State v. McCoy
| Decision Date | 13 October 2021 |
| Docket Number | 19-0894 |
| Court | Virginia Supreme Court |
| Parties | State of West Virginia, Plaintiff Below, Respondent v. Kenneth L. McCoy, Jr., Defendant Below, Petitioner |
State of West Virginia, Plaintiff Below, Respondent
v.
Kenneth L. McCoy, Jr., Defendant Below, Petitioner
Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia
October 13, 2021
MEMORANDUM DECISION
Petitioner Kenneth L. McCoy, Jr., by counsel F. John Oshoway, appeals his convictions for the felony offenses of first-degree murder, first-degree robbery, burglary, grand larceny, and conspiracy to commit murder. Respondent State of West Virginia by counsel Thomas T. Lampman, filed a response in support of petitioner's convictions and a supplemental appendix.
This Court has considered the parties' briefs and the record on appeal. The facts and legal arguments are adequately presented, and the decisional process would not be significantly aided by oral argument. Upon consideration of the standard of review, the briefs, and the record presented, the Court finds no substantial question of law and no prejudicial error. For these reasons, a memorandum decision affirming the circuit court's order is appropriate under Rule 21 of the Rules of Appellate Procedure.
On December 11, 2017, Penni Jo Curtiss ("victim") was murdered in her home in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Her home was ransacked and many of her belongings (including her vehicle) stolen.[1] The victim's body was discovered, on December 12, 2017, by her parents, who subsequently called 9-1-1. Sgt. James Stalnaker of the Parkersburg Police Department ("PPD") responded to the crime scene with a team of investigators.
As the PPD searched the victim's home, the officers found blood covering the walls, door, furniture, and carpet. Swabs of the blood were collected, the home was "dusted" for latent prints, and the victim's remains were sent to the medical examiner's office for autopsy. Ultimately, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kubiczek determined that the cause of the victim's death was "multiple blunt force injuries of significant conditions" and "multiple sharp force injuries." Dr. Kubiczek further determined the manner of the victim's death to be homicide.
During their investigation, the PPD canvassed the victim's neighborhood and discovered that the victim's neighbor had a video surveillance system with a camera on each corner of his home. On December 11, 2017, at approximately 7:24 am, one of the neighbor's cameras "captured a male walking toward the back of [the victim's] porch, dislodging [the] air conditioner, and crawling through the window." The neighbor identified petitioner as the man in the video. Additionally, the neighbor noted that petitioner returned to the victim's home later that morning, carrying a backpack, and had a conversation with Jessica Roberts (petitioner's girlfriend who previously lived at the victim's residence) at the end of the driveway of the victim's home. The neighbor then observed petitioner and Ms. Roberts walk toward the basement door of the victim's home, but the neighbor did not think anything of the midday visit as people, including petitioner and Ms. Roberts, often visited the victim's daughter while the victim was at work.
PPD detectives then interviewed the victim's daughter who advised that she had lived with the victim until December 1, 2017. The daughter advised that Ms. Roberts also lived with her and the victim during the fall of 2017 and that petitioner would sometimes visit Ms. Roberts at the victim's home. Ms. Roberts moved out of the victim's home a few weeks prior to the time the victim's daughter moved out. Based upon the surveillance video and interviews of the victim's neighbor and the victim's daughter, detectives determined that petitioner and Ms. Roberts were suspects in the victim's murder.
On December 14, 2017, in Illinois, Officer Mark Weber and Assistant Chief Drury of the Flora Police Department responded to a complaint about a man in a silver minivan requesting gas money from patrons at a nearby convenience store. By the time that Officer Weber arrived at the convenience store, the vehicle and the man were gone, but were reported to be seen headed in the direction of the local Walmart. Officer Weber then traveled to the parking lot of the Walmart and observed a vehicle matching the description of the vehicle from the convenience store. The vehicle was unoccupied. Officer Weber "ran the [license] plate" through dispatch and the "plate came back as being stolen." Officer Weber then exited his vehicle and looked through the windshield of the minivan at the VIN[2] plate and "called in the number to dispatch." The VIN "came back as being involved in a homicide in West Virginia." Hoping that someone would return to the vehicle, Officer Weber parked his squad car a few rows away and waited. Ultimately, petitioner and Ms. Roberts returned to the vehicle and were arrested.
That same day, Sgt. Stalnaker and Detective Hart of the PPD learned of petitioner's and Ms. Roberts's arrests and traveled to Illinois to "retrieve evidence" gathered as a result of the arrests. On December 15, 2017, while still in Illinois, Sgt. Stalnaker and Detective Hart interviewed Ms. Roberts.[3] Prior to her interview, Ms. Roberts signed a waiver of her Miranda[4]rights and voluntarily gave a statement, which detailed the events surrounding the victim's murder and implicated Ms. Roberts and petitioner. During this time, Ms. Roberts also provided the PPD officers with a DNA swab.
In her statement, Ms. Roberts disclosed that on December 11, 2017, petitioner broke into the victim's home and then let Ms. Roberts into the home. Petitioner and Ms. Roberts then waited for the victim to return home from work and, when she entered the home, petitioner "attacked [the victim] with a hammer, striking her forcefully on the head repeatedly, then, covering her head with a pillow, proceeded to cut her throat." Ms. Roberts' admitted that she and petitioner then took various items from the victim's home including credit cards, checks, and the victim's vehicle.
Following the interview of Ms. Roberts, Detective Hart, with the help of the Illinois police, processed the victim's van.[5] The van was found to contain a hammer, a machete, a designer bag with the victim's name on it, a suitcase with petitioner's and the victim's prescriptions in it, the victim's wallet, and cash advance paperwork bearing the victim's name. A pair of black boots belonging to petitioner and stained with what was later determined to be the victim's blood were also found in the vehicle.
The following morning, Sgt. Stalnaker and Detective Hart attempted to interview petitioner. The first interview was terminated when petitioner advised that he did not want to speak to the police because he wanted an attorney. However, petitioner did agree, with no objection or qualification, to provide Sgt. Stalnaker with a DNA swab. As the PPD officers were preparing to leave, they were advised that petitioner had changed his mind and requested to speak to the PPD officers before they left. Petitioner was advised he would have to complete an inmate request and grievance form. Petitioner completed the form and at the inception of his second meeting with the PPD officers, petitioner executed a waiver of his Miranda rights and thereafter gave a statement in which he detailed his role in the victim's murder.
Information gleaned through petitioner's interview led to the search of a dumpster at a facility in West Virginia where a backpack belonging to petitioner and certain items from the murder scene and items belonging to the victim were discovered.[6] Additionally, the facility where the dumpster was located provided surveillance footage which depicted a person, matching the description of petitioner, exiting the victim's van and placing items into the dumpster. Several items found in the dumpster or recovered from the victim's van were submitted for latent prints and DNA testing. Blood on petitioner's right boot, the knife, and one of the hammers contained both the victim's and petitioner's DNA.
Though petitioner and Ms. Roberts were arrested on fugitive warrants on December 14, 2017, they were not presented "before a judicial officer" until Monday, December 18, 2017, at which time both waived their right to an extradition hearing and acquiesced to transportation to West Virginia.
On March 7, 2018, petitioner was indicted on counts of murder, first-degree robbery, burglary, grand larceny, and conspiracy to commit murder. Before trial, petitioner moved to suppress any evidence collected in Illinois, including his statement and any evidence collected based on information he provided when giving his statement, on the basis of unreasonable delay in presenting him to a judicial officer. Petitioner's motions were denied. Further, petitioner moved to dismiss his indictment for robbery, arguing that, by definition, no robbery is possible when property is taken from a deceased victim. This motion was also denied.
Petitioner and Ms. Roberts were jointly tried in May of 2019. Neither petitioner nor Ms. Roberts testified at trial, but recordings of their statements were played for the jury. Ultimately, the jury found both petitioner and Ms. Roberts guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit a criminal offense, burglary, and grand larceny.
Subsequently, on August 12, 2019, petitioner was sentenced to a term of life in prison without mercy...
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