State v. Lazcano
| Decision Date | 16 March 2017 |
| Docket Number | No. 32228-9-III,32228-9-III |
| Court | Washington Court of Appeals |
| Parties | STATE OF WASHINGTON, Respondent, v. DANIEL CHRISTOPHER LAZCANO, Appellant. |
FEARING, C.J. — Daniel Lazcano appeals his conviction for first degree murder on numerous grounds: (1) the trial court abused its discretion when it refused to accept a plea agreement to second degree manslaughter, (2) the trial court erred when it excused an impaneled juror for financial hardship, (3) the prosecutor engaged in improper vouching when he elicited evidence from the State's witnesses that those witnesses promised to testify truthfully in exchange for immunity or favorable plea agreements, (4) cumulative error deprived him of a fair trial, and (5) insufficient evidence supports his conviction because the State relied on alternative means and failed to prove both means beyond a reasonable doubt. Lazcano also contends the trial court erred when, as part of his sentence, it required him to register as a felony firearm offender. Lazcano further filed a lengthy statement of additional grounds for review. We affirm Lazcano's conviction for first degree murder and the sentence requirement of registration. The numerous assignments of error and statements of additional grounds prolong this opinion.
The prosecution of Daniel Lazcano arises from the death of Marcus Schur on December 27, 2011, in rural Whitman County. This court previously reviewed the conviction of Daniel Lazcano's brother, Frank, for the same homicide. State v. Lazcano, 188 Wn. App. 338, 354 P.3d 233 (2015), review denied, 185 Wn.2d 1008, 366 P.3d 1245 (2016). Because the evidence entered in the respective trials varied, we begin anew with the facts surrounding the death of Schur.
In mid-December 2011, a burglar entered Ben Evensen's Rosalia house. Rosalia, an agricultural community of 500 denizens, lies immediately south of the Whitman and Spokane Counties border and thirty-three miles south of the City of Spokane. Defendant Daniel Lazcano, Evensen's roommate, concluded that the burglar stole some of Lazcano's possessions, including two of his firearms. Lazcano and his brother, Frank, suspected Marcus Schur to be the thief. Because of the pilfering, Frank lent Daniel the former's AK-47 rifle, a firearm previously used by Daniel.
Because they suspected Marcus Schur as the burglar, Daniel and Frank Lazcano visited Schur's girlfriend, Ambrosia "Amber" Jones. Daniel expressed to Jones hisdispleasure with the theft in part because the stolen firearms held sentimental value. Frank promised to kill Schur if found. Jones relayed Daniel and Frank Lazcano's comments to Marcus Schur. Schur returned Lazcano's firearms by placing them in Ben Evensen's backyard with no one else present.
Despite the reappearance of his firearms, Daniel Lazcano remained incensed at Marcus Schur because Lazcano believed Schur retained other possessions of Lazcano. Lazcano told Ben Evensen's mother, Susan Consiglio, that Frank and he would confront Schur when located. Consiglio worried about violence and discouraged Lazcano from encountering Schur. At a later date and while inside an automobile, the Lazcano brothers spoke again to Consiglio and informed her they were going to Spokane to find Schur, who they believed dwelled with friends in a trailer park. Consiglio noticed an AK-47 rifle resting in the car between the brothers.
On December 27, 2011, Susan Consiglio notified Daniel Lazcano, then in Spokane, of the presence of Marcus Schur in Maiden, a small village five miles west of Rosalia. Lazcano called his friend Kyle Evans and asked Evans if he wished to "whup Marcus's ass." Report of Proceedings (RP) (Dec. 3, 2013) at 412. Evans declined because of his busy calendar.
After calling Kyle Evans, Daniel Lazcano and his girlfriend, McKyndree Rogers, drove from Spokane to the house of Lazcano's uncle, Travis Carlon, who lived in PineCity, a rural community three miles southwest of Maiden. Daniel Lazcano and Rogers joined Frank Lazcano and his girlfriend, Jamie Whitney, at the Carlon residence. Frank watched football and first eschewed accompanying Lazcano in a pursuit of Marcus Schur. Lazcano eventually convinced Frank to escort him. The brothers left Pine City in Lazcano's little white car, owned by his stepfather, Eli Lindsey.
Daniel and Frank Lazcano arrived at Nick Backman's Maiden home, where Marcus Schur, David Cramer, Ambrosia Jones, and Backman were present. Cramer and Schur were brothers. Frank exited the car, while Daniel drove to the back of the house. Frank approached and knocked on the home's front door. Schur, hearing the knock, exited the home's back door. Cramer opened the front door. Frank struck Cramer several times in the face, and Cramer staggered to the ground. Frank ran toward Ambrosia Jones, flung her across the living room, and broke her hand. Frank rushed through the kitchen and departed through the back door.
As Marcus Schur fled through the backyard, Daniel Lazcano waited with a gun. Lazcano yelled, "'Stop, Marcus,'" and then opened fire. RP (Dec. 9, 2013) at 980. Two bullets struck Schur. One bullet lacerated an artery under Schur's collarbone and then collapsed his left lung. Schur quickly bled to death.
Daniel and Frank Lazcano deposited Marcus Schur's body in the trunk of the white car. Ambrosia Jones peered outside a window from Nick Backman's residence andsaw a white car that she knew to be Daniel Lazcano's vehicle. She thought, but could not be sure, she saw Lazcano inside the car. She did not see Schur's dead body.
The brothers Lazcano drove from Nick Backman's residence to Travis Carlon's Pine City house. Frank entered the abode, while Daniel sat in the passenger's seat of the car. Frank hurriedly exclaimed to Carlon: "We got one in the car with two in the chest." RP (Dec. 4, 2013) at 513. Carlon and Frank exited the house. Carlon deduced that Daniel and Frank Lazcano had killed Marcus Schur. Carlon told the brothers not to discuss the slaying at his house because he expected the soon arrival of law enforcement officers. Carlon directed the two brothers to meet him outside Pine City. Frank Lazcano led the way in Daniel's white car, and Carlon followed in his own vehicle.
Miles into the rolling Palouse hills, Frank Lazcano and Travis Carlon stopped their respective cars. Frank suggested the three use cinder blocks, stored in his garage, to dispose of Marcus Schur's body. Carlon agreed and declared: "[I]f there's no body found, then there wouldn't be a crime." RP (Dec. 4, 2013) at 520. Frank Lazcano remained at the stopping spot, while Carlon and Daniel Lazcano drove to Pine City to retrieve the cinder blocks. On the drive, Daniel Lazcano repeatedly confessed: "Uncle, I fucked up." RP (Dec. 4, 2013) at 524. For some unknown reason, Carlon and Lazcano reversed plans, decided not to retrieve Frank's blocks, and returned to Frank's position.
Upon the reunion of the three, Frank Lazcano recommended hiding Marcus Schur's corpse in Bonnie Lake, ten miles northwest of Pine City. Frank requested that Travis Carlon take possession of Frank's AK-47. Carlon opened his trunk, and Frank planted his rifle inside. The brothers Lazcano separated from Carlon, with the brothers journeying toward Bonnie Lake and Carlon returning home to Pine City. Carlon stopped on the way, took Frank's AK-47 from his trunk, and hid the firearm behind a fence post.
When Travis Carlon arrived home, he telephoned Eli Lindsey, Daniel and Frank Lazcano's stepfather, and instructed Lindsey to come to Carlon's residence. Lindsey obeyed. The two then drove in Lindsey's truck to the location where Carlon secreted the AK-47. Carlon plunked the AK-47 in the truck. The two drove to the T.J. Meenach Bridge in Spokane, where Carlon flung the rifle into the Spokane River. A Spokane Sheriff's Department dive team later discovered the firearm.
Meanwhile back in the pastoral Palouse, Daniel and Frank Lazcano reached Bonnie Lake. The two exited the white car and removed Marcus Schur's dead body from the car's trunk. The brothers dragged the cadaver by the legs to the water's edge. They bound Schur's hands with a belt and his feet with a shirt. Daniel Lazcano gathered rocks. Frank placed the rocks on the corpse and submerged the body below water level.
Late on December 27, 2011, Frank Lazcano drove the white car, with girlfriend Jamie Whitney accompanying him in a second car, to Spokane County. In a rural areanorth of the city of Spokane, Frank ignited the car. Whitney drove the two back to Pine City. The fire department and law enforcement responded to the fire. Police read the vehicle identification number on the car and traced the charred vehicle's ownership to Eli Lindsey.
In March 2012, a hiker sighted Marcus Schur's body in Bonnie Lake. Jamie Whitney, Ben Evensen, Daniel Lazcano, and Frank Lazcano, all fearful of the body's discovery, convened a meeting. Daniel volunteered to assume the blame since Daniel shot Schur. Frank offered to take the blame because the police only knew of Frank being present at Nick Backman's home on December 27. During the conference, Daniel explained to Evensen that Daniel shot Schur. During the explanation, Daniel raised his arms and pantomimed firing a rifle.
At an unidentified time, a police officer questioned Jamie Whitney, Frank Lazcano's girlfriend. Whitney told the officer that, on the night of the murder, she retrieved Frank along a highway because Frank's vehicle malfunctioned. Travis Carlon had advised Whitney to tell this story to the police. A law enforcement officer also questioned McKyndree Rogers, Daniel Lazcano's girlfriend. Rogers informed the police that she and Daniel socialized on the night of the murder. Daniel and Frank Lazcano respectively reported matching accounts to police of their activities on December 27 and 28. The two explained that Daniel spent the evening with McKyndree Rogers inSpokane, Frank traveled alone to the Backman house in Maiden,...
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