State v. Lockhart
| Decision Date | 15 August 2003 |
| Citation | 830 A.2d 433,2003 ME 108 |
| Parties | STATE of Maine v. Stephen LOCKHART. |
| Court | Maine Supreme Court |
G. Steven Rowe, Attorney General, Donald W. Macomber, Asst. Attorney General (orally), Lisa P. Marchese, Asst. Attorney General, Augusta, for State.
Peter B. Bickerman, (orally), Verrill & Dana, LLP, Augusta, for defendant.
Panel: SAUFLEY, C.J., and CLIFFORD, RUDMAN, ALEXANDER, CALKINS, and LEVY, JJ.
[¶ 1] Stephen Lockhart appeals from a judgment of conviction entered in the Superior Court (Kennebec County, Warren, J.) following a jury verdict finding him guilty of murder in violation of 17-A M.R.S.A. § 201(1)(A) (1983), amended by 17-A M.R.S.A. § 201(1) (Supp.2002). Lockhart contends the court erred by: (1) refusing to suppress the statements he made to police; (2) allowing the State to introduce evidence of an earlier incident of domestic violence involving the same victim; (3) denying his motion for a mistrial in connection with evidence of the earlier domestic violence incident; (4) not instructing the jury on the defense of adequate provocation; (5) failing to include in its written jury instructions the court's oral instruction on the State's burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt; (6) admitting autopsy photographs of the victim; and (7) permitting repeated instances of prosecutorial misconduct. We disagree and affirm the judgment.
[¶ 2] Andrea and Stephen Lockhart married in 1991 and had three children. On April 18, 1997, Andrea sought medical help at a hospital twelve hours after receiving a laceration above her left eyelid. She told the emergency room physician assistant on duty that her husband kicked in the front door the previous night and that the door struck her face. Andrea and Lockhart separated in September 1998. Andrea and the children moved into a home in Lamoine, and Lockhart moved into a rented apartment above the workshop of his employer, a boatyard in Southwest Harbor.
[¶ 3] On Friday, December 11, 1998, Andrea called Lockhart at the boatyard to see if he could take care of their oldest child, who was sick, because Andrea was scheduled to work that evening, and Lockhart agreed. Around 3:45 p.m., Andrea arrived at the boatyard with the sick child and settled him into the apartment. Lockhart accompanied Andrea downstairs and into the boatyard workshop. There, they got into a heated argument about the children's Christmas Day plans, the Department of Human Services' recent involvement in the collection of child support payments from Lockhart, and the role of Andrea's new boyfriend in her and the children's lives.
[¶ 4] The argument escalated into a physical altercation during which Lockhart attempted to strangle Andrea by grabbing her neck with both of his hands. He then struck her with a twenty-one-inch-long wedge-shaped block of wood, knocking her to the concrete floor. While she lay on the floor, Lockhart hit Andrea on top of the head with the block of wood, causing multiple skull fractures and brain hemorrhage. The medical examiner subsequently determined that while the strangulation and the blow to the top of Andrea's head each could have been fatal, Andrea died from the blunt impact head injury, with the injuries from strangulation being a contributing factor.
[¶ 5] Lockhart wrapped Andrea's bleeding head with duct tape, put the body into Andrea's van, and drove the van to the last bay in the workshop. He prepared a seven-foot-long box by fiberglassing the sides and bottom, moved the body out of the van and placed it in the box, and sealed the top of the box with more fiberglass. Lockhart returned upstairs to the apartment and made supper for his son.
[¶ 6] When Andrea failed to show up at work, Andrea's sister and boyfriend each called the police twice. Officer Murphy was dispatched from the Southwest Harbor Police Station to the boatyard several times to look for Andrea and her silver van. When he drove around the boatyard, he did not see a woman or a silver van. Andrea's sister and her husband also stopped by Lockhart's apartment to ask about Andrea's whereabouts. Lockhart calmly responded that Andrea had only been at the boatyard long enough to drop off the sick child, and the sister said that she intended to inform the police that Andrea was missing.
[¶ 7] After his visitors left and the child fell asleep, Lockhart ran and walked the two miles to the police station. When Officer Murphy approached Lockhart around 9:45 p.m. in the station, Lockhart cried out, "I killed her, I killed her, I killed her." Officer Murphy asked Lockhart to come into the officers' room and sit down. Officer Murphy asked, "Are you Stephen Lockhart?" Lockhart said that he was, and Officer Murphy asked, "Where is Andrea?" Lockhart responded that she was at the boatyard. Officer Murphy then told Lockhart he needed to know exactly where she was because she may need help and asked him exactly where Andrea was. Lockhart responded that she was in the last bay with her van. During the twenty minutes that Officer Murphy was with Lockhart, Lockhart was alternating between "uncontrollably shaking and screaming" and "just sobbing."
[¶ 8] Shortly after Chief of Police Tims and Officer Lovejoy arrived at the station, Officer Murphy and Chief Tims drove to the boatyard, while Officer Lovejoy stayed with Lockhart at the station. Officer Lovejoy accompanied Lockhart outdoors when he wished to smoke a cigarette. While outdoors, Lockhart asked Officer Lovejoy to shoot him. During this period, Lockhart was not physically restrained and he appeared to Officer Lovejoy to be at the point of shock, shaking at times and crying at other times. After Chief Tims and Officer Murphy found a large fiberglass box in the last bay at the boatyard, Chief Tims returned to the police station and told Lockhart that they had found Andrea's van and a red fiberglass box, but not Andrea. Chief Tims asked Lockhart, "Is she in there?" Lockhart answered affirmatively. Chief Tims called the State Police and returned to the scene, and Officer Lovejoy stayed with Lockhart. Chief Tims and Officer Murphy cut open the fiberglass box and found Andrea's body.
[¶ 9] Maine State Police Detective Stephen Pickering arrived at the station, and at 11:41 p.m. read Lockhart his Miranda rights for the first time. After Lockhart demonstrated his understanding of each of the five rights, the detective asked: "Now, having all those rights which I just explained to you in mind, do you wish to answer questions at this time?" Lockhart answered, "Please, if I can." Throughout the interrogation, the detective spoke quietly and calmly. Lockhart sobbed as he answered Detective Pickering's questions in a responsive manner. Lockhart's answers included the following statements: "I don't know," "I can't do this," "I can't, don't ask, don't," and "I want to go to sleep." Midway into the interview, Lockhart complained that his head hurt, stated that he wanted to die, and said that his hand had a cramp. When he complained for the second time about his head hurting, Detective Pickering tried without success to get him some aspirin. Around midnight Lockhart said that he wanted to go to the hospital and the detective then ended the interview, placed Lockhart under arrest, handcuffed him, and drove him to the local hospital.
[¶ 10] At the hospital, a doctor gave Lockhart a low to medium dose of Ativan, a tranquilizer, which relaxed him within fifteen minutes. While Ativan can cause people to be less inhibited, the doctor saw no signs of euphoria in Lockhart after the ingestion and instead observed Lockhart become less nervous, less agitated, and quieter. After receiving a CAT scan, Lockhart heard the CAT scan technician, an acquaintance of the detective, tell the detective that he was surprised when he met his current fiancée because he thought he hated all women. Lockhart smiled at Detective Pickering and said, "I guess he doesn't know what I'm here for." After the hospital examination, the detective transported Lockhart to the Hancock County Jail.
[¶ 11] On the afternoon of December 12, 1998, Detective Pickering met with Lockhart at the Hancock County Jail. Before the taping began, Lockhart told the detective, "It's very obvious I did this, I will readily admit to that, but should I talk to a lawyer?"1 The detective responded that he could not make that decision, but he would read Lockhart the Miranda rights again and Lockhart could decide. As Detective Pickering read each of the Miranda rights out loud, Lockhart demonstrated his understanding of the rights by rephrasing them in his own words. Detective Pickering then asked Lockhart, "Now, having all those rights which I just explained to you in mind, do you wish to answer questions at this time?" Lockhart answered, "I will try to." During the interview, Lockhart admitted that he had first struck Andrea with the wedge-shaped block of wood while she was standing, struck her a second time while she was on the floor, wrapped her head with duct tape, prepared a wooden box by encasing it with fiberglass, put her body in the box, and covered the top of the box with fiberglass, entombing her body.
[¶ 12] On February 16, 1999, Lockhart was indicted for intentionally or knowingly causing the death of Andrea in violation of 17-A M.R.S.A. § 201(1)(A). Lockhart subsequently filed a motion to suppress all statements made by him concerning the murder. After a two-day hearing, the Superior Court (Hancock County, Mead, J.) denied the motion, concluding that no violation of the requirements of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), had occurred and that "all of Defendant's statements were the result of the exercise of his free will and intellect." Venue for the trial was ordered transferred to Kennebec County.
[¶ 13] In October 2001, the jury trial began with the State presenting its theory of murder, and the defense...
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