State v. Jones
| Decision Date | 07 May 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. CR-93-0541-AP,CR-93-0541-AP |
| Citation | 917 P.2d 200,185 Ariz. 471 |
| Parties | STATE of Arizona, Appellee, v. Danny Lee JONES, Appellant. |
| Court | Arizona Supreme Court |
Danny Lee Jones (defendant) was convicted in Mohave County Superior Court of two counts of premeditated first degree murder and one count of attempted premeditated first degree murder. The trial court sentenced defendant to two consecutive death sentences for the murders and to a consecutive sentence of life imprisonment for the attempted murder. Defendant's convictions and sentences were automatically appealed to this court. A.R.S. § 13-4033; rules 26.15, 31.2(b), and 31.15(a)(3), Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure. We have jurisdiction pursuant to Ariz. Const. art. 6, § 5(3), and A.R.S. §§ 13-4031, -4033, and -4035.
In February 1992, defendant moved to Bullhead City, Arizona, and resumed a friendship with Robert Weaver. At this time, Robert, his wife Jackie, and their 7-year-old daughter, Tisha, were living in Bullhead City with Robert's grandmother, Katherine Gumina. As of March 1992, defendant was unemployed and was planning to leave Bullhead City.
On the night of March 26, 1992, defendant and Robert were talking in the garage of Ms. Gumina's residence. Robert frequently entertained his friends in the garage, and during these times, he often discussed his gun collection. The two men were sitting on inverted buckets on the left side of the garage, and Ms. Gumina's car was parked on the right side of the garage. Both defendant and Robert had been drinking throughout the day and had used crystal methamphetamine either that day or the day before.
At approximately 8:00 p.m., Russell Dechert, a friend of Robert's, drove to the Gumina residence and took defendant and Robert to a local bar and to watch a nearby fire. Dechert then drove defendant and Robert back to the Gumina residence at approximately 8:20 p.m. and left, telling defendant and Robert that he would return to the Gumina residence around 9:00 p.m.
Although there is no clear evidence of the sequence of the homicides, the scenario posited to the jury was as follows. After Dechert left, defendant closed the garage door and struck Robert in the head at least three times with a baseball bat. Robert fell to the ground where he remained unconscious and bleeding for approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Defendant then entered the living room of the Gumina residence where Ms. Gumina was watching television and Tisha Weaver was coloring in a workbook. Defendant struck Ms. Gumina in the head at least once with the baseball bat, and she fell to the floor in the living room.
Tisha apparently witnessed the attack on Ms. Gumina, ran from the living room into the master bedroom, and hid under the bed. Defendant found Tisha and dragged her out from under the bed. During the struggle, Tisha pulled a black braided bracelet off defendant's wrist. Defendant then struck Tisha in the head at least once with the baseball bat, placed a pillow over her head, and suffocated her, or strangled her, or both.
Defendant next emptied a nearby gun cabinet containing Robert's gun collection, located the keys to Ms. Gumina's car, and loaded the guns and the bat into the car. At some point during this time, Robert regained consciousness, and, in an attempt to flee, moved between the garage door and Ms. Gumina's car, leaving a bloody hand print smeared across the length of the garage door and blood on the side of the car. Robert then climbed on top of a work bench on the east side of the garage, leaving blood along the east wall. Defendant struck Robert at least two additional times in the head with the baseball bat, and, as Robert fell to the ground, defendant struck him in the head at least once more.
A few minutes before 9:00 p.m., Dechert returned to the Gumina residence and noticed that the garage door, which previously had been open, was closed. Dechert went to the front door and knocked. Through an etched glass window in the front door, he saw the silhouette of a person locking the front door and walking into the master bedroom. Dechert then looked through a clear glass portion of the window and saw defendant walk out of the master bedroom. He heard defendant say, "I will get it," as if he were talking to another person in the house. Defendant then opened the front door, closing it immediately behind him, walked out onto the porch, and stated that Robert and Jackie had left and would return in about 30 minutes. Dechert noticed that defendant was nervous, breathing hard, and perspiring. Although Dechert felt that something was wrong, he left the Gumina residence. As he was leaving, Dechert heard the door shut as if defendant went back into the house. Shortly thereafter, defendant left the Gumina residence in Ms. Gumina's car.
At approximately 9:10 p.m., Jackie Weaver returned home from work. When she opened the garage door, she found Robert lying unconscious on the garage floor. Jackie ran inside the house and found Ms. Gumina lying on the living room floor and her daughter Tisha lying under the bed in the master bedroom. She then called the police, who on arrival determined that Tisha and Robert were dead and that Katherine Gumina was alive but unconscious. The medical examiner later concluded that Robert's death was caused by multiple contusions and lacerations of the central nervous system caused by multiple traumatic skull injuries. The cause of Tisha's death was the same as Robert's, but also included possible asphyxiation.
After leaving the Gumina residence, defendant picked up his clothes from a friend's apartment where he had been staying and drove to a Bullhead City hotel. At some point before reaching the hotel, he threw the bat out the car window. Defendant parked the car at the hotel and hailed a taxi cab to drive him to Las Vegas, Nevada. The police eventually recovered Ms. Gumina's car and found a pink baseball cap and a note, which were identified at trial as belonging to defendant.
When defendant arrived in Las Vegas, he gave the cab driver one of Robert's guns to pay for the fare and checked into a hotel. The next day, however, defendant met Marcia and Gary Vint and arranged to pay rent to sleep on the couch in their apartment. While at the apartment, he sold most of the remaining guns from Robert's collection. The police ultimately recovered several of the guns; two witnesses from Las Vegas testified that defendant sold them the guns, and Jackie Weaver identified the guns as Robert's.
A few days later, the Vints learned that defendant was a suspect in the Bullhead City murders. By then, defendant was staying at another apartment the Vints had rented, although his belongings were still at the original apartment. The Vints called the Las Vegas police, who arrested defendant and took possession of his belongings.
The state charged defendant with two counts of premeditated first degree murder and one count of attempted premeditated first degree murder. Although Katherine Gumina ultimately died as a result of the injuries defendant inflicted, the state chose not to amend the indictment. Defendant pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. At trial, defendant testified that he killed Robert Weaver in self-defense, that he struck Katherine Gumina reflexively and without criminal intent because she startled him, and that another person killed Tisha Weaver. The jury found defendant guilty of all three counts.
The trial court then held an aggravation/mitigation hearing. With respect to Robert's murder, the trial court found three aggravating circumstances: (1) defendant committed the murder for pecuniary gain, A.R.S. § 13-703(F)(5); (2) defendant committed the murder in an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner, A.R.S. § 13-703(F)(6); and (3) defendant was convicted of one or more other homicides that were committed during the commission of the offense, A.R.S. § 13-703(F)(8). With respect to Tisha's murder, the trial court found the above three aggravating circumstances and the additional aggravating circumstance that the victim was under 15 years of age, A.R.S. § 13-703(F)(9).
With respect to both murders, the trial court found no statutory mitigating circumstances. The court did find that defendant proved the following nonstatutory mitigating circumstances by a preponderance of the evidence: (1) defendant suffers from long-term substance abuse; (2) at the time of the offense, defendant was under the influence of alcohol and drugs; (3) defendant had a chaotic and abusive childhood; and (4) defendant's substance abuse problem may have been caused by genetic factors and aggravated by head trauma. The trial court concluded, however, that these circumstances were not sufficiently substantial to outweigh the aggravating circumstances or to call for leniency and sentenced defendant to two consecutive death sentences. The court also sentenced defendant to a consecutive sentence of life imprisonment, without the possibility of release or parole for 25 years, for the attempted first degree murder of Ms. Gumina. The convictions and sentences were automatically appealed to this court.
We address the following issues raised in defendant's brief. The pretrial issues are:
1. Whether the trial court erroneously denied defendant's motion to suppress evidence that the police obtained while searching defendant's bags; and
2. Whether the trial court erroneously denied defense counsel's motion to withdraw based on a potential conflict of interest.
The trial issues are:
1. Whether the trial court erroneously denied de...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Allen
...Keen utilized many of the photographs during his expert testimony, further bolstering their relevance. See State v. (Danny L. ) Jones , 185 Ariz. 471, 485, 917 P.2d 200, 214 (1996) ("These photographs were relevant to illustrate the medical examiner's testimony, to show the cause of [the vi......
-
State v. Doerr
...413, 429, 799 P.2d 333, 349 (1990); two blows to the head with a bat followed by smothering and strangulation, State v. Jones, 185 Ariz. 471, 488-89, 917 P.2d 200, 217-18 (1996); numerous gunshot wounds to the head from different weapons, State v. Murray, 184 Ariz. 9, 38, 906 P.2d 542, 571 ......
-
State v. Hoskins
...review of the trial court's findings regarding aggravating and mitigating circumstances. A.R.S. § 13-703.01; State v. Jones, 185 Ariz. 471, 492, 917 P.2d 200, 221 (1996); State v. Roscoe, 184 Ariz. 484, 500, 910 P.2d 635, 651 (1996). The state bears the burden of proving the existence of ea......
-
State v. Kayer
...mitigating circumstances. See A.R.S. § 13-703.01; State v. Djerf, 191 Ariz. 583, 595, 959 P.2d 1274, 1286 (1998); State v. Jones, 185 Ariz. 471, 492, 917 P.2d 200, 221 (1996); State v. Roscoe, 184 Ariz. 484, 500, 910 P.2d 635, 651 (1996). The State must prove the existence of statutory aggr......