State v. Manning

• Decision Date: 19 October 2004
• Docket Number: No. 2003-KA-1982.,2003-KA-1982.
• Citation: 885 So.2d 1044
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Jeremiah D. MANNING.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

885 So.2d 1044

STATE of Louisiana v. Jeremiah D. MANNING.

No. 2003-KA-1982.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

October 19, 2004.

Rehearing Denied November 24, 2004.

Capital Appeals Project, R. Neal Walker, Marcia Adele Widder, David L. Koen, Counsel for Appellant.

Charles C. Foti, Jr., Attorney General, John Schuyler Marvin, District Attorney, Michael A. Pitman, Assistant District Attorney, Counsel for Respondent.

KNOLL, Justice.

The victim Mary Malone, 62 years of age, a clerk in a pharmacy located in Plain Dealing, Louisiana, was found murdered in a wooded area of Bossier Parish on December 19, 2000. On January 16, 2001, a Bossier Parish grand jury indicted defendant, Jeremiah D. Manning, for the first-degree murder of Malone, a violation of La.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 14:30. Two days after defendant's indictment, the State filed its notice of intent to seek the death penalty. On May 6, 2002, a unanimous jury found defendant guilty as charged. At the penalty phase of the trial, the jury unanimously returned a verdict of death finding the following aggravating circumstances: defendant was engaged in the perpetration of an aggravated kidnapping and the offense was committed in an especially heinous, atrocious or cruel manner. Defendant now appeals his conviction and sentence raising 47 assignments of error variously consolidated into 20 arguments.¹ We affirm defendant's conviction and sentence.

FACTS

On December 18, 2000, at approximately 10:45 p.m., Bossier Parish Sheriff's Deputy Jimmy Chreene was on routine patrol driving west on Louisiana Highway 160 when he observed an eastbound vehicle veer off the road. The temperature hovered in the mid-twenties and ice was forming on the water in the ditches. Chreene saw defendant, Jeremiah Manning, emerge from the car and immediately recognized the car as the one Mary Malone, the victim, owned. The officer ran a computerized check of the car's license plate, confirmed it was the victim's, and that no one had reported it stolen. When Chreene inquired about the defendant's possession of the vehicle, he told the officer he had been walking on Lake Road when two acquaintances named R.J. (or J.R), Shawn, and a third man he did not know, drove up in the vehicle and offered him a ride. When the officer saw blood on defendant's clothing and asked about its origin, defendant explained he had a fight with R.J. after the wreck. Chreene seriously doubted defendant's assertions because he had an unobstructed view of the accident and he had only seen one person, defendant, emerge from the vehicle. At that point, Chreene handcuffed defendant for reasons of safety and placed him in the back of the police unit. After Chreene radioed for backup, Deputy Cortez Bridges arrived at the scene. Chreene used Bridges's telephone to call the victim's home to determine whether she had loaned defendant her car. Receiving no answer, Officer Chreene telephoned the victim's best friend, Anna Lou Jiles, and requested that she accompany a Plain Dealing police officer to the victim's residence to check on her.

Officer Richard McDonald of the Plain Dealing Police Office accompanied Ms. Jiles to the victim's home. There, the officer and Ms. Jiles found the door to Malone's house open; almost all the lights were illuminated in the house and food was left cooking on the stove. Jiles said that although the victim had set her table several days early for Christmas dinner, she observed that the dinnerware was disheveled; several pieces of tableware were on the floor and one dinner knife was missing. In addition, the victim's purse was found opened in the middle of the floor; several envelopes in the purse, that usually had amounts of cash, were found empty and atop the contents of the purse. The victim was nowhere to be found. These findings were then reported to Deputy Chreene.

In the meantime, Chreene detected the smell of alcohol on defendant and accordingly called Deputy Brian Keith of the DWI Task Force to the scene. When Deputy Keith arrived, he learned that Chreene had not yet Mirandized defendant. Deputy Keith then opened the back door to the police car and read defendant his Miranda rights. When questioned about whether he had consumed alcohol, defendant told the officer he had consumed one beer. Because Keith observed no other signs suggesting defendant was inebriated, he concluded defendant had not been under the influence of alcohol when operating the vehicle.

At this point, Chreene called Major Tom Myrick at home to tell him of the suspicious circumstances and to ask him to come to the scene of the accident. Myrick arrived at approximately 11:50 p.m. After defendant confirmed that law enforcement authorities advised him of the Miranda warnings and he wished to waive them, defendant told Major Myrick that J.R. and Shawn picked him up in the vehicle in Plain Dealing and that he was traveling in the backseat of the car when it wrecked. Defendant further claimed he did not know who owned the vehicle and contended that after the accident, the other two had gone off in the woods or caught a ride.

Suspecting foul play, Major Myrick requested defendant accompany him to the Plain Dealing police station to continue the interview.² Defendant agreed, and after being transported to the police station, he was again given Miranda warnings. Defendant then gave an evolving series of statements to Major Myrick about how he came into possession of the vehicle, making various changes when confronted with facts which disproved earlier versions of the story.³ In his final statement, defendant claimed he was present when J.R. and Shawn abducted the victim at her home and he reluctantly accompanied them in the rear seat of her vehicle while the victim was sandwiched between the two men in the front of the car. Defendant exited the vehicle when they had turned off the highway and onto a dirt road. Later, defendant returned down the trail on foot where he found the dying victim and surmised that J.R. and Shawn murdered the victim. He then walked back to the highway and found the victim's car in the ditch. Shortly thereafter, Deputy Chreene pulled up in his police vehicle.

Defendant agreed to take the police to the location where he had allegedly discovered the victim's body. Defendant led Myrick and other detectives to a remote wooded area off of Highway 160. The police found the victim lying face down in a pool of blood; her arms were extended above her head and her blouse was bunched around her neck. When personnel from the Coroner's Office rolled the body over, they found the victim's throat was slashed and her skull was fractured.

Aware of numerous inconsistencies in defendant's story, the detectives wanted to interrogate defendant further about the crime when they returned to the police station. However, defendant indicated he was tired and cold and would prefer to continue the interview later. The officers abided by defendant's wishes and booked him into jail.

On the morning of December 20, 2000, Major Myrick conducted a final, secretly videotaped, interview of defendant. Defendant told the officer essentially the same story that he did before leading the officers to the victim's body. Defendant maintained that although he had been a passenger in the victim's vehicle during the abduction, J.R. and Shawn were responsible for the victim's death. After Major Myrick confronted defendant with the information contradicting certain aspects of his statement, defendant requested an attorney. At that point interrogation ceased.

The record further shows that at approximately 10:00 p.m. on the night of the crime, Monica Liles and her fiancee observed the victim's car while they drove on Highway 157. She testified the victim was driving slowly and another person was in the front seat of the car. Liles thought the victim might be lost because she appeared confused. However, when Liles noticed another person in the passenger seat, she concluded the victim was okay. Although Liles did not get a good look at the passenger, she stated she was certain there were only two occupants in the vehicle. About 45 minutes later, Liles passed the victim's moving vehicle twice more on Highway 157, catching a glimpse of the victim as she continued to drive very slowly.

At approximately 11:00 p.m., Liles saw the victim's vehicle stuck in the ditch. A police car had pulled up and she saw defendant in handcuffs standing next to the car. Liles testified that at the time, she thought it was same car she had seen earlier, but dismissed the idea because she had seen "two people in that car. There was a little gray headed woman driving that one, so it can't be." (R., vol.XIII, p. 3149).

The police investigation uncovered various items of physical evidence that helped build the case against defendant. Subsequent DNA analysis linked the blood found on defendant's pants to that of the victim. In addition, Detective Danny Lemoine discovered the missing dinner knife under the floor mat of the victim's wrecked vehicle. The Coroner testified he was able to match the serrations of the missing dinner knife with the serrated markings found in the victim's throat, as well as the laceration across the victim's forehead.

Major Myrick testified that detectives conducted an exhaustive search of the Springhill area in an attempt to corroborate defendant's story concerning the other alleged assailants Shawn and J.R. Investigating officers located Shawn Minnifield and Andrew Lee "J.R." Brantley, the only men they could find in the area who even vaguely met the description defendant provided. Both men provided solid alibis and willingly consented to submitting DNA samples. Both men were only vaguely acquainted with defendant and each other. Subsequent DNA analysis excluded Shawn and J.R. as perpetrators involved in the murder of the victim.

LAW AND DISCUSSION

We have categorized defendant's assignments of error into three broad categories according to their...