State v. Looper

• Decision Date: 03 February 2003
• Docket Number: No. E2001-01550-CCA-R3-CD.,E2001-01550-CCA-R3-CD.
• Citation: 118 S.W.3d 386
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee v. Byron LOOPER.
• Court: Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals

118 S.W.3d 386

STATE of Tennessee v. Byron LOOPER.

No. E2001-01550-CCA-R3-CD.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, at Knoxville.

September 24, 2002 Session.

February 3, 2003.

Application for Permission to Appeal Denied by Supreme Court July 7, 2003.

John E. Herbison, Nashville, Tennessee (on appeal); McCracken Poston, Chattanooga, Tennessee (at trial); and Ron Cordova, Newport Beach, California (at trial), for the appellant, Byron Looper.

Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Mark E. Davidson, Assistant Attorney General; William E. Gibson, District Attorney General; and David A. Patterson and Anthony J. Craighead, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

OPINION

ALAN E. GLENN, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which GARY R. WADE, P.J., and JOSEPH M. TIPTON, J., joined.

The defendant, Byron Looper, was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He timely appealed, presenting as issues: (1) the trial court erred in excluding the testimony of witnesses who would have testified as to his location following the homicide, violating his right to due process; (2) the trial court erred in keeping under seal the psychological records of one of the State's witnesses; and (3) the evidence did not support application of the aggravating factor that the homicide was committed because the victim was a state official. Following our review, we affirm the conviction and the imposition of life without the possibility of parole.

To the extent possible, we will review the evidence in an order which is chronological to the offense.

STATE'S PROOF

The victim, Tommy Burks, had lived in Cumberland County with his wife Charlotte for approximately thirty years. He first had been a state representative and then a state senator, being in the latter position for approximately twenty years prior to his death on October 19, 1998. The defendant, Byron Looper, was the Putnam County Tax Assessor at the time.

Sergeant Joseph H. Bond, a Marine recruiter residing in Hot Springs, Arkansas, testified that he had known the defendant since they were about 14 years old and in the ninth grade. They did not see each other "for quite a while" after high school, Bond joining the Marines and the defendant entering the United States Military Academy. He next saw the defendant around Christmas of 1985, two years after they had graduated from high school, and, following that, in 1986, when the defendant enrolled at the University of Georgia. He did not see the defendant again until approximately ten years later. The defendant called him in May or June 1998 and said that he wanted to stay in touch with Bond, and, about three weeks later, again telephoned Bond, asking if he could visit him in Arkansas. Bond agreed, and the defendant came to Hot Springs shortly after that, visiting in June 1998. Together they went to a bar and drank throughout the night. During this evening, the defendant said that he was "either a senator or a congressman," in Tennessee and, accordingly, Bond introduced him as "Senator Looper." Either later that night or the next morning, the defendant admitted to Bond that he was "actually just running for office."

During this weekend visit to Hot Springs, the defendant spoke of his interest in firearms, saying that he had "been thinking about getting one." He questioned Bond about the specifics of firearms, "different calibers, how accurate they were, the ranges on them, and asked ... about silencers," as well as "[c]oncealibility, what would be concealable in a crowd." Later during the visit, speaking of the election, the defendant said that "he had thought about killing [his opponent]." Additionally, he said that "if there were only two people on the ballot, if one of them died 30 days before the election, that he would automatically win."

The defendant then came unannounced to Bond's apartment in July or August 1998, where he stayed for "a couple of days." During this visit, the defendant "was more intent on getting a weapon," saying that "since the election was coming up, he needed one quick." Although he had no intention of doing so, Bond agreed to obtain a pistol for the defendant. Bond said he thought "the election would go ahead and happen, and that would be it, and I wouldn't hear anything else about it." After his departure, the defendant telephoned Bond "about every day, sometimes two, three, four times a day," wanting "to know if [Bond] had got him a pistol yet." Bond made excuses for not doing so, and did not obtain a pistol for the defendant. The defendant sent Bond a money order for $150. The telephone calls from the defendant continued "[i]nside of a week of him leaving."

William Lindsay Adams, Jr., testified that he resided in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and periodically worked "as a staff person for political campaigns around the country and in [his] own state." He would become affiliated with candidates by word of mouth or through trade publications. In the July 1998 edition of Campaigns and Elections, he had seen a notice seeking "a campaign staff or manager for a first tier campaign." The advertisement provided a facsimile number to which to respond but not the name or other information about the candidate. About three days after he had faxed his résumé to the number, Adams received a telephone call from a person identifying himself as "Byron Looper," who said that he "had changed his name to Low Tax Looper." Adams told of his "credentials," which included working "for a conservative governor who had just recently passed some laws in Louisiana that [the caller] seemed interested in." The caller asked about "[c]oncealed weapons laws" and the "details of the law, and how it was passed, and what was [Adams'] role in the legislation, or the campaign to get this law elected." The caller said that he was a candidate for the state senate; and, Adams "wanted to know how much he thought it would take to run a race" to find out "if he was serious or not." The caller said that the race would cost "[t]hirty-five cents," but Adams did not ask for an explanation because the conversation was "very awkward" with "[a] lot of pauses." Adams testified how the caller said that he would win the race: "He had several ideas, but he suggested that maybe if a candidate wasn't in the race at the end, if something happened to the candidate, that the race wouldn't cost that much to run, which was my concern, the money." Adams decided against going to work for the caller.

Russell Duke testified that he had been a friend of Russell Looper, the defendant's brother, for "[a]t least five, six, seven, eight years." Duke said that he resided in Oakwood, Georgia, which was located in the northeast part of the state, "[a]bout [a] four-and-a-half, five hours" drive from Crossville, Tennessee. He testified that he and Russell Looper had planned to go out with some friends on October 17, 1998; but, because Looper "had something that he had to do" with his girlfriend in Atlanta, Duke then agreed to "run some errands for Byron," at Looper's request. Prior to that, he had met the defendant on two occasions. Duke and the defendant were to meet at the Flowery Branch, Georgia, home of the defendant's mother, which was "[w]ithin five to seven miles" of Duke's residence. Duke arrived there at about 7:30 p.m. and allowed the defendant to use his cell phone to make two or three calls about car advertisements he had seen in an Auto Trader magazine. The defendant owned a Beretta automobile which he left at his mother's residence as Duke drove him to look at cars for sale. With the defendant driving, they took one of the cars for sale, a black, four-door "older body-styled Audi," on a test drive. The defendant purchased the Audi for "somewhere like twelve ($1200) or twelve, fifty ($1250)." In his own vehicle, Duke followed the defendant, driving the Audi, back toward the home of the defendant's mother. Five or ten miles before his mother's house, the defendant and Duke stopped at a car wash, where the defendant said that "he wanted to find somewhere that was well lit to leave the car." It was then parked at a shopping mall about ten miles from the house of the defendant's mother, with Duke returning the defendant to her residence. The defendant explained that he wanted to park the car at a place other than his mother's house "because cars had been following [him] since he had came [sic] from here down to his mother's." Duke had not spoken with the defendant since that night. However, he later identified to Tennessee Bureau of Investigation ("TBI") agents the seller of the Audi.

On cross-examination, Duke said that it had taken "[a]pproximately four-and-a-half to five hours" to drive from his home in Georgia to Crossville, where the trial was being conducted. He agreed that to drive from his residence in Georgia to Crossville by the expressway, it would be necessary to go south to Atlanta. To avoid this, a driver would have to take "[c]ountry back roads." Regardless of which route was taken, the drive from his residence to Chattanooga would take "probably two and a half hours." Duke said that the tires on the Audi, when it was purchased by the defendant, were "pretty worn."

Michael R. Levy testified that in October 1998, he had been living in Lilburn, Georgia, and had advertised a 1987 Audi 4000-S in the Auto Trader for sale. He said that the defendant responded to the advertisement on October 17, arriving with a friend at Levy's residence about 6:00 p.m. The defendant told Levy that he bought cars, repaired them, and then sold them. Levy received $1200 in cash from the defendant for the vehicle, giving him the title and a bill of sale. Identifying his receipt for a tire purchase, Levy said that he had fourteen-inch NTW Viper tires put on the vehicle on October 19, 1996, and had driven the car 30,000 miles since installing the tires, which "were...