State v. Logsdon
| Decision Date | 01 April 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 110,415.,110,415. |
| Citation | 304 Kan. 3,371 P.3d 836 |
| Parties | STATE of Kansas, Appellee, v. Charles C. LOGSDON, Appellant. |
| Court | Kansas Supreme Court |
Shanon S. Crane, of Hutchinson, argued the cause and was on the brief for appellant.
Keith E. Schroeder, district attorney, argued the cause, and Derek Schmidt, attorney general, was with him on the brief for appellee.
A jury convicted Charles Logsdon on seven counts stemming from the death of Jennifer Heckel: intentional first-degree murder, felony murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, criminal possession of a firearm, and aggravated intimidation of a witness. The district court imposed a life sentence with a minimum term of 50 years (hard 50 life sentence) for the intentional first-degree murder conviction. Logsdon now appeals, asking us to reverse his convictions and vacate his hard 50 life sentence.
For reasons we will more fully explain, we uphold Logsdon's convictions because his arguments on appeal are ultimately nonmeritorious. First, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State and deferring to the jury's credibility conclusions—as we must do on appeal—there is sufficient evidence supporting his convictions. Second, the district court did not err in denying Logsdon's motions for a mistrial (which were based on the admission of certain hearsay evidence). The court took effective remedial action to prevent the jury from considering some hearsay. And the remaining hearsay was either not objected to or was admissible under at least one hearsay exception. None of the hearsay statements violated Logsdon's constitutional right to confront witnesses. Third, we reject Logsdon's argument regarding a jury instruction on aiding and abetting liability because, even assuming the instruction was erroneous, he invited any error by requesting it.
Although we affirm Logsdon's convictions, we must vacate Logsdon's hard 50 life sentence and remand for resentencing. As the State concedes, Logsdon's hard 50 life sentence was improperly imposed in light of the United States Supreme Court's decision in Alleyne v. United States, 570 U.S. ––––, 133 S.Ct. 2151, 186 L.Ed.2d 314 (2013), and our application of that decision in State v. Soto, 299 Kan. 102, Syl. ¶ 9, 322 P.3d 334 (2014), and State v. Warren, 302 Kan. 601, 622–23, 356 P.3d 396 (2015).
Logsdon's lengthy trial involved numerous witnesses and thousands of pages of transcript. We offer a condensed version of the facts, as they were established at trial, but still must discuss the evidence in some detail because of Logsdon's sufficiency of the evidence challenge.
Trial testimony established that Heckel was shot in her home around 7:00 p.m. on June 14, 2011. Her 5–year old son, T.H., was home at the time and ran to his neighbors for help. Emergency responders found Heckel slumped on the floor in her kitchen and, after lifesaving measures were attempted, declared her dead at the scene.
At trial, T.H. testified he was sitting in his playroom watching television. During a commercial, he went to the window and saw someone come up to the house. He heard someone else in the house with his mother and heard several loud bangs, but he did not see anything because he stayed in his playroom until he heard the kitchen screen door shut. Although T.H. could not recall any additional details at trial, law enforcement officers testified that right after the shooting T.H. had told them he saw a red car pull into the driveway with possibly two people in it and he saw a man run out of the house.
A total of four shots were fired inside the Heckel home: one shot went through a food container in the kitchen, through a window, and outside (and was never recovered); one grazed Heckel's side and was found imbedded in a kitchen wall; one was found under her body and probably caused her chest wound ; and one was fired at the back of Heckel's head and found near her neck. Heckel's wounds were caused by medium-caliber bullets. Expert witnesses opined that the shots were probably fired from relatively close range, but no one was able to conclusively determine their sequence.
Neither the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) nor the Hutchinson Police Department found any relevant fingerprint, DNA, or trace evidence. Of note, investigators found two cigarette butts outside the house, but the cigarettes yielded no DNA match to any suspect. Nor did investigators initially discover any evidence of motive. Further, as members of the Hutchinson Police Department testified at trial, every person of interest among Heckel's family, friends, and acquaintances had an alibi. As a result, the police began to investigate whether someone other than Heckel was the intended target.
To this end, police began canvassing the streets and questioning people known to be involved in home invasions, daytime burglaries, and drugs. The first break in the case came on June 30, 2011, when Detective Dean Harcrow interviewed Billy Craig. According to Detective Harcrow's trial testimony, Craig told him he had heard “someone had been shot in the head.” This same statement was also introduced through the testimony of Lieutenant Martin Robertson, who was not present during the exchange but recounted what Craig had told Detective Harcrow. This particular statement was important to the investigation. As both Lieutenant Robertson and Detective Harcrow explained, Craig's comment told them they were on the right track because that particular detail of the shooting had not been released to the public.
Logsdon timely made a hearsay objection to both witnesses' testimony about Craig's statements. See K.S.A. 2015 Supp. 60–460 (). Hearsay evidence is generally inadmissible unless a specific exception applies or the evidence is otherwise excluded from this general definition. As relevant to the rulings, the State argued Craig's statements were excluded from the definition of hearsay because the State planned to have Craig, who was in custody, testify. The State pointed to K.S.A. 2015 Supp. 60–460(a), which allows admission of “[a] statement previously made by a person who is present at the hearing and available for cross-examination with respect to the statement and its subject matter.” The district court overruled Logsdon's objection.
Later in the trial, however, Craig refused to testify, leading the district court to admonish the jury to “disregard the testimony regarding the statements of Billy Craig that were specifically made during the testimony of ... Detective Dean Harcrow, regarding a meeting on June 30 with Billy Craig only.” The instruction did not mention Lieutenant Robertson's testimony about Craig's statement.
After Craig revealed information that would only have been known by someone involved in the crime or an investigator, police began interviewing people with whom Craig was associated. Eventually law enforcement concluded that warring groups of drug users, who often robbed each other and did not report the robberies to the police, were linked to Heckel's death.
Most of the evidence admitted at trial against Logsdon came from various members of Craig's circle. There were credibility concerns. Many, if not most, of these witnesses received some sort of benefit in exchange for their testimony against Logsdon. Almost all of them had unrelated criminal cases pending or were in jail on unrelated criminal charges. Several admitted they were reluctant to testify, and some witnesses were held in contempt of court before eventually agreeing to take the stand. A handful of the other witnesses called to testify against Logsdon were alleged, by other witnesses, to have somehow been involved in Heckel's death. Indeed, at the time of Logsdon's trial, Craig was charged with the first-degree murder of Heckel and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. See generally State v. Craig, No. 110,466, 2014 WL 2871395 (Kan.App.) (unpublished opinion), rev. denied 300 Kan. 1105 (2014).
Logsdon called these witnesses' credibility into question at trial. We will discuss these credibility issues more thoroughly later in our opinion, but we mention them here because they provide context for understanding the State's case against Logsdon.
Once investigators began to focus on Craig's circle of friends, they learned of a conspiracy to rob someone other than Heckel—Kayla Rodriguez, a woman involved in the drug trade who sold drugs to Craig and others.
Several witnesses testified at trial regarding Logsdon's involvement in a couple of different plans to rob Rodriguez. Kara Kylie Branton admitted at trial that 3 to 4 weeks before Heckel's death, she, Craig, and Logsdon were involved in the original plan. Branton testified she became afraid when Logsdon proposed using guns, and she sent word of the plan to Rodriguez. Afterwards, according to Branton, Logsdon called her cussing and screaming because she had ruined the plan.
Rodriguez testified at trial that after she learned of the plan to rob her, she was reluctant to go to Craig's house if Logsdon was there. When she asked Craig about the plan to rob her, Craig assured her that as long as he was around nothing bad would happen to her. Logsdon lodged a hearsay objection, which was overruled.
There was also evidence of a second plan to rob Rodriguez. According to law enforcement testimony, Leonard Hill told the KBI that he too was involved with a planned grab-and-go robbery of Rodriguez—and this plan was between himself, Logsdon, and Craig.
Other testimony described a plan without mention of Hill's involvement, suggesting...
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