State v. Motyka

• Citation: 893 A.2d 267
• Decision Date: 21 March 2006
• Docket Number: No. 2002-403-C.A.,2002-403-C.A.
• Parties: STATE v. Jeremy M. MOTYKA.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

893 A.2d 267

STATE v. Jeremy M. MOTYKA.

No. 2002-403-C.A.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

March 21, 2006.

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Lauren Sandler Zurier, Esq., Providence, for Plaintiff.

Paula Rosin, Esq., Providence, for Defendant.

Present: WILLIAMS, C.J., GOLDBERG, FLAHERTY, and ROBINSON, JJ.

OPINION

Justice ROBINSON for the Court.

The defendant, Jeremy M. Motyka, appeals from a jury verdict finding him guilty of the first-degree murder of and first-degree sexual assault upon Angela Spence-Shaw. After he was convicted, the defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole on the murder charge and to a concurrent life sentence on the sexual assault charge.

On appeal, defendant challenges various rulings of the trial justice. First, defendant contends that the trial justice erred when she made pretrial discovery rulings which precluded defendant from obtaining certain information related to the DNA testing that had been conducted by a private laboratory and which conditioned the prosecution's duty to disclose other DNA-related information on a reciprocal duty that would require defendant to disclose to the prosecution the identity of the DNA expert who was serving as a consultant to the defense. Second, defendant argues that the trial justice abused her discretion when she refused to allow the defense to explore certain areas on cross-examination on the grounds that such questioning would go beyond the scope of the direct examination of the witness. Third, defendant argues that the trial justice erred in refusing to instruct the jury on the lesser-included offense of voluntary manslaughter due to diminished capacity. Fourth, defendant contends that a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole was not warranted in this case.

For the reasons set forth herein, we affirm both the judgment of conviction and the sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Facts and Travel

At some point during the early morning hours of Sunday, May 30, 1999,¹ sixty-six-year-old Angela Spence-Shaw was brutally murdered in her Little Compton home. When Ms. Spence-Shaw failed to show up for work later that Sunday morning, a friend, Sally Craig, went to her home to check on her. Upon her arrival, Ms. Craig found Ms. Spence-Shaw's severely beaten and lifeless body lying in the upstairs bathtub. In addition to Ms. Spence-Shaw's body, there was also an electric hairdryer in the bathtub, which Ms. Craig unplugged. It was later determined that, in addition to having been savagely beaten, Ms. Spence-Shaw had also been raped before she died. The medical examiner attributed her death to drowning in the bath water as well as to the substantial blunt force trauma that she had suffered.

Ms. Spence-Shaw's home did not appear to have been ransacked. In fact, both her wallet and the cash that she kept in a ceramic box on her bedroom dresser (amounting to more than $500) remained untouched. Similarly, Ms. Spence-Shaw's jewelry had also been left undisturbed by her attacker. Moreover, there were no signs of forced entry. By contrast, however, in Ms. Spence-Shaw's bedroom, which adjoined the bathroom where her body was discovered, there were numerous indicia of the violent attack that had occurred. There were puddles of blood on both the bed and the floor, and there were bloodstains on the carpet leading into the bathroom. There was also blood on the bedroom furniture and walls, especially on the wall behind the bed and on the wall and doorframe leading into the bathroom. The bed had been moved away from the wall and stripped of linens, and a bloodstained pillow and pillowcase were found on the floor nearby.

When the victim was found, she had on only a pink night shirt, and she was wearing nothing below the waist. According to the testimony of one of the first responders, an emergency medical technician who was an acquaintance of the victim, Ms. Spence-Shaw was so severely beaten that she was unrecognizable. Doctor Elizabeth Laposata, chief medical examiner for the State of Rhode Island, who performed the autopsy on Ms. Spence-Shaw's body, gave similar testimony at trial about the extensive injuries that the victim suffered. Doctor Laposata testified about both the horrific external injuries which were visible on the victim's body and the numerous internal injuries that her assailant inflicted upon her. In addition, Dr. Laposata testified about injuries to the victim's genital area which were consistent with forced sexual intercourse. According to the testimony of Dr. Laposata, those injuries to the genital area were inflicted while Ms. Spence-Shaw was still alive. Doctor Laposata further testified that Ms. Spence-Shaw was still alive when she was placed underwater in the bathtub following her brutal beating and rape. Moreover, Dr. Laposata testified that, given the nature of Ms. Spence-Shaw's injuries, her pathways to perceive pain remained intact throughout the attack, thus allowing her to experience the significant amount of pain that her various injuries would have caused.

During the autopsy, Dr. Laposata used a sexual assault evidence collection kit to swab the decedent's mouth, vagina, and rectum. The rape kit (including the oral, vaginal, and rectal swabs) was then delivered to the Serology Laboratory within the Rhode Island Department of Health. The Serology Laboratory determined that seminal fluid and sperm cells were present in both the vagina and the rectum of the decedent.

At the time of her murder, Ms. Spence-Shaw was in the process of renovating her home. On Friday, May 28, 1999, just two days before her vicious slaying, a construction crew had broken through a wall of her house as part of the process of connecting an addition to the existing house; this left her home temporarily unsecured. Anyone who knew about that temporary opening in the wall of the house could have easily entered Ms. Spence-Shaw's home. The defendant, a carpenter, was part of the three-man crew which had broken through the wall of Ms. Spence-Shaw's home on May 28.

At the time of Ms. Spence-Shaw's murder, defendant had been living in Fall River, Massachusetts, with his girlfriend, Patricia Rogalin, their young son, and other members of Ms. Rogalin's family. Ms. Rogalin testified at trial that on Friday, May 28, she had traveled to Falmouth on Cape Cod with her son and the other family members who lived with them in order to spend Memorial Day weekend with her parents. The defendant remained alone in the Fall River home, telling Ms. Rogalin that he did not want to go to Cape Cod because of the holiday traffic.²

According to Ms. Rogalin's testimony, after defendant arrived home from work on Saturday, May 29, she spoke with him by telephone numerous times. She testified that these conversations began in the late afternoon and continued intermittently throughout the evening, with their last phone conversation ending around 9:30 or 10:00 p.m.³ Ms. Rogalin further testified that she and defendant argued throughout these phone calls and that his demeanor was very hostile. Moreover, it appeared to Ms. Rogalin that defendant had been drinking, although she testified that he spoke coherently enough for her to be able to understand what he was saying.

At trial, Kelly Stokes, a seventeen-year-old neighbor of defendant and Ms. Rogalin in Fall River, testified that on that Saturday night defendant was in a neighbor's yard socializing with her and some of her friends until about 1:00 or 1:30 a.m. Ms. Stokes testified that defendant was drinking rum and beer, which he shared with the teenagers. She also testified that, before defendant arrived, she and her friends had been smoking marijuana and that defendant asked them whether they had any more of the drug, which they did not. She testified that one of her friends and defendant then made some phone calls to try to acquire some more marijuana. Ms. Stokes further testified that, as she was walking home after the gathering in the yard had broken up, defendant asked her to go with him, but she declined.

On Sunday morning, May 30, at approximately 8:30 a.m., defendant called Ms. Rogalin and unexpectedly announced that he would be driving down to Cape Cod. According to Ms. Rogalin's testimony, when defendant arrived in Falmouth between 9:30 and 10:00 a.m., he vomited and then proceeded to remain in bed all day sleeping. Ms. Rogalin further testified that defendant told her that he had stayed home all Saturday night drinking.

The defendant and Ms. Rogalin left Falmouth for Fall River around 8:30 the next morning. Soon after the couple had returned home, the Rhode Island State Police arrived at their home to inform defendant that they were investigating the homicide of Ms. Spence-Shaw and to inquire about his whereabouts on May 29 and 30. According to the testimony of Detective Sergeant Stephen Bannon, a member of the State Police Major Crimes Unit who had been assigned to work on the investigation of Angela Spence-Shaw's murder, defendant told the police that he had worked on Saturday until about 3 p.m. and then had gone home, where he drank beer. The defendant told the police that he had remained home all night, leaving only to socialize with some teenagers at a neighbor's house until about midnight. The defendant also told the police that, after leaving the teenagers, he called Chris Taylor, his friend and former coworker, before falling asleep for the night. According to the testimony of Ms. Rogalin, the police also questioned her about her whereabouts during the course of the weekend. Ms. Rogalin further testified that, after the police left, defendant appeared to be very interested in what she had said to them.

Just a few days later, on June 3, Detective Bannon went to the job site where defendant was working to question him for a second time. According to the testimony of Detective Bannon, defendant at that time...