State v. Mulamba
| Decision Date | 09 June 2015 |
| Docket Number | No. 31314-0-III,31314-0-III |
| Court | Court of Appeals of Washington |
| Parties | STATE OF WASHINGTON, Respondent, v. REUBEN D. MULAMBA, Appellant. |
FEARING, J. — Reuben Denis Mulamba (Denis) challenges his convictions for abusing the children of his girlfriend. He principally argues that the trial court impermissibly allowed evidence under the Washington child hearsay statute, RCW 9A.44.120. Since we find any error to be harmless, we affirm.
Ashley Eli begat two children: S.E., a boy born on April 15, 2003, and J.R., a girl born on February 24, 2007. In the summer of 2011, Eli and the two children lived in Moses Lake.
In August 2011, Ashley Eli met Denis Mulamba while smoking outside a bar inMoses Lake. By the end of the night, Eli and Mulamba exchanged phone numbers. Mulamba attended Central Washington University in Ellensburg, but returned to Moses Lake on weekends to work at Golden Age, an adult care facility that his mother owned. Eli worked as a certified nurse assistant at a different adult care facility, the Blue Goose.
Ashley Eli and Denis Mulamba cultivated a close relationship. According to Eli: "We hung out like every day, even with my kids and he [Mulamba] was always real sweet" to both her and her children. Report of Proceedings (RP) at 124-25. In October 2011, Mulamba rented a two bedroom apartment in Ellensburg. Beginning in November 2011, Eli and J.R. stayed at Denis Mulamba's apartment in Ellensburg from Monday through Thursday, while S.E. stayed with his grandmother in Moses Lake, where S.E. attended school.
In December 2011, Ashley Eli and Denis Mulamba's relationship soured. Mulamba criticized Eli for a lack of discipline of her children. Eli's mother ceased caring for the children when Eli worked, and this situation angered Mulamba.
After Christmas 2011, the Blue Goose terminated Ashley Eli's employment. Eli and her children then moved indefinitely into Denis Mulamba's Ellensburg apartment. The two believed that, even if they stopped dating, they would remain best friends and housemates. Eli agreed to pay half the rent and half the power bill.
By early January, Ashley Eli had failed to gain employment in Ellensburg. Arguments between Eli and Denis Mulamba increased. Mulamba and Eli quarreledabout bills and Mulamba insisted he need not support Eli and her children. Mulamba complained about the noise of the children in his diminutive apartment. When Eli questioned Mulamba about his anger, Mulamba responded that he would be cheerful if Eli disciplined her children. Mulamba called Eli a "bad mom." RP at 138. S.E. was then eight years old, and J.R. was four.
On January 13, 2012, Ashley Eli and Denis Mulamba vociferously quarreled again about Eli's lack of discipline of her children. Either Mulamba dismissed Eli from his apartment or Eli voluntarily left. As Eli loaded her two children in her car, Mulamba scattered some of Eli's belongings outside. Mulamba then commandeered the keys to Eli's car and refused to allow her to leave. Police arrived, recovered Eli's keys, and Eli departed. Eli's shoes, her makeup, her important documents, her children's toys, and the children's clothing remained at Mulamba's apartment.
Within one day, Denis Mulamba telephoned Ashley Eli, apologized to her, and entreated her to return to his apartment. Eli returned, in part, because many of her possessions and the children's belongings remained at Mulamba's home. The arguments continued during the ensuing days.
In mid-January, J.R. wet the bed. Ashley Eli spanked J.R. for the accident. Mulamba loudly told Eli that the spanking "wasn't discipline." RP at 149. Mulamba, unaccompanied by Eli, removed J.R. to the garage, where neighbors could not hear his ensuing behavior toward J.R. Eli does not know all the measures Mulamba meted on J.R.in the garage. Eli appeared momentarily and noticed J.R. missing her shirt and performing wall sits. A wall sit consists of one resting her back against a wall and pretending to sit in a chair.
Beginning in mid-January 2012, Denis Mulamba assumed the punishment of J.R. and S.E. Mulamba beat the two children with a belt. Ashley Eli did not object, because her mother disciplined her siblings with a belt. Mulamba gradually increased the severity of the beatings, moving to a thicker belt, then an iron cord, and ending with a co-axle cable. If S.E. or J.R. failed to wall sit for a sufficient time during an episode of discipline, Mulamba whipped the child and insisted on more wall sitting. When riding from Moses Lake to Ellensburg one day, Mulamba threatened to pinch S.E, with pliers. Later that night, Mulamba threatened to cut J.R.'s hair and bum her with a clothes iron.
Ashley Eli enrolled S.E. in Ellensburg school the week of January 23. That same week, Eli noticed bruising on J.R.'s body. Eli demanded that Denis Mulamba cease his methods of discipline. Mulamba refused.
By late January 2012, a pattern replayed itself in the Ellensburg household whereby Denis Mulamba harshly disciplined a child, and Ashley Eli undertook to leave Mulamba's apartment. Eli packed belongings, and Mulamba grabbed the belongings from her. Mulamba seized Eli's keys, wallet, and telephone. Eli cried. Eli traversed to the front door to exit, and Mulamba blocked and locked the door. On several occasions, Mulamba embraced Eli and cooed; "[Y]ou know I am not a bad person." "I love you and I love your kids and I am not going to do this anymore." RP at 163. The two recurrently reconciled, and Eli remained with her children at Mulamba's home. On some occasions, Mulamba told Eli that if she reported his conduct to law enforcement, he would claim that she injured her children.
On January 29, 2012, J.R. vomited her dinner. J.R. undressed for a bath, at which time Ashley Eli comprehended the extent of her daughter's injuries. Braises blotched J.R.'s entire body. She suffered black wounds on her legs. Eli confronted Mulamba, who insisted that J.R. must be scratching herself. Eli knew that the wounds must be cleaned to avoid infection, but she could not bring herself to perform the task. Mulamba finished bathing J.R. and, after the bath, cleansed the wounds with hydrogen peroxide.
Later on January 29, Denis Mulamba threatened S.E. to either burn him or force him to stand outside until morning. Mulamba gave S.E. a choice between the two options. Mulamba retrieved a clothes iron but did not use it to burn S.E. He instead beat S.E. with the iron on the boy's back. Denis Mulamba told Ashley Eli that, if she were not a bad mother, he would not need to discipline the children.
On the night of January 29, Ashley Eli, with her two children, finally left Denis Mulamba's apartment. Eli wrapped her naked daughter in a sheet and laid her in the car. Young S.E. donned his shoes and left the home without a coat. Eli left without shoes and a coat. Eli rented a motel room. She carried J.R. into the room, because of snow. J.R.was too ill to walk.
On January 30, 2012, Ashley Eli met with Denis Mulamba at his apartment in the hopes of retrieving shoes, coats, and clothes for herself and her children. Mulamba had, in the meantime, called and apologized to Eli. When Eli arrived at the apartment with her children, Mulamba expressed anger because J.R. was not in a car seat. Eli had chosen to allow J.R. to sit in the car free from restraints because of her wounds. Mulamba threw Eli's and her children's belongings onto a sidewalk. Eli grabbed the possessions and stuffed them in her car.
Ashley Eli returned with her children to the same Ellensburg motel. She noticed an odor of sickness and infection on J.R. Eli paid for another night at the motel, and she asked the front desk if she could work to pay for a room. She explained that she had no place to live and her friend abused her children. The motel referred Eli to Aspen Women's Domestic Violence Shelter.
The next morning, Ashley Eli bought J.R. a nightgown, fluffy robe, and socks from a consignment store, fed her children, and went to Aspen Shelter. Eli explained to Aspen supervisor Kathleen Coppin that she and her children needed housing because her boyfriend beat the children. Eli refused to identify her boyfriend. Coppin summoned, by phone, Ellensburg Police Department Detective Tim Weed. Weed traveled to Aspen. After the adults discussed the situation, Coppin drove Eli, J.R., and S.E. to the police station for interviews.
At the Ellensburg police station, Ashley Eli again refused to identify her boyfriend. So, Detective Tim Weed interviewed S.E. The transcript for the interview reads, in part:
Clerk's Papers (CP) at 706. S.E. reported to Weed that he had earlier hit his head.
While Detective Weed interviewed S.E., Kathleen Coppin sat with J.R. at the police station. Coppin noticed that J.R. sat uncomfortably, whined painfully, and moved slowly. J.R. expressed that her stomach hurt and she wanted to lie on the floor. Coppin concluded J.R. needed hospital care. After Detective Weed ended his interview with S.E., Coppin drove Ashley Eli, J.R., and S.E. to Kittitas Valley Community Hospital's emergency room.
Nurse John Yoder first examined J.R. at the hospital. Yoder noticed bruising on J.R.'s left side and arm and stripes on her back. Yoder also smelled an aroma of dead flesh and infection. He raised J.R.'s nightgown and saw severe burns on the girl's legs. Yoder retrieved Dr. David Frick.
While the emergency room waited for the arrival of Dr. Frick, Erik Davis tended to S.E. As Davis...
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