State v. Hugueley, No. W2004-00057-CCA-R3-CD (TN 3/17/2005)
| Decision Date | 17 March 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. W2004-00057-CCA-R3-CD.,W2004-00057-CCA-R3-CD. |
| Parties | STATE OF TENNESSEE v. STEPHEN LYNN HUGUELEY. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
F. Michie Gibson, Jr. and T.J. Cross-Jones, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Stephen Lynn Hugueley.
Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General; Michael Markham, Assistant Attorney General; Elizabeth T. Rice, District Attorney General; Terry D. Dycus, and Colin Campbell, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
J.C. McLin, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which, Jerry L. Smith and Robert W. Wedemeyer. JJ., joined.
A Hardeman County jury found the defendant, Stephen Lynn Hugueley, guilty of first degree premeditated murder. Following a separate penalty phase, the jury found the presence of four statutory aggravating circumstances and that these aggravators outweighed any mitigating factors. The jury subsequently imposed a sentence of death. On appeal, the defendant seeks review by this Court of both his conviction for first degree murder and his sentence of death. He presents the following issues for review: (1) whether the trial court erred in denying the defendant an individual and sequestered voir dire; (2) whether the trial court erred in denying the defendant's objection to the State's use of peremptory challenges based upon race and gender; (3) whether the trial court erred in denying the defendant's motion to excuse a potential juror for cause; (4) whether the indictment failed to charge a capital offense; and (5) whether the trial court failed to apply meaningful standards to ensure constitutionally adequate proportionality review. Finding no error, we affirm the defendant's conviction of first degree murder and sentence of death.
The following evidence was presented against the defendant. On January 17, 2002, Delbert Steed, a correctional counselor at the Hardeman County Correctional Facility, entered "F" pod to counsel inmates. At that same time, the defendant also entered the pod, approached the table where Steed was sitting, and stabbed Steed in the back. As Steed fell to the floor, the defendant continued stabbing him. Mary Harris, a correction officer working on pod control, called a Code One, requesting assistance. Officer Perry, the pod officer, opened the pod door and told the defendant to stop. Upon hearing her command, the defendant "raised up, [and came] to her with the knife drawn back like he was going to stab her, so Harris shut the door." The defendant then returned to stabbing Steed. Officer Donald Watkins then entered the pod and ordered the defendant to drop his weapon. In response, the defendant "stabbed one, maybe two more times [until the] handle broke on the knife; then he stopped." Finally, the defendant complied with Officer Watkin's order and dropped to the floor. By this time, other officers and medical personnel had arrived. After surveying the area, Officer Watkins observed a pillowcase on the floor that appeared to have something inside it. He also noticed that the weapon used to stab Steed remained lodged in his back, but the weapon's handle lay near the shower wall.
Joseph Vernon, an internal affairs investigator with the Tennessee Department of Correction, was contacted as a result of the incident. By the time Investigator Vernon arrived at the scene, Steed's body had been removed to the infirmary. However, at the crime scene, Investigator Vernon observed that the weapon removed from Steed's body was a quarter-inch rod that had been sharpened to a very fine point on one end and was almost eleven (11) inches long. Also, the pillowcase observed at the scene was actually a torn piece of a sheet that had "D cell" batteries in one end. Investigator Vernon further observed that the area of KF Pod was roped off. Investigator Vernon noted that KF Pod consisted of two (2) levels, with cells on both levels. The defendant was assigned to Cell 206 on the second level, which was approximately forty-two (42) feet from Cell 206 to where Steed was sitting in the day room.
Don Dunaway, an internal affairs investigator with the Department of Correction, was contacted to interview the defendant at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution later that day. Before conducting the interview, Investigator Dunaway had the defendant acknowledge his rights and sign a waiver form, documenting his willingness to talk. In his statement, the defendant admitted that he and Steed had never gotten along. The following colloquy occurred:
. . . .
SH: I don't believe in inter-racial relationships. And I was very vocal about it. Well, a bunch of black gang members that was gettin' drugs brought in by the women guards there . . . at South Central . . . they was too scared to kill . . . and they was scared I'd kill them, so, they wrote a bunch of letters on me. And had me put on involuntary PC . . . they wrote letters talkin' about, ". . . they gonna kill me, if they don't move me off the Unit . . . ."
. . . .
SH: Well, they put me on involuntary PC. I begged, pleaded and wrote a grievance and everything . . . threatened to go to the media about all the women guards down there bringing in drugs to them black gang members and stuff. And, what'd they do? They shipped me . . . tore the grievance up . . . shipped me off to Hardeman County . . . and kept me on PC 24 hours and put me on the compound . . . .
. . . .
SH: I had a cell partner . . . . He's 60 . . . 65-year-old, old man. He'd wipe his face with his dirty socks in the morning . . . he's real nasty. So, I turned in a Cell-Change request. Nothing happened on it . . . turned in four more Cell-Change requests. I filed grievances on this matter that's documented. And I kept trying to get a cell change. And they said, Now this is what the unit manager said! All right? Well . . . I filed another grievance and wrote a letter the day after I filed a grievance, and sent it to the Warden, explaining the situation, about me needing a cell change. Well, the Warden sent it to Delbert Steed, and told him to take care of it. He wrote me up, for attempting to intimidate an employee with a grievance. He wrote the write-up on May the 16th of 2001. I filed the grievance on May the 15th, 2001. I went to D-Board and was found guilty on the write-up that was clearly where he said in the grievance that I'd already filed a . . . grievance. . . . [H]e wrote me up the old bogus write-up. Which was . . . pissed me off, big time! Because I had a little hope! You know, I . . . I . . . I know I ain't got much hope of ever gettin' out, but I hope I'd get a time-reduction or something like that . . . file for clemency.
. . . .
SH: Accoding [sic] for me to be able to file for clemency, that'd be five years without a write-up. Now, I'd already been four and a half years without a write-up . . . .
. . . .
SH: [A]nd I get to Hardeman County and I get one within two weeks from this asshole. Well, the Unit Manager and them . . . after its over with . . . they finally go ahead and give me a cell-change request on May the something or other . . . and the Unit Manager told me flat out, no uncertain terms . . . "Delbert Steed hates you . . . he doesn't like you . . . ." Well, he's my counselor . . . .
. . . .
SH: The Unit Manager ain't there half the time . . . he never comes into the Pod. Who am I suppose to go to when I need something done . . . . Well, I tried to talk to him three or four times. And he got irritational [sic] . . . cussed me. . . . Tell me, . . . uh. All that shit there! I said," Hold up, man!" I said, "Motherfuck you and a write-up, Bitch! I ain't never gettin' out of prison as it stands now . . . so, what's a write-up gonna hurt?" And, that was that on that. And then, two or three other occasions we had run-ins with each other, where I tried to get him to do something and he didn't wanna do it . . . . So, here I am with no counselor to go to, other than Steed. I went to him two or three times . . . .
. . . .
SH: Monday I tried to talk to him, and he told me to ". . . shut up, I don't wanna hear it . . . ." And basically, it was the same thing. And I told him then, I said, "Look here!" I said, "I need you to check this out for me, and let me know what the deal is." See, I was trying to get some arts and craft stuff in . . . and I'm asking him if he can check and see if they're allowing in-cell arts and crafts to come straight from the company . . . . And he didn't wanna do anything about it. And I told him, I said, "Look, man! I don't wanna file a grievance on the matter. I wanna resolve it!
. . . .
SH: And he said, "Ah, I'm gonna write you up for attempting to intimidate me!" He said, . . ." you ain't nothing!"
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