State v. Jones
| Decision Date | 10 December 2021 |
| Docket Number | No. 123,026,123,026 |
| Citation | 500 P.3d 572 (Table) |
| Parties | STATE of Kansas, Appellee, v. Thaddeus JONES, Appellant. |
| Court | Kansas Court of Appeals |
Carol Longenecker Schmidt, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, for appellant.
Matt J. Maloney, assistant district attorney, Marc Bennett, district attorney, and Derek Schmidt, attorney general, for appellee.
Before Malone, P.J., Powell and Cline, JJ.
Thaddeus Jones seeks a new trial after being convicted for battery against a law enforcement officer and criminal threat. Before trial, Jones' counsel abandoned Jones' defense on the grounds of mental disease or defect after receiving an unfavorable expert evaluation. Jones now alleges his counsel's failure to seek a second expert evaluation constituted ineffective assistance of counsel. He claims the district erred in not appointing substitute counsel to represent Jones on his untimely motion for a new trial. Jones also challenges the constitutionality of K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 21-5209 and the Kansas Sentencing Guidelines Act.
We find no error in the district court's summary denial of Jones' motion, nor are we persuaded by Jones' constitutional arguments. For these reasons, we affirm Jones' convictions.
Jones was arrested and booked into the Sedgwick County Jail, where he was evaluated by a mental health nurse practitioner. She diagnosed him with bipolar disorder and prescribed medication. He was placed in isolation in the clinic "pod" under suicide watch. Due to complications, Jones' prescription was modified several times during his stay at the jail.
While incarcerated, Jones removed his "suicide smock" and used it to clog his toilet. He then flooded his cell by continually flushing the toilet. After a correctional officer repeatedly told Jones to stop, Jones responded that he was not supposed to be in jail because there were no charges against him. He told the officer he wanted to fight her, and, in fact, he wanted her to open the door to his cell so he could do just that. At that point several officers arrived at Jones' cell to help remove him.
As the officers tried to remove Jones from his cell, he became agitated, saying he did not want the officers touching him. Jones focused on one officer in particular, Sergeant Lisa Abbott, and repeatedly said he did not want Abbott to touch him. Jones told Abbott he would kick her in the neck and then kicked her in the leg. The officers were eventually able to restrain Jones, whereupon he was taken to the medical clinic for evaluation. Jones was charged with battery against a law enforcement officer and criminal threat.
Several months before trial, Jones' counsel filed a notice of intent to rely on a defense of mental disease or defect with the district court. He never provided the State with an expert report to support this defense. Instead, the week before trial, he supplied the State with Jones' jail medical records and said he intended to introduce these records at trial through the jail nurse. The State then moved in limine to prohibit Jones from presenting any evidence that he was acting under a mental disease or defect at the time of the crime or from presenting any evidence about Jones' general state of mind at the time of the crime. The State claimed the defense was time barred and defense counsel had not produced an expert report as required by K.S.A. 22-3219.
At the hearing on the State's motion, the State argued Jones was trying to make an end-run around the statutory requirements for presenting a mental disease or defect defense without securing an expert report. Defense counsel responded by saying he did not plan to present a mental disease or defect defense at trial. He acknowledged that he had not secured an expert but argued Jones should still be allowed to present evidence at trial about his mental state when the offenses occurred:
The district court noted that Jones had not submitted an expert report in compliance with the statutory requirements to present a mental disease or defect defense at trial. Ultimately, however, the court determined it could not make a broad ruling on the admissibility of evidence without knowing specifically what would be introduced at trial. The court said it would keep the matter under advisement and address it as trial progressed.
When Jones' jury trial began, the district court clarified that Jones would not be allowed to introduce evidence about any mental disease or defect, since he had not provided the court or the State with an expert report. Defense counsel responded, A long discussion between defense counsel and the district court as to what constituted evidence of mental disease or defect followed. Ultimately, the court reiterated that it would not allow Jones to present a mental disease or defect defense and that it would wait "to see how the evidence plays out" before ruling on the admissibility of any specific evidence.
At the trial, defense counsel called two witnesses in Jones' defense: Jones and the nurse practitioner who treated him at the Sedgwick County Jail. Jones testified he remembered only part of the incident and described what he believed happened. He mentioned he had been isolated in a pod for people with "mental issues" and prescribed medication. He said he recognized Officer Abbott and claimed he had a decent relationship with her before the incident. While he did not dispute the accuracy of a videotape on which the interaction had been recorded, he said he was shocked by his behavior.
The nurse testified about prescribing medication to Jones at the jail, including explaining the purpose of medicating him and his diagnosis.
Defense counsel's closing argument hinted at Jones' mental health problems. He focused on the fact that Jones was housed in the medical wing on suicide watch and was acting irrationally and erratically when the offenses occurred. He argued the prison officials acted irresponsibly and instigated the incident by removing Jones from his cell when he was already distressed and by using Sergeant Abbott when they knew this was likely to agitate Jones, given his state. The jury convicted Jones of both charges.
Defense counsel timely moved for a new trial, alleging the State's evidence could not support the convictions. More than three months later, Jones sent a letter to the court titled, "In re: Motion for New Trial." Jones began the letter by noting that his counsel had moved for a new trial and stated: The letter explained that Jones had received a mental evaluation as part of his effort to mount a defense of mental disease or defect based on his bipolar disorder, but the expert his counsel retained determined Jones was faking his symptoms. The letter then alleged this evaluation was seriously flawed. Jones claimed his counsel's failure to request a second evaluation constituted ineffective assistance of counsel.
Jones claimed the expert's evaluation was based on: (1) a presentence report from 1983 that was conducted at Larned in connection with his previous murder conviction that suggested a clinician believed he could be faking symptoms, (2) the fact that, although Jones had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2016, he had stopped taking his medication for a period, and (3) Jones' history of mental health issues and contact with clinicians indicated he would know what to say in order to fake a condition.
Jones challenged the validity of this initial evaluation. Jones stated that, in connection to the presentence report from 1983, he had ultimately been diagnosed by Larned as in need of long-term inpatient care and treatment and that Larned had recommended against prison because of his treatment needs. Jones also stated that he had stopped taking his medication at times due to side effects that made it difficult for him to function at work. Jones further argued the expert considered none of the evidence from around the time the crime was committed in making his evaluation and that his findings contradicted the diagnoses made by at least two other doctors who had evaluated Jones at different times.
Jones then elaborated on the circumstances surrounding his arrest that he believes the expert should not have ignored. Jones said he was paroled in November 2016 and, as a condition of his parole, was ordered to receive treatment for bipolar disorder. He stated that although he had requested treatment at Comcare, he received no medication for his condition for over two months following his release. Jones argued this led to him descending into a "manic state" which peaked with him committing the offenses underlying his conviction.
Jones recounted a series of events before the arrest that had placed him in Sedgwick County Jail. Jones said the day before his arrest, police picked him up at a Walmart around 9 p.m. when he refused to leave the store after being kicked out for trying to purchase "over 20,000 dollars of electronics and jewelry on debit cards I didn't have." After being booked and released at roughly 4 a.m. he walked to Via Christi Hospital to seek assistance for his mental health problems. Jones stated that after being admitted to the hospital he suddenly left and went to a gas station to try and use nonexistent debit cards to withdraw money from an ATM. Jones claimed he was acting delusional and...
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