State v. Kirkland
| Decision Date | 07 January 2022 |
| Docket Number | No. 122,971,122,971 |
| Parties | STATE of Kansas, Appellee, v. Derek Allen KIRKLAND, Appellant. |
| Court | Kansas Court of Appeals |
James M. Latta, 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 Gardner, P.J., Schroeder and Cline, JJ.
Following a bench trial on stipulated facts, the district court convicted Derek Allen Kirkland of single counts of rape and aggravated criminal sodomy and multiple counts of sexual exploitation of a child. Kirkland appeals, arguing Kansas' insanity defense statute is unconstitutional both facially and as applied to him. Kirkland argues the statute precludes any insanity defense for strict liability crimes and that because two of his convictions were strict liability crimes, the court should have allowed him to present a defense based on lack of moral culpability. Kirkland also asserts that the district court should have allowed him to admit evidence of his mental health to show he did not commit his crimes voluntarily as K.S.A. 2015 Supp. 21-5201(a) requires. Finally, Kirkland argues the district court erroneously denied his motion to suppress his confession. Because Kirkland failed to preserve several of these claims, we dismiss them. As to the claims Kirkland preserved, we find no error and affirm.
Kirkland fathered a child, P.K., born in October 2008. Kirkland separated from P.K.'s mother when P.K. was a year old. But Kirkland still saw P.K. often and spent a significant amount of time with her over the next several years.
In August 2017, then-eight-year-old P.K. told her mother that Kirkland "put his penis in her vagina." P.K. indicated that Kirkland subjected her to other instances of sexual abuse, beginning around one year earlier. The next day, P.K. described the abuse she suffered to a social worker with the Kansas Department for Children and Families. Following the interview, Detective Dan Ribble located Kirkland at his home and took him to the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office for questioning.
The video of Ribble's interview shows he took Kirkland to an interrogation room and left him there alone for around an hour. While waiting, Kirkland peeked his head out the door. Another officer came to the door and Kirkland told him that if he was not being detained, he needed to go to work. The officer did not say whether Kirkland was free to leave but went to get Ribble.
When Ribble returned to the interview room, he immediately began asking Kirkland preliminary questions. Kirkland answered Ribble's questions and did not ask whether he was being detained. As a part of these preliminary matters, Kirkland told Ribble that he had slept for only three to four hours the night before.
When Ribble told Kirkland that he would need to read Kirkland his Miranda warnings, Kirkland asked whether he was being detained. Ribble responded:
Ribble then read the Miranda warnings and Kirkland agreed to speak to Ribble without an attorney present.
Ribble confronted Kirkland with P.K.'s allegations of sexual abuse. At first, Kirkland denied the allegations. He told Ribble he suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts and that his aunt had recently committed suicide. Kirkland then stated he heard "voices in [his] head every now and then telling [him] to do things." Right after making that statement, Kirkland maintained the voices did not instruct him to do things to P.K. But after Ribble told Kirkland he would get Kirkland help for these problems, Kirkland confessed to having images of children saved on his phone. And eventually Kirkland confessed to the other charged crimes as well.
Kirkland also told Ribble that if he did not have "some kind of outlet" and did not do as the voice instructed, he would suffer physical pain. He also claimed the voices told him to "touch [P.K.,] do things with her." The voice claimed it would "be fun" and would sometimes laugh. Kirkland also told Ribble he could hear the voice laughing at him as he confessed. Seemingly as the laughter continued, Kirkland explained that he obtained sexual satisfaction from "the adrenalin[e] rush of doing more [he] kn[e]w was wrong and ... that's the only thing [he] could do to make [the voice] go away." It is unclear which incidents Kirkland referred to, but he claimed to have an out-of-body experience during some of the incidents:
Near the end of the interview, Kirkland told Ribble that he believed his father had sexually abused him. He recalled a memory in which his father forced him to shower with him. Kirkland maintained he began hearing voices a few years after that incident. Concluding the interview, Ribble asked Kirkland what the voices were saying to him at that moment. Kirkland replied:
Kirkland's interview lasted around three hours. When it ended, Ribble placed Kirkland under arrest. Police executed a search warrant after Kirkland's confession and found at least 17 images of child pornography on Kirkland's phone.
The State initially charged Kirkland with one count each of rape of a child under 14 under K.S.A. 2015 Supp. 21-5503(a)(3) ; aggravated criminal sodomy with a child under 14 under K.S.A. 2015 Supp. 21-5504(b)(l) ; and sexual exploitation of a child under K.S.A. 2015 Supp. 21-5510(a)(2). The State later amended its complaint to include another 16 counts of sexual exploitation of a child.
Kirkland's defense counsel requested a competency evaluation to determine whether Kirkland was competent to stand trial. The district court granted the request and suspended proceedings pending the completion of an evaluation at the Larned State Security Hospital. Dr. Roy Daum's competency report found Kirkland competent to stand trial. Based on the report, the district court found Kirkland competent to stand trial and reopened Kirkland's case.
Kirkland filed two pretrial motions. The first asked the district court to find K.S.A. 2015 Supp. 21-5209 unconstitutional because it permits an insanity defense only to negate whatever intent the charged crime requires. Kirkland also asked the district court to dismiss the State's charges for rape and aggravated criminal sodomy—counts one and two of the State's complaint. In an amended motion, Kirkland argued the statute violated his due process rights under the federal Constitution because it did not allow him to pursue a defense to his strict liability crimes. In his reply brief, Kirkland maintained that K.S.A. 2015 Supp. 21-5209 was unconstitutional as applied to counts one and two of the State's complaint.
The State responded that Kirkland lacked standing to raise a constitutional challenge because he had proffered no evidence showing he could not form intent because of mental disease or defect. The State also denied that aggravated criminal sodomy was a strict liability offense and generally argued the statute was constitutional.
Kirkland's second motion argued that his statements to Ribble were involuntary and should be suppressed. Kirkland focused mainly on his mental health, claiming he had suffered from delusions, psychosis
, and schizoaffective disorder when speaking to Ribble. Kirkland also pointed out that he had not slept, that he had not received an adequate answer about his detention status, and that Ribble had deceived him by claiming he wanted to help him.
The district court held a combined motions and preliminary hearing. Daum testified about Kirkland's mental health. Daum explained that he did not know whether Kirkland had been in active psychosis
during Ribble's interrogation, but he had diagnosed Kirkland with schizoaffective disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, personal history of sexual abuse, and alcohol and cannabis use disorders. Daum testified that Kirkland had "a horrific childhood background" including his father raping and sodomizing him. Daum also explained that while he did his evaluation, Kirkland had experienced active hallucinations that manifested as voices commanding him to harm others.
The district court denied both motions. The court held that Kirkland's motion to find K.S.A. 2015 Supp. 21-5209 unconstitutional failed as a matter of law based on the holdings in State v. Kahler , 307 Kan. 374, 410 P.3d 105 (2018), cert. granted 139 S. Ct. 1318 (2019), and State v. Bethel , 275 Kan. 456, 66 P.3d 840 (2003). The United States Supreme Court later affirmed the Kansas Supreme Court in Kahler v. Kansas , 589 U.S. ––––, 140 S. Ct. 1021, 206 L. Ed. 2d 312 (2020) (). The district court acknowledged that Kirkland suffered from mental health issues but found they did not affect him during his interview to a degree that would render his statements involuntary. And the district court found that because Kirkland had made his statements to Ribble voluntarily, his confession was admissible.
Kirkland then waived his right to a jury trial and agreed to a bench trial on stipulated facts. Those facts established that Kirkland confessed to committing each of the charged...
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