State v. Littlefield

• Decision Date: 20 June 1977
• Citation: 374 A.2d 590
• Parties: STATE of Maine v. Chandler LITTLEFIELD.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

Page 590

374 A.2d 590

STATE of Maine v. Chandler LITTLEFIELD.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

June 20, 1977.

Joseph E. Brennan, Atty. Gen., John R. Atwood, Charles K. Leadbetter, Asst. Attys. Gen., Augusta, for plaintiff.

Romanow & Dostie by Richard M. Dostie, F. Frederick Romanow, Jr., Belfast, for defendant.

Before DUFRESNE, C. J., and POMEROY, WERNICK, ARCHIBALD, DELAHANTY and GODFREY, JJ.

WERNICK, Justice.

Defendant Chandler Littlefield has appealed from judgments of conviction entered on September 26, 1975 in the Superior Court (Waldo County) upon jury verdicts that defendant was guilty, as charged in separate indictments, of two unlawful homicides punishable as murder (17 M.R.S.A. § 2651). The appeals have been consolidated before this Court.

The jury had warrant to find the following facts.

On December 13, 1973, a Waldo County deputy sheriff had occasion to visit the residence of Joaquin Bettencourt and Florence Bettencourt (husband and wife) in Liberty, Maine. He found Mrs. Bettencourt's body in the kitchen, and subsequent investigation led to the discovery of Mr. Bettencourt's body outside the house. It was established by autopsy that the couple had died on December 9, 1973 of gunshot wounds.

Before their deaths, Mr. and Mrs. Bettencourt had operated a used clothing store in Liberty. Mr. Bettencourt frequently carried large amounts of cash. On the night of December 9, 1973, a stormy one, Mr. Bettencourt closed the store at approximately 8:45 p. m., entered his gold Chrysler automobile and, five or ten minutes later, left the area proceeding in the direction of his house. Bettencourt's automobile was discovered on December 13, 1973, the same day police found the bodies at the Bettencourt residence. It had been abandoned several miles from the house.

On the evening of December 9, when Joaquin Bettencourt was last seen, defendant was observed in company with Thomas Morton and Charles Heald at Rolli's Bar in Belfast, Maine. The trio left at approximately 8:10 p. m., accompanied by Regina Cook, in a tan Oldsmobile owned by Marlene Roderick. Miss Cook heard conversation between defendant and Morton to the effect that they had to be at a certain place at 9:00 p. m. Red wax scrapings found in the Roderick vehicle matched similar scrapings found in the abandoned Bettencourt vehicle and candles on the porch of the Bettencourt residence.

After the events of December, 1973 leading to the Bettencourts' deaths, defendant left the State of Maine and remained elsewhere for several months. Late that December and in early 1974, he spent some time in Hollywood, Florida with Carlton Dwelley, his uncle. On February 2, 1974, defendant told Dwelley that he had murdered two people in Maine. During the following days defendant elaborated on this statement, telling his uncle that he, Charles Heald and Thomas Morton had planned to rob Joaquin Bettencourt on December 9, 1973 at approximately 9:30 p. m. when Bettencourt arrived home from the store.

Defendant described to Dwelley the events of that night at the Bettencourt residence. Defendant had shot Joaquin Bettencourt with a shotgun in front of Bettencourt's house because Bettencourt refused to give up his money and instead reached for his own pistol. When Mrs. Bettencourt appeared in the doorway, defendant shot her with both weapons. Defendant, Heald and Morton then dragged Joaquin Bettencourt's body behind the house, cut the telephone wire and took whatever cash they could find.

Shortly after making these statements to Carlton Dwelley, defendant left Hollywood and went to Orlando, Florida. He was there in contact with William A. Harvey, a long-time friend. On one occasion the two became involved in a bar-room fight which led to their incarceration in the local jail. During their imprisonment defendant described to Harvey the events at the Bettencourt residence of December 9, 1973. Defendant's "Orlando" version of the double murder substantially matched that told Carlton Dwelley earlier in Hollywood.

After relating these facts to Harvey, defendant requested that should he ever be returned to Maine for trial, Harvey smuggle a gun to him in the court house.

In addition to the facts thus revealed to the jury through evidence adduced at trial, the presiding Justice received other information in connection with a requested change of venue. Briefly, that information (which we shall explain more fully in later discussion) indicated that defendant had escaped Florida confinement in November, 1974, subsequent to the conversations with William Harvey, and traveled to San Diego, California, where he was apprehended for assaulting a police officer in May, 1975. The State of Maine initiated successful proceedings for defendant's return, and trial commenced on September 22, 1975.

I. Motion for Change of Venue.

Pursuant to Rule 21(a) M.R.Crim.P., defendant moved on August 25, 1975 for a change of venue from Waldo County to Lincoln County, citing allegedly prejudicial pre-trial publicity, as evidenced by an affidavit (attached to the motion) containing newspaper clippings. The presiding Justice deferred consideration of transfer pending voir dire of the jury to determine the extent of prejudice, if any, among potential jurors. After that examination the Justice denied defendant's motion.

The affidavit incorporated several dozen articles from three local newspapers covering the 20-month period from the Bettencourts' deaths in December, 1973 to defendant's forced return to Maine in August, 1975. Early accounts, written before investigation yielded a suspect, focused on the details of the crimes, the lives of the victims and the reaction of Liberty residents. After May, 1974, when indictments against defendant were returned by the Grand Jury, reporters turned to information about defendant and his activities outside Maine after the Liberty episode. Articles during the next year traced defendant's convictions for assault in Florida and subsequent escape, and his arrest for assaulting a police officer while armed in San Diego, California and his pleading guilty, there, to a "gun charge." Additionally, there were sporadic reports on the trials in Penobscot County of Charles Heald and Thomas Morton for conspiracy to rob the Bettencourts. This coverage ceased after Heald and Morton were found guilty on May 22, 1975.

None of these articles departs from a factual, low-key approach to the reported information. None prejudges defendant's guilt, calls for official action or reveals the existence of damaging, and potentially inadmissible, evidence.

However, on August 5, 1975, approximately a month and a half before commencement of voir dire, a story appearing in the Bangor Daily News did mention damaging, and possibly inadmissible, evidence. The Bangor Daily News item, covering the imminent return of defendant from California, reported two remarks about defendant attributed to the assistant attorney general in charge of the case. ¹ One of the remarks described defendant as "so dangerous that he would have to travel in irons" and this prevented air travel and necessitated rendition by automobile. The second reported that

"Littlefield has threatened to shoot his way out of any Maine court room which tried him."

Subsequent articles, written to the time of trial, covered official proceedings in the case, such as appointment of counsel, arraignment and motions.

In light of this allegedly prejudicial publicity, defendant assigns error in the denial of his motion that the trial be transferred to Lincoln County. While he apparently deals with the ruling below on grounds of abuse of discretion alone, we read his claim as encompassing an attack which is also predicated upon constitutional guarantees of due process of law. ²

We find the Justice's ruling consistent with constitutional due process and within his sound discretion.

A. Due Process.

Defendant argues that the publicity in this case so tainted the atmospheresurrounding the trial that his motion should have been granted without a showing of actual prejudice. The Supreme Court has recognized that some pre-trial (and trial) events preclude trial in a particular location regardless of whether defendant is able to demonstrate that the jury chosen harbored actual prejudice. Rideau v. Louisiana, 373 U.S. 723, 83 S.Ct. 1417, 10 L.Ed.2d 663 (1963) (frequent pre-trial telecasts of defendant's jail cell confession to a police officer); Turner v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 466, 85 S.Ct. 546, 13 L.Ed.2d 424 (1965) (officers in charge of jury were chief prosecution witnesses); Estes v. Texas, 381 U.S. 532, 85 S.Ct. 1628, 14 L.Ed.2d 543 (1965) (telecast of pre-trial motion for change of venue and live video coverage of trial itself); Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333, 86 S.Ct. 1507, 16 L.Ed.2d 600 (1966) (pre-trial disclosure of inadmissible evidence and names of prospective jurors; disruptive press participation during trial and lack of jury sequestration). Where circumstances endangering local impartiality do not reach this level, however, defendant must show actual prejudice among the venirepersons. ³ Irvin v. Dowd, 366 U.S. 717, 81 S.Ct. 1639, 6 L.Ed.2d 751 (1961); Murphy v. Florida, 421 U.S. 794, 95 S.Ct. 2031, 44 L.Ed.2d 589 (1975).

We find that the pre-trial publicity in this case falls far short of the prejudicial material which necessitated new trial in the Rideau, Estes and Sheppard cases without need for a showing of actual prejudice. ⁴ Here, the overwhelming majority of the newspaper articles presented a factual account of the crime and defendant's subsequent activities without banner headlines or gruesome photographs. Spread over a 20-month period, they never appeared with a frequency bound to attract attention of most members of the community. The reports did not intensify as trial neared; in fact, there was a gap of approximately a month and a half between the last articles and commencement of voir dire.

We view the remarks of the...