State v. Murray

• Decision Date: 28 September 2021
• Docket Number: Docket: Pen-20-231
• Citation: 259 A.3d 1276,2021 ME 47
• Parties: STATE of Maine v. Christopher MURRAY
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

259 A.3d 1276

2021 ME 47

STATE of Maine

v.Christopher MURRAY

Docket: Pen-20-231

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued: July 14, 2021

Decided: September 28, 2021

Rory A. McNamara, Esq. (orally), Drake Law LLC, York, for appellant Christopher Murray

Aaron M. Frey, Attorney General, and Donald W. Macomber, Asst. Atty. Gen. (orally), Office of the Attorney General, Augusta, for appellee State of Maine

Panel: MEAD, GORMAN, JABAR, HUMPHREY, HORTON, and CONNORS, JJ.

JABAR, J.

[¶1] Christopher Murray appeals from a judgment of conviction of intentional or knowing murder, 17-A M.R.S. § 201(1)(A) (2021) ; elevated aggravated assault (Class A), 17-A M.R.S. § 208-B(1)(A) (2021) ; and robbery (Class A), 17-A M.R.S. § 651(1)(E) (2021) ; entered in the trial court (Penobscot County, Anderson, J. ) following a jury trial. Murray contends that the court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on the defense of duress. He also contends that the court abused its discretion by precluding his expert witness from expressing an opinion that it was "more likely than not" that the surviving victim was "confabulating" her memory when recalling what happened during the shootings that resulted in the criminal charges.¹ We affirm the judgment and sentence.

I. BACKGROUND

[¶2] Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict, the trial record supports the following facts. See State v. Patton , 2012 ME 101, ¶ 2, 50 A.3d 544.

[¶3] In December 2017, Murray was dating a woman named Alexis Locklear, whom he lived with in North Carolina. Tony Locklear, Alexis's father, lived and worked in Maine before moving in with Alexis and Murray in November 2017. Shortly after moving in with the couple, Tony asked Alexis to drive him to Maine so that he could retrieve money he supposedly hid in his home in East Millinocket. Murray joined Tony and Alexis for the trip. Shortly after the three arrived in East Millinocket on December 19, 2017, Tony called Wayne LaPierre to arrange to buy marijuana from him.

[¶4] Wayne and Diem LaPierre owned a house in Millinocket. They had several business ventures, including as caregivers under Maine's medical marijuana program. Wayne and Diem previously hired Tony to help with home renovations, and Tony sometimes bought marijuana from Wayne. Neither Wayne nor Diem knew Murray or Alexis.

[¶5] Tony arrived at Wayne's house at about 6:30 p.m. with Murray and Alexis. Upon arrival, while all three were still in the car, Alexis observed Tony pull a gun out of his pocket and give Murray a second gun, which Murray put in his front coat pocket.

[¶6] After going inside the home, according to Diem, the three guests began "acting very weirdly." Tony asked Wayne about the marijuana, and Wayne went to the basement of the house and came back with two buckets of marijuana. Around this time, Murray asked Wayne whether the house was equipped with a working video surveillance system; Wayne replied that it was not. Tony then yelled "now," and both he and Murray produced guns. Murray pointed his gun at Wayne, made him lie on his stomach, and handcuffed his hands behind his back. Tony bound Diem's hands behind her back with rope, took rings off her fingers, and demanded money. Diem responded that her wallet was in her car in the driveway, at which point Tony ordered Alexis to go out and get the wallet. After Alexis brought the wallet inside, Tony ordered her to take the buckets of marijuana out to their car. As she was getting the second bucket, Alexis heard Tony tell Diem that Tony and Murray were going to have to shoot Diem and Wayne. When Wayne asked why, Tony replied that it was because Diem and Wayne were greedy. After that, Alexis went outside and remained there.

[¶7] Tony and Murray took Diem and Wayne to Wayne's bedroom, which was in the basement of the house, and made them sit against the wall. Tony and Murray traded guns so that Murray had the larger gun. Murray placed a pillow over Diem's head and shot her once. Diem fell onto Wayne. She then heard "them" shoot Wayne twice. Diem pretended to die, but "they" came back and shot Diem a second time in the head and she lost consciousness. After regaining consciousness, Diem untied the rope binding her hands and crawled upstairs, where she called 9-1-1.

[¶8] When the police arrived, Wayne was alive but had apparent gunshot wounds to the head. Wayne and Diem were transported to the hospital. Four days later, Wayne died in the hospital due to the gunshot wounds. Diem had two gunshot wounds to her head. One of the wounds caused traumatic injury to the left parietal region of her brain. The other wound led to Diem's left eye being surgically removed. Two bullet fragments remain in Diem's head.

[¶9] On December 20, 2017, when interviewed at the hospital by a Maine State Police detective, Diem told the detective that Tony and two other people, whom she later identified as Alexis and Murray, came to her house. Diem told the detective that Murray shot her and Wayne. Murray, Tony, and Alexis were apprehended in North Carolina and extradited to Maine.

II. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

[¶10] On December 26, 2017, Murray was charged by complaint with intentional or knowing murder, in violation of 17-A M.R.S. § 201(1)(A), and of elevated aggravated assault, in violation of 17-A M.R.S. § 208-B(1)(A). The Penobscot County grand jury indicted Murray on both counts, as well as one count of robbery, in violation of 17-A M.R.S. § 651(1)(E). On April 3, 2018, Murray pleaded not guilty to all charges at his arraignment.² The court held a five-day jury trial from January 28 to February 1, 2019.

[¶11] Prior to trial, the State filed a motion in limine to exclude all testimony from a psychological expert Murray planned to call to discuss the concept of "confabulation" in relation to Diem's testimony.³ The court denied the motion and allowed all of the expert's testimony except for his conclusion that Diem was likely confabulating. During a voir dire examination at trial, as a proffer from Murray, the expert did testify that it was "more likely than not" that Diem's recollection of the shooting was a product of confabulation. Upon the State's objection to the expert's entire testimony, the court excluded only this opinion from being presented in front of the jury. The court stated that it excluded this statement because (1) it related to witness credibility; (2) the court was troubled by the expert's conclusion that it was "more likely than not" that Diem was confabulating despite his admission that "most clinical neuropsychologists ... wouldn't be necessarily talking about confabulation"; and (3) the expert would be acting as a thirteenth juror, employing the same type of analyses that the jurors would be using as fact finders.

[¶12] In front of the jury, Murray's expert testified that inconsistencies between Diem's testimony and her statements to the 9-1-1 operator indicate that Diem might have gaps in her memory of the incident. The expert also testified that people who have suffered traumatic brain injury

can assimilate information reported to them by others, sometimes even doing so subconsciously, such that they are themselves unaware that their "recollections" are not based on their own perceptions.

[¶13] At the end of the trial, Murray asked for a jury instruction on the defense of duress. He argued that the defense of duress applies to accomplice murder and to the other offenses on which he was tried.⁴

[¶14] Murray based his duress argument on inconsistencies between an interview Alexis gave to Maine State Police eight days after the shooting in December 2017 and her testimony at trial. During the interview, which was entered into evidence and summarized by the State at trial, Alexis told police that Tony "told [Murray] that he had to go in there with him," gave him a gun, and said Murray "had to do it." Alexis then said to police that Tony told her that she would not be able to marry Murray "because he wasn't going to walk out of there alive" if he did not help Tony.

[¶15] At trial, however, after the State offered Alexis a plea deal, Alexis testified that, because she wanted to prevent Murray from getting in trouble, she lied to police during the December 2017 interview when she said her father threatened Murray into participating. Despite her testimony at trial, Murray argued that Alexis's December 2017 statements showed that Murray was threatened into committing the crime by Tony.

[¶16] The court denied the jury instruction and determined that the evidence did not generate the defense of duress because, while duress might have been generated as to Alexis herself, "there's really no evidence, in [the court's] opinion, that would show that Mr. Murray was participating in something because he was being threatened to do so by [Tony]." Murray did not testify at trial.

[¶17] On February 1, 2019, the jury returned its verdict, convicting Murray of intentional murder, elevated aggravated assault, and robbery.⁵

[¶18] On July 31, 2020, the court (Anderson, J .) imposed a term of life imprisonment on the murder charge and concurrent thirty-year terms of imprisonment on the charges of elevated aggravated assault and robbery. The court explained that it was imposing a life sentence because it found three Shortsleeves factors present: premeditation, commission of a homicide during the course of another crime, and unusual cruelty. On August 21, 2020, Murray filed a notice of appeal from the conviction pursuant to M.R. App. P. 2(b)(1) and 15 M.R.S. § 2115 (2021) and an application to appeal his sentence pursuant to M.R. App. P. 20 and 15 M.R.S. § 2151 (2021). The Sentence Review Panel issued an order granting the application for leave to appeal the sentence. State v. Murray , No. SRP-20-232 (Me. Sent. Rev. Panel Oct. 27, 2020).

III. DISCUSSION

A. Jury Instruction on Duress

[¶19] Murray contends that the trial court erred by denying his request for a jury instruction on duress as it relates to accomplice liability. In reviewing...