnson called her from Leonard's about an hour before the shooting and told her to be careful because he thought Houston had a gun. Ashley Walker, Johnson's sister, testified that Johnson called her a little later and said that he was planning to come back to their house for a family dinner.
Ashley testified that sometime after the call she heard horns honking so she went to the front door. According to Ashley, her mother was already headed out the front door, and yelled for her son D.J. to bring the phone to her. When Ashley went outside, she saw Tavai's van parked behind Johnson's car in front of the house. She also saw Houston's car parked across the street. Ashley testified that she heard her mother screaming and saw Houston fire a "long gun" at Johnson. She believed that Houston was 6 or 7 feet away from Johnson's car when he pulled the trigger.
D.J. testified he heard horns honking in front of the house and followed his mother to see what was going on. When D.J. got to the porch, he saw Houston pointing a shotgun at Johnson. A few seconds later, he saw the blast of the gun and immediately ran to Johnson's car. He saw Houston get in his car and back down Delavan Street.
Houston testified that Johnson swung his car door open, forcing Houston to swerve his own car. Houston then stopped his car in the middle of the street. He testified that he got out and approached Johnson's car. According to him, by then Johnson was almost completely out of his car. Houston testified that he shot Johnson because Johnson was reaching behind him for a weapon.
Police found no weapons in Johnson's car. However, after Houston told them that they would find a bat in Tavai's van, they recovered one there.
Houston turned himself in to the police the morning after the shooting. As mentioned, his statement to the police contained some differences from his trial testimony, e.g., he did not claim that Johnson was almost completely out of his car. Rather, Houston only told them that Johnson was in his car trying to open the door when Houston fired. Indeed because Johnson was 6' 2" and weighed over 400 pounds, his family members testified that he would have had a difficult time getting out of the car quickly. Also unlike Houston's trial testimony, he did not tell the police that he thought Johnson was reaching for a weapon.
Officer Dustin Sillings, who picked up Houston when he turned himself in, testified that Houston told him, "I said I'm tired of this shit, I got out of the car with my gun and I walked around and pulled the trigger." When the police asked Houston whether he saw Johnson with a weapon, he responded, "Not as far as, not like drawn on me or nothing like that, as far as I know." The officer then asked, "You didn't see any weapon?" Houston responded, "No."
Houston was charged with first-degree premeditated murder. A jury convicted him of the lesser included offense of second-degree intentional murder. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded for a new trial in State v. Houston, No. 93,771, 2006 WL 851306 unpublished opinion filed March 31, 2006.
Upon remand, the State amended the complaint and charged Houston only with second-degree intentional murder. At the retrial, he contended that he shot Johnson in self-defense. After being instructed on second-degree intentional murder, voluntary manslaughter, and self-defense, the jury again convicted Houston of second-degree intentional murder.
Houston appealed and the Court of Appeals affirmed on all issues. More facts will be provided as necessary to the analysis.
As a threshold matter, we observe that the parties devoted their entire oral arguments before this court to discussing issue 4:...
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