State v. Leitner
| Decision Date | 26 October 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 84,275.,84,275. |
| Citation | 34 P.3d 42,272 Kan. 398 |
| Parties | STATE OF KANSAS, Appellee, v. PATRICIA LEE LEITNER, Appellant. |
| Court | Kansas Supreme Court |
Mary Curtis, assistant appellate defender, argued the cause, and Jessica R. Kunen, chief appellate defender, was with her on the brief for appellant.
Douglas P. Witteman, county attorney, argued the cause, and Athena E. Andaya, assistant attorney general, Stephen D. Maxwell, assistant attorney general, and Carla J. Stovall, attorney general, were with him on the brief for appellee.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This is a direct appeal by the defendant, Patricia Lee Leitner, from her conviction for first-degree murder of her exhusband, Michael. She was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Leitner raises four issues on appeal. She contends the trial court abused its discretion when it allowed the State to cross-examine her concerning her involvement with a pagan religion. She also contends the trial court abused its discretion when it allowed a Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) agent to testify that in his opinion a State witness was not involved in the murder. She claims she was denied due process and a fair trial because of prosecutorial misconduct and that the trial court abused its discretion when it limited cross-examination of a State witness to the scope of direct examination.
Leitner met Michael when she was 17 years of age and he was 24 years of age. A common-law marriage followed and two sons were born to the union. Leitner testified that it was an abusive marriage and that Michael frequently physically abused her. Leitner testified that she tried to end her relationship with Michael by poisoning him in February 1998. She stated that she poisoned him because she wanted the beatings to stop. She told the jury that because Michael was threatening her with guns, she "knew that one of these times that he was going to do it." Leitner admitted the first time she tried to poison Michael, she crushed up D-Con rat poison and put about a teaspoon of it in a pot of coffee. Michael drank the coffee but did not even become ill. Leitner stated that the second time she attempted to kill him, she sliced wild mushrooms into an omelette, thinking they were poisonous. The mushrooms did not affect him.
In July 1998, Leitner obtained an emergency divorce from Michael. Leitner was awarded the couple's residence and the proceeds of a sales contract of a tavern they had sold on contract along with other property. Custody of their two sons was given jointly to Leitner and Michael.
Less than 2 months later, Michael filed a motion to set aside the property settlement agreement, claiming that at the time he signed it, he was in "no condition to fully understand and appreciate [its] significance."
Leitner's babysitter, Honee Larcom, testified that Michael had continued to call Leitner following the divorce to ask about the boys. She continued to babysit for Leitner almost every weekend following the divorce. Larcom testified that during conversations with Leitner in late August or early September 1998, Leitner complained about Michael, saying he would not keep a job, he did not make enough money, and that if he would just die, her family would be better off. Larcom testified that Leitner told her:
"
Larcom also testified that she and Leitner talked about Leitner's income. Larcom knew Leitner received $500 a month in payments from the sale of a tavern that she and Michael sold. Leitner told her there were only two more payments remaining on the contract, which worried Leitner. Larcom said that Leitner was going to apply at the Kansas State Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services for food stamps and talked about getting a job. Leitner asked Larcom whether she could babysit while Leitner worked.
Tammy Warner, Leitner's younger sister, testified that she came to Kansas to visit Leitner in September 1998. Warner heard Leitner make threats toward Michael but believed Leitner was just angry because of the divorce. Leitner told her that "things would be better for her and the kids if Michael was dead, then they wouldn't have to worry about it no more ... it'd be so easy to have it done, you just make a phone call, you know, she knows people."
Sometime on a weekday prior to Saturday, October 3, 1998, Leitner went to Chanute, Kansas, to see her insurance agent, Robert White. She paid the insurance premiums on her house, Michael's vehicle, and her 1991 Dodge Dakota pickup truck. White gave Leitner a document concerning insurance coverage on Michael's vehicle. Leitner told White she would be seeing Michael that weekend and would have him sign the document to take him off the policy. Michael's visitation with their two boys was scheduled for the weekend of October 2 and 3, 1998. On Thursday, October 1, 1998, Michael telephoned to cancel his visitation with the boys. Leitner was upset because "he had been cancelling visits and it was really starting to hurt the boys."
On Friday afternoon, Gary Hocked, Leitner's brother, and his daughter went to Leitner's house to ask if Leitner and his wife Pam wanted to go out that evening. Leitner called Larcom and asked her to babysit all four children at her house. After Larcom arrived, Gary, Pam, and Leitner left in separate vehicles to go to Gary's house to get ready. At Gary's house, Leitner told Gary and Pam that she was not going to go with them because she felt she really needed to talk with Michael.
Leitner testified that "Gary didn't really want me to go at first originally and then he—that's when he decided that he didn't have a problem with me going if I took protection with me just in case." Leitner was referring to Pam's and Tammy Warner's two handguns. She stated that Gary retrieved Tammy's gun out of a green box, then Pam got hers out of her purse and handed it to Gary. Leitner testified that Gary loaded the .380 caliber and .22 caliber handguns for her while she went to the liquor store to buy him a 12-pack of beer. Earlier in the trial, Leitner reported to jurors that she owned a .22 caliber Ruger at the time of her divorce and that in September 1998, she purchased a .25 caliber semiautomatic handgun for her protection. That night, however, Leitner used Gary's and Pam's .380 caliber and .22 caliber handguns to shoot Michael.
Kenny Wisdom testified that he worked with Michael at the Wyncroft Hill Apartments in Olathe on Friday, October 2, 1998. Around 7:30 p.m., Wisdom, a girl named Cindy, Michael, and Michael's brother, Jeff, met in Jeff and Michael's apartment. Wisdom stated that around 8 p.m., he and Michael went to the liquor store in Wisdom's car. Prior to leaving the parking lot, a truck drove by on another road. Michael told Wisdom, "That looked like my exwife's truck." At the liquor store, Wisdom bought a case of beer, and Michael bought "a pint bottle of something." Wisdom dropped Michael off in the parking lot of the apartment complex.
Leitner testified that when she arrived in Olathe, she drove around until she located the apartment complex where Michael worked. Leitner stated that Michael had given her his address that week. She did not know Michael's apartment number, but her son Eric thought it was 203 or 302. After she saw Michael's truck, Leitner said she found a place to park, got out, and knocked on a few doors. Christopher Paul answered the door of one of the apartments and later identified Leitner for investigators.
Leitner testified that when she saw Michael walking in the parking lot, she yelled his name and they spoke to one another. She told Michael she did not want to go into his apartment but preferred to go to a public place. She stated that Michael told her his truck was not running right so she drove to a nearby park to talk. Leitner testified that Michael asked about going to Toronto for the weekend so they could talk to their sons together and said he offered to pay for her gas. She said Michael went to his apartment to get a change of clothes. When he got back in the truck, she handed him the insurance document, and he put it inside his coat pocket.
Jeff testified that in September and October 1998, he lived with Michael in the Wyncroft Apartments in Olathe in apartment 302. When Jeff left the apartment to get groceries around 9 p.m. on October 2, 1998, Wisdom, Cindy, and Michael were there, but when he returned, they were gone. Jeff testified that he owed Michael money for back rent, so after purchasing groceries he withdrew $550 from an ATM machine at 9:24 p.m. The bills Jeff received from the ATM machine were the new-style $20 bills. Jeff went back to the apartment, and at approximately 10:30 or 11 p.m., Michael returned. Michael told Jeff that Leitner was outside in her truck and he was going to go to Toronto with her. Leitner never came into the apartment. Michael seemed surprised by the fact Leitner was there and that she was crying and very upset. Jeff stated that since Michael had reopened the divorce case and Leitner showed up all of a sudden, he did not think it was a good idea for Michael to go with her. Jeff said that Michael had a brown Ford truck in good condition and that he could have driven to Toronto. Jeff said he tried to give Michael $300 that he owed him, but he did not want to carry that much with him, so Michael gave $200 back to Jeff and took $100 in new-style $20 bills.
Leitner told jurors that after stopping at an Ottawa convenience store, Michael took over driving her truck. Leitner testified that Michael took a couple of swigs of butter shots, a kind of liquor, on the trip to Toronto. She said...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Marsh, No. 81,135.
...the proceeding must disregard any error or defect in the proceeding which does not affect the substantial rights of the parties. State v. Leitner, 272 Kan. 398, Syl. ¶ 7, 34 P.3d 42 (2001); State v. Morris, 255 Kan. 964, Syl. ¶ 6, 880 P.2d 1244 "Errors in violation of a constitutional right......
-
State v. Smith
...by the risk that its admission will unfairly prejudice the party against whom it is offered. K.S.A. 60–445; State v. Leitner, 272 Kan. 398, 415, 34 P.3d 42 (2001) (although K.S.A. 60–445 requires probative versus prejudicial balancing only when opposing party claims surprise, balancing may ......
-
State v. Smith
...upon finding its probative value is outweighed by its potential for producing undue prejudice. See K.S.A. 60–445; State v. Leitner, 272 Kan. 398, 415, 34 P.3d 42 (2001). That determination is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. See Phillips, 295 Kan. at 947, 287 P.3d 245; Wilson, 295 Kan. ......
-
State v. Marks
...by the risk of unfair prejudice. K.S.A. 60–445; State v. Shadden, 290 Kan. 803, 817–18, 235 P.3d 436 (2010); see also State v. Leitner, 272 Kan. 398, 415, 34 P.3d 42 (2001) (citing State v. Davis, 213 Kan. 54, 57, 515 P.2d 802 [1973] ) (discussing statute's application to probative versus p......