State v. Mead, 981866.
| Decision Date | 10 July 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 981866.,981866. |
| Citation | 27 P.3d 1115,2001 UT 58 |
| Parties | STATE of Utah, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. David E. MEAD, Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | Utah Supreme Court |
Mark L. Shurtleff, Att'y Gen., Marian Decker, Asst. Att'y Gen., Salt Lake City for plaintiff.
Ronald J. Yengich, Vanessa Ramos-Smith, Salt Lake City, for defendant.
¶ 1 A jury convicted David Mead of murder, a first degree felony, in violation of section 76-5-203 of the Utah Code, and criminal solicitation, a second degree felony, see Utah Code Ann. § 76-4-204 (1995); Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-203(2) (Supp.1998), in violation of section 76-4-203. Mead appeals his convictions, alleging numerous errors at trial. We affirm.
¶ 2 "We relate the facts in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict." State v. Litherland, 2000 UT 76, ¶ 2, 12 P.3d 92.
¶ 3 Several neighbors heard screaming from the backyard of David and Pamela Mead's house just after 11:00 p.m. on the evening of August 15, 1994. At least two people called 911, and Michael Marsh, a neighbor, went to the Meads' house to investigate. Marsh found David Mead in the house, inconsolable. Mead rushed him to the unlit backyard. Another neighbor, Scott Christianson, ran into the backyard at the same time with a flashlight. Christianson and Marsh discovered Pamela Mead's lifeless body lying on the ground next to a crudely constructed fish pond. She had white foam coming from her nose and mouth that hampered Marsh's futile attempts to resuscitate her. All the while, David Mead was screaming, "You've got to help her!" Following Marsh's failed efforts at resuscitation, Mead leapt into the fish pond and angrily began to dismantle it, yelling that it had killed his wife. Officers Sam Tausinga and Michael Jensen of the Salt Lake City Police Department arrived and attempted to calm Mead. Eventually, they removed him from the pool, handcuffed him to keep him under control, and had him sit in their police car.
¶ 4 The fish pond was four to eight feet across and three to three and a half feet deep. It was surrounded by a two to three foot loose brick collar and was lined with black polyethylene. Mead had begun building the pond in the late spring or early summer of 1994; however, it took some time to complete. Marsh had provided the bricks for the collar only two or three weeks prior to Pamela Mead's death, and, at the time of Pamela Mead's death, there was a fresh pile of excavated dirt still beside the pond. The pond had been filled with water only about four days earlier.
¶ 5 Initially, the death was treated as an accident. Mead told the police that he had gone to work at the Salt Lake City Airport at about 8:30 p.m. and checked in at about 8:50 p.m. with a security guard.1 He stated he had told his wife to feed the fish in the pond while he was at work, and, when he returned home, he found her floating in the fish pond, dead. Several weeks before her death, Pamela Mead had surgery to remove bunions on both feet. The surgery required her to wear medical sandals, which she was wearing when she drowned. The surgery also made walking difficult and left her unsteady on her feet. In light of Pamela Mead's surgery and the story David Mead related to them, investigators concluded Pamela Mead had fallen on the brick lining near the pond and accidentally drowned.
¶ 6 Because the pond was treated as the scene of an accident rather than a homicide, the police tape was removed when the officers left later that night. By the next afternoon, the pool was gone. It had been filled in, and Marsh saw two of David Mead's brothers working in the backyard that day, smoothing over the area where the pond had been.
¶ 7 Dr. Todd Grey, Chief Medical Examiner of the Office of the Medical Examiner for the State of Utah, performed the autopsy on Pamela Mead. Dr. Grey found a large amount of foam coming out of Pamela Mead's nose and mouth, "a mixture of water, air, and the fluid that actually lines the inside of the air spaces of the lungs" and is not uncommon in drowning. She had a laceration on the back of her head that occurred "paramortem," i.e., at or around the time of death. There was also a vertical series of abrasions on the right side of her abdomen and an abrasion on her right elbow. These injuries also occurred at or around the time of death. The blow to the back of the head was upwards. Dr. Grey opined that "whatever caused this injury had a fairly distinct and relatively sharp edge to it" and that the injury could have been caused by a brick like those surrounding the pool.
¶ 8 After performing the autopsy, Dr. Grey concluded Pamela Mead had fallen on the bricks surrounding the pond. He certified the cause of her death as "drowning" and the manner of her death as an "accident." Dr. Grey made the death certificate on August 16, the day after Pamela Mead's death. That same day, Kevin Harris, one of the Meads' neighbors, went into the Meads' backyard to examine the floodlights, because he had noticed on the night of Pamela Meads' death that the lights were not working. He discovered the lights were functional, but the bulbs had simply been unscrewed. Also that day, John Mead, David Mead's brother, contacted Allstate Insurance Company both to inquire about Pamela Mead's policy and to make certain no one else could receive information regarding the policy.
¶ 9 After discussing the information available to the police with Detective Jill Candland, who oversaw the investigation of Pamela Mead's death, Dr. Grey amended the certification as to the manner of Pamela Mead's death to "pending investigation." He amended the certificate on August 19, three days after his initial certification.
¶10 The subsequent police investigation revealed several earlier statements by David Mead implicating him in his wife's death. On separate occasions, Mead had spoken with three people, Winneteka Walls, Stormy Simon, and Mead's cousin, James Hendrix, about killing his wife. During the two years immediately prior to Pamela Mead's death, David Mead had been having an affair with Walls. Walls wanted Mead to leave his wife and threatened to reveal the affair to Pamela Mead if he did not. Several weeks before the drowning, Mead told Walls that he wished his wife were dead and that his wife was going to have an "accident." Specifically, he said she would have a "nasty spill," and, when she did, he would have an alibi.
¶ 11 Mead also had an affair with Simon, then an exotic dancer, in either 1991 or 1992. The affair ended abruptly, however, when Simon discovered Mead was married. Nevertheless, the two remained in contact, and, in a 1993 telephone conversation, Mead told Simon he was unhappy in his marriage. Simon advised him to get a divorce. He told her he could not do so, however, because he would lose his business to Pamela Mead and her family.2 Instead, he said he would be better off killing his wife and getting the insurance money. Apparently, Pamela Mead was listening to the conversation on another extension. She became upset and left her husband for a time, living with her family in Colorado.
¶ 12 Mead also made inculpatory statements to his cousin, James Hendrix. Hendrix was released from prison in June or July 1994. After his release, he met with Mead, who gave him a "present," a $100 bill wrapped around a piece of rock cocaine. The next day, Mead gave him more cocaine and about $900. At that time, Mead asked him to kill Pamela Mead, offering him $30,000 or $40,000 in exchange. David and Pamela Mead had purchased a life insurance policy in December 1993, that provided each of them a $250,000 death benefit, and an additional $250,000 accidental death benefit. Mead told Hendrix the money for killing his wife would come from these proceeds. When Hendrix asked Mead if the police would suspect Mead in his wife's death, he responded, "for the last year[ ] he had been the perfect husband."
¶ 13 Detective Candland learned of the statements Mead made to Walls and Hendrix. She presented Walls's and Hendrix's statements to Dr. Grey. Relying on these statements, Dr. Grey certified the manner of death as "homicide" on September 28, 1994.
¶ 14 Several months later, in 1995, Mead sought out Simon, with whom he had an affair before Pamela Mead's death, at her workplace. He told her his wife had died in a "mysterious freak accident" and that investigators were looking for Simon. He told her not to speak with them and asked if she recalled the telephone conversation wherein he told her he would be better off killing his wife and getting the insurance money. She responded that she did. He told her he did not. Mead then asked her if that was something she felt she would have to admit in court. She said it was. Simon felt intimidated by Mead during the conversation.
¶ 15 Additionally, an apparent discrepancy surfaced in Mead's alibi. Robert Elliot, who worked for Mead at Valley Ground Service, claimed that he had been working on the night Pamela Mead died, arriving at about 9:00 p.m. and leaving after 10:00 p.m., and that he did not see Mead or any other Valley Ground Service employees that night.
¶ 16 Pamela Mead's family filed a wrongful death action in federal court against Mead to obtain the proceeds of Pamela Mead's $250,000 life insurance policy. That trial resulted in a hung jury, and Mead and Pamela Mead's family reached a settlement.
¶ 17 Following the civil trial, Mead was charged with murder and criminal solicitation, the two charges to be tried together. Prior to trial, Mead filed a motion to sever the counts, which the trial court denied. Mead also requested that the trial court circulate a pre-trial questionnaire to potential jurors to determine if there was any potential bias or prejudice as a result of the "extensive pre-trial publicity" regarding both the case...
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