State v. Porterfield

• Decision Date: 19 January 1988
• Citation: 746 S.W.2d 441,108 S.Ct. 1756
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee, Appellee, v. Sidney PORTERFIELD and Gaile K. Owens, Appellants.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Page 441

746 S.W.2d 441

STATE of Tennessee, Appellee, v. Sidney PORTERFIELD and Gaile K. Owens, Appellants.

Supreme Court of Tennessee at Jackson.

Jan. 19, 1988.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 29, 1988.

Certiorari Denied May 16, 1988.

See 108 S.Ct. 1756.

W. Mark Ward, Asst. Shelby County Public Defender, Memphis, for Sidney Porterfield.

Brett Stein, James O. Marty, Memphis, for Gaile K. Owens.

W.J. Michael Cody, Atty. Gen. & Reporter, Norma Crippen Ballard, Asst. Atty. Gen., Nashville, for the State.

OPINION

COOPER, Justice.

This is a direct appeal from the sentences of death imposed on the defendants, Sidney Porterfield and Gaile K. Owens, for the killing of Mrs. Owens' husband, Ronald Owens. The defendant, Sidney Porterfield was convicted of murder in the first degree. The defendant, Gaile K. Owens, was convicted of accessory before the fact, to wit: murder in the first degree.

The defendants question the sufficiency of the evidence, rulings by the trial court on pre-trial motions, on voir dire, the admission of evidence, the argument to the jury by the state, and the court's instructions to the jury. The defendants also insist that the sentencing provisions of the Tennessee Death Penalty Act, T.C.A. § 39-2-203, are unconstitutional.

After consideration of the several issues and of the entire record, we are of the opinion that no reversible error was committed in either the guilt or sentencing phase of the trial, that the verdicts and sentences are sustained by the evidence, and that the sentences of death under the circumstances of this case are in no way arbitrary or disproportionate. See State v. Harbison, 704 S.W.2d 314 (Tenn.1986); State v. Austin, 618 S.W.2d 738 (Tenn.1981); State v. Groseclose, 615 S.W.2d 142 (Tenn.1981).

There is little controversy concerning the material facts. The evidence shows that over a period of months, Mrs. Owens solicited several men to kill her husband. One of these men was Sidney Porterfield. She met with him on at least three occasions, the last being at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 17, 1985. At that time, she told him that her husband would either be home alone that night or would be at the church playing basketball.

That evening Mr. and Mrs. Owens and their two sons attended evening church services. Afterwards, when Mr. Owens remained at church to play basketball, the boys asked, as they usually did, to stay with their father. Mrs. Owens refused their request and took them to a restaurant for dinner and then to the home of Mrs. Owens' sister, where they stayed until approximately 10:30 p.m. When they arrived home at about 11:00 p.m. Mr. Owens' automobile was in the driveway. The doors were open, the interior light was on and Mr. Owens' coat and tie were on the seat. They found the back door to the house partially open, and the keys in the lock. There were signs of a struggle in the kitchen and blood was splattered on the wall and floor. Mr. Owens was found in the den unconscious, his head covered with blood. Mr. Owens died some six hours later from multiple blows to his head.

The autopsy revealed that Mr. Owens had been struck at least twenty-one times with a blunt instrument, described by the forensic pathologist as a long, striated cylinder such as a tire iron. The blows had driven his face into the floor, crushed his skull and driven bone fragments into his brain. Mr. Owens also had sustained extensive injuries to his hands and strands of hair between his fingers indicated he had been covering his head with his hands when he was beaten.

After the killing, George James, one of the men solicited by Mrs. Owens to kill her husband, contacted the police and told them of Mrs. Owens' offer. James then assisted the police by permitting them to record telephone conversations he had with Mrs. Owens. After one of the calls, James met Mrs. Owens in the Raleigh Springs Mall in Memphis. James was wearing a hidden body microphone, which was being monitored by police in a nearby automobile. Mrs. Owens paid James sixty dollars to keep quiet, telling him that it was all the money she had. She also stated that she had had her husband killed because of "bad marital problems." Mrs. Owens was placed under arrest at the conclusion of her meeting with Mr. James.

At first, Mrs. Owens claimed that she only had hired people to follow her husband and "to rough him up." She did admit paying out some $4,000 to $5,000 to various men for expenses. Later she confessed to offering three men $5,000 to $10,000 to kill her husband and to talking with a man known as "little Johnny" at 2:30 p.m. on the day of the murder about killing her husband. She had promised to pay him three or four days after the murder. When asked why, Mrs. Owens stated, "[W]e've just had a bad marriage over the years, and I just felt like he had, mentally I just felt like he had been cruel to me. There was very little physical violence."

The man who met Mrs. Owens on Sunday afternoon was identified by witnesses as Sidney Porterfield. A witness also placed Mr. Porterfield in the vicinity of the Owens' house a week before the killing.

Mr. Porterfield also made a statement to the police which was entered into evidence. According to Mr. Porterfield, he met with Mrs. Owens on three occasions to discuss plans for the killing of Mr. Owens, the last being at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 17, 1985. He stated that Mrs. Owens offered him $17,000 to kill her husband, and that he told her he would have to check out the situation. (Shortly after her husband's funeral Mrs. Owens had asked her father-in law for $17,000 "to pay some bills.") He further stated that he went to the Owens' house that evening at about 9:00 p.m. On leaving his automobile, he put a tire iron in his pocket in case he encountered a dog. Porterfield stated he was walking in the back yard of the Owens' house when Mr. Owens came home; that Mr. Owens would not accept his explanation that he was looking for a house, but informed him he was going to hold him until the police arrived; that Mr. Owens grabbed him by the arm and attempted to pull him into the house. According to Porterfield, Mr. Owens had a brief case in one hand and was grasping Porterfield with the other. (No attempt was made to explain how Mr. Owens, with his hands thus occupied, unlocked the door to the house.) Porterfield said he tried to break away and, when he was unsuccessful, struck Mr. Owens with the tire iron. The men were then in the kitchen. Mr. Owens threw his hand up for protection, but would not release Mr. Porterfield. Porterfield then continued to strike Mr. Owens with the tire iron, with the result that he did extensive damage to both of Mr. Owens' hands and to his head. On leaving the Owens' house. Mr. Porterfield threw the tire iron and the gloves he was wearing into a dumpster. They were never recovered.

Defendant Porterfield offered no evidence in his defense. Mrs. Owens presented the testimony of a neighbor, who testified that Mrs. Owens was almost hysterical after her husband was found. A funeral home employee also testified. He stated that a large balance was owing on Mr. Owens' funeral bill, presumably to show that Mrs. Owens did have large debts to pay after her husband's death as she had represented to her father-in-law in attempting to secure a loan.

Mr. Porterfield insists that the trial court erred in admitting codefendant Owens' out-of-court confession into evidence. Mr. Porterfield argues that the recitals in Owens' statement that she would have the money to pay Porterfield three to four days after the murder, that Porterfield told her "he had never been able to catch up with him [Mr. Owens]" and nothing had ever been right, and that she did give Porterfield a key to the house did not "interlock" with defendant Porterfield's confession, and their admission into evidence was a violation of the rule set forth in Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968).

In Bruton v. United States, supra, the court held that an inculpatory confession of a non-testifying codefendant should not have been admitted in a joint trial with the defendant, who had not confessed his participation in the crime. In Parker v. Randolph, 442 U.S. 62, 99 S.Ct. 2132, 60 L.Ed.2d 713 (1979), a plurality of the United States Supreme Court held that admission of interlocking confessions with proper limiting instructions conforms to the requirements of the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. Following this decision, this court held that where confessions of jointly tried codefendants are similar in material aspects there is no violation of the Bruton rule. But, where the confession of one nontestifying codefendant contradicts, repudiates or adds to material statements in the confession of the other nontestifying codefendant so as to expose him to an increased risk of conviction or an increase in the degree of the offense with correspondingly greater punishment, Bruton is violated. See, e.g., State v. King, 718 S.W.2d 241, 247 (Tenn.1986); State v. Elliott, 524 S.W.2d 473, 477-478 (Tenn.1975).

Recently, however, the United States Supreme Court abandoned the reasoning of the plurality in Parker regarding interlocking confessions and held in Cruz v. New York, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 1714, 95 L.Ed.2d 162 (1987), that where a nontestifying codefendant's confession incriminating the defendant is not directly admissible against the defendant, the Confrontation Clause bars its admission at their joint trial, even if the jury is instructed not to consider it against the defendant and even if the defendant's own confession is admitted against him. However, the defendant's confession may be considered at trial in assessing whether his codefendant's statements are supported by sufficient "indicia of reliability" to be directly admissible against him (assuming the "unavailability" of the codefendant) despite the lack of opportunity for cross-examination and may be considered on appeal...