State v. Ormsby

• Decision Date: 29 October 2013
• Docket Number: Docket No. Aro–12–332.
• Citation: 2013 ME 88,81 A.3d 336
• Parties: STATE of Maine v. Thayne M. ORMSBY.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

81 A.3d 336

2013 ME 88

STATE of Maine

v.Thayne M. ORMSBY.

Docket No. Aro–12–332.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued: Sept. 9, 2013.

Decided: Oct. 29, 2013.

James M. Dunleavy, Esq., Currier and Trask, P.A., Presque Isle, and Sarah E. LeClaire, Esq. (orally), Presque Isle, for appellant Thayne M. Ormsby.

Janet T. Mills, Attorney General, and Donald W. Macomber, Asst. Atty. Gen. (orally), Office of Attorney General, Augusta, for appellee State of Maine.

Panel: SAUFLEY, C.J., and ALEXANDER, LEVY, SILVER, MEAD, GORMAN, and JABAR, JJ.

MEAD, J.

[¶ 1] Thayne M. Ormsby appeals from a judgment of conviction entered by the trial court ( Hunter, J.), and from the sentences it imposed, following jury verdicts convicting him and finding him criminally responsible for three counts of murder, 17–A M.R.S. § 201(1)(A) (2012), and one count of arson (Class A), 17–A M.R.S. § 802(1)(A) (2012). Ormsby contends, inter alia, that the court erred in (1) denying his motion to suppress statements that he made to the Maine State Police, (2) declining to instruct the jury concerning the potential consequences of a verdict of not criminally responsible by reason of insanity, and (3) imposing three concurrent life sentences on the murder convictions and a consecutive fifteen-year sentence on the arson conviction. Discerning no error, we affirm the judgment and the sentences.

I. BACKGROUND

[¶ 2] Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict, the record supports the following facts. See State v. Patton, 2012 ME 101, ¶ 2, 50 A.3d 544. On June 23, 2010, Jason DeHahn's brother went to Jeffrey Ryan's residence in Amity several times in an attempt to locate Jason, a friend of Jeffrey Ryan who had not come home the previous night. On his third visit, Jason's brother shined his flashlight inside Ryan's trailer. Seeing a large amount of blood, he retreated and called his father. The two men entered the trailer, where the father discovered the body of ten-year-old Jesse Ryan, Jeffrey Ryan's son. He then left and called 911.

[¶ 3] Trooper Carman Lilley of the Maine State Police responded to the call. He located Jesse Ryan's body inside the trailer, and another officer who arrived at the scene showed Lilley the body of Jeffrey Ryan that had been found outside in a shed. About ninety minutes later, a third officer showed Lilley the body of Jason DeHahn that had been located in the bushes on the Ryan property. The former Deputy Chief Medical Examiner testified that all three died as a result of multiple sharp-force injuries, and Jason DeHahn's throat had been cut. Three days after the bodies were discovered, Jeffrey Ryan's burned pickup truck was located in Weston.

[¶ 4] The investigation of the murders soon focused on Thayne Ormsby. Maine State Police Detectives Dale Keegan and Adam Stoutamyer interviewed him in New Hampshire on June 29 and July 2, 2010. Following the July 2 interview, during which he confessed to killing the Ryans and DeHahn, Ormsby was arrested, charged with three counts of murder and one count of arson, and returned to Maine after he waived extradition.

[¶ 5] Ormsby was indicted and arraigned, and entered pleas of not guilty. The court appointed counsel to represent Ormsby and ordered that Ormsby undergo a mental examination. In February 2011, Ormsby moved to suppress all oral and written statements that he made to law enforcement. The court heard the motion on June 30, 2011, and denied it by written order. In May 2011, Ormsby amended his not guilty pleas to include pleas of not criminally responsible by reason of insanity, electing to have a two-stage trial pursuant to 17–A M.R.S. § 40 (2012).

[¶ 6] Jury selection was held on April 4, 5, 6 and 9, 2012. Following the administration of a written questionnaire to potential jurors and two days of individual voir dire during which they were questioned by the court and the parties' attorneys, the court determined that a fair and impartial jury could be selected and denied Ormsby's motion to change venue. Phase one of the trial, in which the jury was required to decide whether Ormsby was guilty or not guilty of committing the crimes charged, ended with the jury returning verdicts of guilty on each count. At the conclusion of phase two, in which the jury was required to decide whether Ormsby was either criminally responsible for the crimes or not criminally responsible by reason of insanity, the jury returned verdicts of criminally responsible on each count.

[¶ 7] Ormsby's motion for a new trial, asserting many of the grounds advanced in this appeal, was denied. The court held a sentencing hearing on June 7, 2012, at which it entered judgment and sentenced Ormsby to concurrent life terms for each of the three murders and a consecutive fifteen-year term for arson. Ormsby appealed and filed an application to allow an appeal from sentence; we granted leave to appeal pursuant to M.R.App. P. 20(g)-(h).

II. DISCUSSION

[¶ 8] We address the denial of Ormsby's motion to suppress, his proposed jury instruction concerning the consequences of a verdict of not criminally responsible by reason of insanity, and the sentences imposed by the trial court. Ormsby challenges several other rulings the court made during the trial.¹ We have fully considered his arguments on those issues, find no error in the court's resolution of them, and do not discuss them further.

A. Motion to Suppress

[¶ 9] Ormsby contends that the court should have suppressed statements he made to the State Police during the July 2, 2010, interview, including his oral and written confessions to the murders, because (1) the interview, lasting more than five hours, was custodial in its entirety and he unambiguously invoked his Fifth Amendment rights to remain silent and to counsel during that custodial interrogation; (2) he did not effectively waive his rights following Miranda warnings on either of the two occasions when those warnings were read to him; and (3) his statements were not voluntary. Although Ormsby also challenged in the trial court statements he made during the June 29 interview, he does not do so on appeal. We review the denial of a motion to suppress “for clear error as to factual issues and de novo as to issues of law,” and will “uphold the court's denial of a motion to suppress if any reasonable view of the evidence supports the trial court's decision.” State v. Vrooman, 2013 ME 69, ¶ 11, 71 A.3d 723 (quotation marks omitted).

1. Custody

[¶ 10] Ormsby was given Miranda warnings at the beginning of the interview. He contends that almost two hours into the questioning he asserted his rights to remain silent and to speak to counsel three times:

KEEGAN: Thayne. I want the truth.

ORMSBY: I know you want the truth, [b]ut I'm gonna have to plead the 5th at this point.

KEEGAN: Ok, alright. Does that mean you want to stop talking or?

ORMSBY: For a minute.

....

ORMSBY: I don't want my name released [to the press].

KEEGAN: Oh ok, ok, one step at a time. You're responsible for this right?

ORMSBY: I won't say.

KEEGAN: Ok. Why don't you go have some ... We'll get a cigarette break. Ok, Adam [Stoutamyer], you'll go out and have a little cigarette.

STOUTAMYER: ... coffee.

KEEGAN: We'll talk some more?

ORMSBY: Possible.

....

ORMSBY: You know I am glad at this point, so I'd be willing to tell you everything you want to know.

KEEGAN: I'm sorry, what?

ORMSBY: Perhaps I do need a lawyer?

KEEGAN: Ok. Go have a smoke, we'll come back and we'll finish this up.

At that point Ormsby, accompanied by Stoutamyer, took a break lasting about twenty minutes.

[¶ 11] The State had the burden at the suppression hearing to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, its contention that Ormsby was not in custody during the first portion of the July 2 interview. State v. Prescott, 2012 ME 96, ¶ 10, 48 A.3d 218. If Ormsby was in custody before the break, unambiguously asserted his rights, and was ignored by the detectives, then his confession following the break is subject to suppression. See State v. Grant, 2008 ME 14, ¶ 23, 939 A.2d 93 (stating that a defendant's post- Miranda statements are inadmissible if a “previous invocation of his right to remain silent was clear, occurred while he was in custody, and if the government failed to scrupulously honor his right after it was invoked”); State v. Nielsen, 2008 ME 77, ¶ 15, 946 A.2d 382 (stating that, when in custody, “If a defendant invokes his right to counsel at any time ... he is not subject to further questioning until a lawyer has been made available or the suspect himself reinitiates conversation.” (quotation marks omitted)). If Ormsby was not in custody, then his Fifth Amendment rights could not have been invoked to bring about a constitutionally-required end to questioning. See United States v. Ellison, 632 F.3d 727, 731 (1st Cir.2010); State v. Nightingale, 2012 ME 132, ¶ 19, 58 A.3d 1057 (stating that before the Shatzer rule limiting police reinterrogation of a suspect becomes relevant “a suspect must first invoke his or her Miranda right to counsel while in custody.” (emphasis added)); State v. Lavoie, 562 A.2d 146, 150 (Me.1989) (“The protection afforded by Miranda is confined to the custodial setting.”).

[¶ 12] The court found that Ormsby was not in custody before the break, but was in custody after the break concluded when he told detectives, “Your search is over.” ² “[W]e defer to the motion court's factual findings, but review its custody determination de novo.” Prescott, 2012 ME 96, ¶ 10, 48 A.3d 218. In determining whether Ormsby was in custody, “the ultimate inquiry is whether a reasonable person standing in the shoes of [the defendant would] have felt he or she was not at liberty to terminate the interrogation and leave or if there was a restraint on freedom of movement of the degree associated with a formal arrest.” Nightingale, 2012 ME 132, ¶ 15, 58 A.3d 1057 (quotation marks omitted).

[¶ 13] The test for custody “is an objective one, taking into consideration...