State v. Hutchinson

• Decision Date: 30 April 2009
• Docket Number: Docket: Cum-07-488/SRP-07-489
• Parties: STATE of Maine v. Michael HUTCHINSON.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

969 A.2d 923

2009 ME 44

STATE of Maine v. Michael HUTCHINSON.

Docket: Cum-07-488/SRP-07-489

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued: January 14, 2009.

Decided: April 30, 2009.

Robert C. Andrews, Esq. (orally), Portland, for Michael Hutchinson.

G. Steven Rowe, Attorney General, Donald W. Macomber, Asst. Atty. Gen. (orally), Lisa J. Marchese, Asst. Atty. Gen., Augusta, for the State of Maine.

Panel: SAUFLEY, C.J., and CLIFFORD, ALEXANDER, LEVY, SILVER, MEAD, and GORMAN, JJ.

LEVY, J.

[¶ 1] This appeal presents the question of whether a provision in the DNA Data Base and Data Bank Act, 25 M.R.S. §§ 1571-1578 (2008),¹ that compels certain criminal defendants to provide DNA samples following a conviction violates those defendants' constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. Because we conclude that it does not, and we are also not persuaded by the other appellate issues he presents, we affirm Michael Hutchinson's conviction of murder, 17-A M.R.S.A. § 201(1)(A) (1983),² and his sentence of life imprisonment imposed by the Superior Court (Cumberland County, Warren, J.).

I. BACKGROUND

[¶ 2] This case involves a brutal sexual assault and murder. In May 1994, a twelve-year-old girl awoke in the Bridgton home she shared with her mother to the sound of her mother screaming repeatedly, "No!" in a loud, terrified voice. She heard a drawer opening in the kitchen, and knives clinking against each other, followed by "a highly repetitive thudding sound with a liquid component to it" and a male voice grunt heavily at the end; she then heard the sound of the phone off the hook. Eventually she left her bedroom and caught sight of her mother's body on the floor. She tried to dial 911 but none of the phones were working, so she went outside and began knocking on her neighbors' doors. When none of her neighbors answered, she continued down the road to a local restaurant where the owners lived upstairs, and they called the police.

[¶ 3] When investigators arrived at the victim's house, they observed blood in the kitchen and living room areas, and noticed some footprints had been left around the victim and in other areas. The victim's body was found lying on the kitchen floor, on her right side, and her head was covered in blood. The lead forensics investigator noticed that there were blood droplets on the victim's hip and leg that appeared different from the victim's blood, as well as some additional drops on the kitchen floor. The shape of the drops indicated that "a blood source higher than she was on the floor was dropping blood" on the victim. There was also blood in the living room and on some of the furniture. Blood samples were taken from different areas of the kitchen and living room, along with fiber samples from the carpet (with and without blood) and impressions of the footprints.

[¶ 4] The medical examiner found that the victim had a fatal stab wound in the chest, approximately fifty stab wounds to her head and face, and additional superficial wounds on her arms and wrists, which suggested she had been warding off an attack. The examiner also observed tears and slight bleeding around the anus area, consistent with blunt force from a penis, but no evidence of a lubricant; and the examiner testified that there was likely pain associated with these tears. The state of the tears indicated they could have been made any time between some minutes or up to four hours before the victim's death. Sperm cells were detected in the victim's anus, but nowhere else.

[¶ 5] The sperm and blood samples were subjected to forensic analysis by the FBI, which determined that the DNA in the sperm samples matched that found in the drops of blood on the victim's leg. The DNA however, did not match samples from any of those persons whom the State suspected in the case. The unidentified DNA samples thereafter remained catalogued in a state data base and the case remained unsolved for years.³

[¶ 6] In 2003, Michael Hutchinson pleaded guilty to criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon (Class C), 17-A M.R.S. § 209 (2008),⁴ and received a sentence of five years of imprisonment, with all but six months suspended, and four years of probation. Hutchinson was ordered to give a DNA sample pursuant to 25 M.R.S. § 1574(1), (5)(B), which requires that persons convicted of certain crimes provide a sample of their DNA. Hutchinson's sample was subsequently checked against the DNA samples in the state data base of unsolved forensic cases in Maine, and Hutchinson's profile came up as a match with the DNA samples taken from the body of the victim in this case.

[¶ 7] Without revealing the existence of the DNA evidence to Hutchinson, police interviewed him about the 1994 murder. He denied any involvement and claimed he had never met the victim. During a second interview in which the DNA match was revealed to Hutchinson, the officer observed that Hutchinson had a scar on his right hand. Hutchinson claimed he had cut his hand at a friend's workplace.

[¶ 8] A search warrant was obtained, and a new sample of Hutchinson's DNA was taken along with a foot impression. The new DNA sample confirmed the match. Additional DNA testing was done on the carpet samples that had been retrieved from the scene, and DNA from sperm detected on the carpet also matched Hutchinson's. Samples of the blood that had been found in front of the kitchen sink and on the kitchen floor were also a match. Subsequently, police determined that Hutchinson had lived only a few blocks from the victim's home at the time of the murder, and that Hutchinson's parents had also lived nearby.

[¶ 9] Hutchinson was indicted and charged with murder. Prior to trial, Hutchinson filed a motion to suppress the DNA evidence, arguing that the initial collection of his DNA sample pursuant to the statute had been in violation of the federal and state constitutional guarantees against unreasonable searches and seizures. At the hearing on this issue, testimony was received from the probation official who obtained the initial sample from Hutchinson, the analyst who made the match, and two of the investigating officers. The court upheld the DNA collection statute, finding it to be constitutional under the totality of the circumstances, stating:

[P]ersons convicted of felonies and persons placed on probation have a reduced expectation of privacy.... In addition, the taking of a DNA sample by swabbing the inside of Hutchinson's cheek constituted a fairly minor intrusion. The governmental interest in monitoring probationers and other persons convicted of serious crimes, in deterring recidivism, and in investigating unsolved crimes is significant enough to outweigh any privacy interest in this context.

[¶ 10] At the trial, the jury received testimony from the victim's daughter, now a grown woman, and, through several additional witnesses, was presented with the array of DNA evidence that tied Hutchinson to the murder. It also received testimony that the footprint impressions from the kitchen and the living room all had one outsole design, and the impression taken from Hutchinson's foot indicated that it fit within that outsole.

[¶ 11] Hutchinson testified in his own defense. He admitted that he had actually met the victim about a year before her murder at a local bar, that they had had sex a couple of times before, and that she had invited him to come over on the day of her death. Hutchinson said that when he arrived, he and the victim had consensual anal and vaginal intercourse, but that another person later entered the house, knocked him out, and stabbed the victim. Hutchinson further testified that his hand had been cut during his scuffle with the person, and that he had stepped over the victim when he ran from the house in order to escape the unknown intruder. Hutchinson claimed that he did not come forward and tell the police what had happened because he was so ashamed that he had run from the house.

[¶ 12] The State countered with expert testimony that the blood drops found on the victim's leg were consistent with a person standing over the victim. Further, investigators had observed no pooling or smearing on the floors to suggest that anyone other than the victim had been lying there bleeding for a period of time, or had pushed themselves off the floor with a bloody hand.

[¶ 13] The jury found Hutchinson guilty. At the sentencing hearing, the court determined the basic sentence to be life in prison based on two factors found by a preponderance of the evidence: extreme cruelty and sexual assault. Hutchinson was sentenced to life in prison and ordered to pay $3000 in restitution.

[¶ 14] This appeal followed.

II. LEGAL ANALYSIS

[¶ 15] This appeal presents three primary questions. First, we examine whether section 1574(5) of Maine's DNA Data Base and Data Bank Act, 25 M.R.S. §§ 1571-1578, requiring the collection of DNA samples from persons convicted of serious crimes as enumerated by the statute, violates the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and article I, section 5 of the Maine Constitution, prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures. Second, we discuss whether Maine's murder sentencing scheme violates the Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury as that right has been applied in a line of decisions beginning with Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). Third, we review whether the court's decision, as part of its Hewey sentencing analysis, to set the "basic sentence" at life in prison comports with the applicable sentencing principles. State v. Hewey, 622 A.2d 1151, 1154 (Me.1993).⁵

A. Maine's DNA Data Base and Data Bank Act

[¶ 16] Maine's DNA Data Base and Data Bank Act (DNA Data Act), first enacted in 1995,⁶ requires persons convicted of specified serious crimes⁷ to provide biological samples for DNA testing and analysis, and for inclusion in federal and state data bases. Hutchinson challenges section 1574...