State v. Jackson
| Decision Date | 09 September 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 89,620.,89,620. |
| Parties | STATE of Kansas, Appellee, v. Andrew JACKSON, Appellant. |
| Court | Kansas Supreme Court |
Sandra M. Carr, assistant appellate defender, argued the cause and was on the briefs for appellant.
Sheryl L. Lidtke, assistant district attorney, argued the cause, and Nick A. Tomasic, district attorney, and Phill Kline, attorney general, were with her on the brief for appellee.
This is Andrew Jackson's direct appeal of his jury convictions of first-degree premeditated murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit murder.
Numerous trial errors which we will separately consider are alleged. We first set forth the sad facts and proceedings giving rise to this appeal.
Jackson met Bovi Combs and Shecora Clanton while riding buses in Kansas City, Missouri. Their chance meeting resulted in the murder of Delesha Williams, a woman Combs met at a bus stop in Kansas City, Missouri.
Combs wanted to kill Williams because he believed she was involved in his sister's death. Clanton, who was Combs' girlfriend, agreed to help. They planned to steal items from Williams' house after the murder. Combs and Clanton initially planned to poison Williams with strychnine but were unable to make such a purchase over the counter.
Clanton rented a U-Haul truck to carry the stolen property from Williams' house. After picking up the truck, Combs and Clanton returned to Clanton's house, where Combs called Jackson and inquired as to how Jackson would kill someone. Combs then paged Williams several times and waited at Clanton's house until 9:30 p.m., when Williams returned Combs' page.
Combs and Clanton then drove to Jackson's apartment to pick him up. When Combs and Clanton arrived, Jackson produced a syringe and a white chemical substance he had prepared for them. Jackson told them to stick Williams with the syringe and she would die. Although Jackson initially refused to go with Combs and Clanton because he thought they had waited until too late at night, he changed his mind and accompanied Combs and Clanton to Williams' house in Kansas City, Missouri.
As the trio was pulling up to Williams' house, they noticed a car in the driveway with its lights on. They drove past the house a couple of blocks before turning around and coming back. When they returned, the car was gone. Clanton parked the U-Haul truck, and Combs knocked on Williams' door. While Combs was at the front door, Williams' cousin walked up to the door. He had been in a minor car accident and needed a ride home. Williams opened the door for Combs and her cousin. Combs returned to the U-Haul truck a few minutes later with Williams' cousin and told Clanton and Jackson to drive Williams' cousin home.
After taking Williams' cousin home, Clanton and Jackson joined Combs and Williams at Williams' house. Williams did not have anything for them to drink, so Jackson walked to a nearby convenience store and purchased soda and cigarettes. After visiting with Combs, Clanton, and Jackson for awhile, Williams decided to go to bed. She invited the trio to spend the night at her house.
Combs, Clanton, and Jackson waited for Williams to fall asleep so they could inject her with the chemical in Jackson's syringe. When Williams was asleep, Jackson hit Williams with a mallet and then jumped on top of her and started strangling her. Williams struggled with Jackson. The two fell off the bed and continued fighting on the floor. Jackson eventually subdued Williams and told Combs to get the syringe from his coat pocket. However, Jackson broke the syringe before he could inject Williams.
Without a syringe to poison Williams, Combs suggested that Jackson strangle her. Combs found an extension cord and gave it to Jackson. Jackson broke the extension cord before he could strangle Williams, so he asked Combs for another one. Before Combs could find another extension cord, Jackson told Combs that he was tired of struggling with Williams. Combs suggested that Jackson stab Williams, but Jackson told Combs that if he wanted Williams dead, he would have to do it himself.
Combs took a knife and began slashing and stabbing Williams until he bent the knife. While Combs went to the kitchen to get another knife, Williams managed to crawl out of her bedroom into the hallway. Combs slashed at Williams again and kicked her in the face and the stomach. Williams appeared to be unconscious, lying in a puddle of blood in the hallway. She had multiple injuries to her head, neck, and shoulders caused by blunt force impacts, the attempted strangulation, and the stabbings and slashes with the knife.
Because Combs wanted to have all Williams' things loaded into the U-Haul before Williams' mother returned home from work, they left Williams lying in the hallway and began loading things into the U-Haul truck. They took a big screen television (TV), two smaller TV's, a videocassette recorder, and several telephones. Before leaving, they loaded Williams into the back of the U-Haul truck. Jackson told police that Williams walked to the back of the U-Haul truck and Combs threw her in.
Clanton drove Jackson back to his apartment in Kansas City, Missouri, where he got into the back of the U-Haul and retrieved a small television to take with him. Jackson told Combs to never call again and "you never heard of me." Combs and Clanton then drove to a store and purchased a padlock for the back of the U-Haul truck before driving back to Clanton's house in Kansas City, Missouri. After staying at Clanton's house for about 30 minutes, Combs and Clanton left in the U-Haul truck to deliver the big screen TV to Combs' uncle. While they were driving, Clanton heard Williams' screams from the back of the U-Haul. Combs suggested that Clanton find a wooded area to dump Williams' body, so Clanton drove to a wooded area near Washington High School in Kansas City, Kansas. At this point, Combs threw Williams from the truck, hit her with a large log, drove back and forth over her upper torso several times, and threw her body into the woods.
Combs and Clanton were arrested a few hours later, and both gave statements to the police implicating Jackson. Jackson turned himself in to Kansas City, Missouri, police a few days later. Clanton testified extensively at Jackson's trial. A jury convicted Jackson of first-degree premeditated murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit murder. The district court sentenced Jackson to a hard 50 life sentence.
Jackson appeals his convictions and his sentence directly to this court pursuant to K.S.A. 22-3601, raising a number of issues. He first claims that Kansas does not have jurisdiction to prosecute him. If we conclude that Kansas has jurisdiction, Jackson contends his statutory right to a speedy trial was violated; the trial court failed to properly instruct the jury; the trial court erroneously admitted evidence, including gruesome photographs, hearsay statements, and his involuntary confession; he did not receive a fair trial because of cumulative errors; and, finally, his convictions are not supported by sufficient evidence. If we affirm Jackson's convictions, he argues the hard 50 sentencing scheme is unconstitutional or, in the alternative, that his hard 50 sentence is not supported by sufficient evidence.
Jackson claims that Kansas does not have subject matter jurisdiction over the charged offenses because he never entered the state of Kansas or committed any act within Kansas. An appellate court reviews a question of subject matter jurisdiction using a de novo standard. State v. James, 276 Kan. 737, 744, 79 P.3d 169 (2003).
Subject matter jurisdiction for crimes in Kansas is controlled by K.S.A. 21-3104, which provides in pertinent part:
"(1) A person is subject to prosecution and punishment under the law of this state if:
(a) He commits a crime wholly or partly within this state; or
(b) Being outside the state, he counsels, aids, abets, or conspires with another to commit a crime within this state; or
(c) Being outside the state, he commits an act which constitutes an attempt to commit a crime within this state.
Although K.S.A. 21-3104 has been interpreted broadly, State v. Grissom, 251 Kan. 851, 889, 840 P.2d 1142 (1992), this court has recognized limits to its application. See State v. Palermo, 224 Kan. 275, 277, 579 P.2d 718 (1978). In Palermo, the State sought review of the district court's decision to set aside the verdict and acquit the defendant on a charge of selling heroin. Palermo sold the drugs to a person in Missouri, who then sold the drugs to an informant in Kansas. Because Palermo did not come into Kansas and did not personally participate in the drug sale in Kansas, he was tried under an aiding and abetting theory. The Palermo court affirmed the district court's dismissal, holding that Kansas cannot assert jurisdiction over a crime under an aiding and abetting theory if the defendant never entered Kansas and could not reasonably foresee that his or her act would cause, aid, or abet the commission of a crime in Kansas. 224 Kan. at 277, 579 P.2d 718.
Relying on Palermo, Jackson argues it was not reasonably foreseeable that Combs and Clanton would take Williams to Kansas and kill her. He argues that his participation in the events leading up to Williams' death ended hours before Combs and Clanton drove to Kansas, killed Williams, and dumped her body. Because he was not involved in any of the last-minute decisions, he contends he could not have known that Combs and...
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