State v. Sattler

• Citation: 1998 MT 57,956 P.2d 54,55 St.Rep. 230
• Decision Date: 11 March 1998
• Docket Number: Nos. 96-285,96-305,s. 96-285
• Parties: STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Rodney Joseph SATTLER, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Montana

Page 54

956 P.2d 54

1998 MT 57

STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Rodney Joseph SATTLER, Defendant and Appellant.

Nos. 96-285, 96-305.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Argued Sept. 9, 1997.

Submitted Nov. 4, 1997.

Decided March 11, 1998.

Edmund F. Sheehy, Jr. (argued); Cannon & Sheehy, Helena, for Defendant and Appellant.

Joseph P. Mazurek, Attorney General; Jennifer Anders (argued), John P. Connor Jr., Assistant Attorneys General, Helena, Deborah Kim Christopher; Lake County Attorney, Polson, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

GRAY, Justice.

¶1 Rodney Joseph Sattler (Sattler) appeals from the judgment and death sentence entered by the Twentieth Judicial District Court, Lake County, on a jury verdict finding him guilty of the offense of deliberate homicide. Sattler raises both trial-related and death penalty-related issues and, pursuant to § 46-18-308, MCA, his appeal is consolidated with this Court's automatic review of a death penalty case. We affirm.

¶2 We address the following issues:

¶3 1. Did the District Court abuse its discretion by limiting Sattler's questioning of prospective jurors during voir dire?

¶4 2. Did the District Court abuse its discretion by refusing to allow Sattler to inquire into the reason the victim had been at the Pine Hills youth correctional facility?

¶5 3. Was there sufficient evidence to support the conviction?

¶6 4. Did the District Court commit reversible error in analyzing aggravating or mitigating circumstances?

¶7 5. Was the death sentence imposed under the influence of passion, prejudice or any other arbitrary factor?

¶8 6. Is the death sentence imposed disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases?

¶9 7. Are the District Court's findings regarding the existence of the aggravating circumstance set forth in § 46-18-303(2), MCA, and the nonexistence of any mitigating circumstances supported by the evidence?

BACKGROUND

¶10 On May 2, 1995, the State of Montana (State) charged Sattler by information with committing the offense of deliberate homicide in violation of § 45-5-102(1)(a), MCA. The facts alleged in support of the charge were that, on or about April 20, 1995 ¶11 The case was tried to a jury in Powell County in March of 1996. The undisputed evidence was that the altercation between Sattler and Martinson which resulted in Martinson's death occurred shortly before midnight on April 20, 1995, in Cell 1 of the Jail's Cell Block A and that Sattler inflicted a minimum of six blows to Martinson's head and neck with a metal bar which had affixed the seat to an exercise bicycle located in that cell.

Sattler purposely or knowingly caused the death of Raymond Carl Martinson (Martinson) by beating him to death with a blunt instrument. Both were incarcerated in the Lake County Jail (Jail) at the time of the charged offense. Sattler had been convicted of deliberate homicide in 1987 and incarcerated in the Montana State Prison (MSP); he subsequently was moved to the Swan River Correctional Training Center (Swan River). At the time of the incident on which the deliberate homicide charge in this case was based, Sattler was being held in the Jail as the result of an attempted deliberate homicide committed by him at Swan River. Sattler pleaded not guilty to the charge in the present case and gave notice of his intent to rely on the affirmative defense of justifiable use of force, commonly called self defense.

¶12 Each of the four cells in Cell Block A contained bunks and a combination sink and toilet. Cell 1 did not house any inmates, but was used as a common bathroom and exercise room by the inmates. Cell 2 housed five inmates, including Sattler, Martinson, and two inmates who testified for the State at trial. Cells 3 and 4 housed two and five inmates, respectively. The remainder of Cell Block A was composed of a common area containing a main room and a shower. Except during the period from approximately midnight to 6:00 a.m. each day, during which time the inmates were locked in their cells, inmates frequently sat at two picnic tables in the main room and watched television, played cards and the like.

¶13 According to the evidence presented by the State, jailer Luc Mathias (Mathias)checked on the inmates in Cell Block A at around 11:20 p.m. on April 20, 1995, and saw that a few of them were watching television in the main room; everything was quiet and seemed normal. About 20 minutes later, Darlene Healy (Healy), a dispatcher whose responsibilities included monitoring a surveillance and intercom system at the Jail, noticed Sattler pacing back and forth in the main room of Cell Block A. She did not see any other inmates in the main room at that time. Approximately 15 minutes later, someone pressed the intercom button in Cell Block A. When Healy pressed the button which allowed her to communicate with the caller and asked what the caller needed, the response was "Man down." "Man down" was repeated. Healy advised Mathias of the message and called Lake County Deputy Sheriff David Alexander (Alexander). She continued to monitor the surveillance and intercom system; she did not see anything unusual, but thought she could hear someone trying to breathe.

¶14 Mathias went to the catwalk in front of the cell block, observed feet protruding from Cell 1, locked down all of the inmates and entered Cell Block A. He saw Martinson lying on his back in Cell 1. Martinson's head was under the bunk opposite the door to the cell; he was lying in a lot of blood but was still alive. Mathias also noticed a bloody metal bar lying across the sink and the exercise bicycle. Mathias left the cell block and directed Healy to call an ambulance.

¶15 Alexander arrived, together with emergency personnel who also noticed that Martinson's head was approximately three to four inches under the bunk. Martinson was transported to the local hospital and died there less than an hour later.

¶16 Inmate Dale Tammen (Tammen) testified that a number of inmates, including himself and Sattler, were watching television at the picnic tables shortly before midnight on April 20, 1995. Martinson was there on and off. Tammen heard a "loud thump" from Cell 1, turned, and saw Martinson on the floor of Cell 1 slumped against the exercise bicycle with his legs facing back toward the bunks; Martinson appeared to be unconscious and Sattler was standing over him looking down. Tammen noticed a large wound in the back of Martinson's head, and possibly another next to it. He saw Sattler ¶17 Tammen went briefly to his own cell, Cell 2, and then followed the other inmates to Cell 4, the cell farthest away from Cell 1. He heard a series of approximately five or six more "thumps" in rapid succession over a three- to five-second period. Soon thereafter, Sattler came to Cell 4 and directed the inmates to go to their cells. Sattler returned to the main room and began pacing, then went to Cell 2, laid down on his bunk and started reading a book. After borrowing a shirt from another inmate, Sattler took off his own shirt and wiped his feet with it. He then tore up his shirt and flushed it down the toilet; Tammen did not observe any injuries on Sattler when he changed shirts. After Sattler said it was okay to do so, Tammen pressed the intercom button and reported that there was a "man down." According to Tammen, Sattler asked if any of the inmates had seen anything and if anyone was going to betray him.

spin Martinson around and lay him flat on the floor.

¶18 While not identical, the testimony of inmate Jonathan Nunn (Nunn) largely corroborated Tammen's version of the events at issue. He heard loud banging noises coming from Cell 1 which sounded to him like metal on metal. Similarly, inmate Leslie Butler(Butler) heard "thumping" noises while showering which sounded like "metal hitting metal." On returning to his cell, Butler suspected something was wrong because Sattler was alone in the main room of Cell Block A.

¶19 Inmate Jody Law (Law) testified that the seat had been on the exercise bicycle in Cell 1 approximately an hour before the incident in question and was still there shortly before the incident when he went into Cell 1 to use the toilet. Sattler came into Cell 1 while Law was there and remained in the cell when Law returned to the main room. Upon his return to the picnic tables, Law noticed that Sattler had left his glasses on the table; this was noteworthy, in Law's view, because Sattler "just never took [his glasses] off." Law did not see anyone else go into Cell 1 after he left Sattler there but, "maybe a couple minutes" later, he heard a "scuffle going on behind" which started with kind of a dull thumping sound and then started sounding "like taking a pipe and hitting it against metal ... or something." Law looked into Cell 1 momentarily and saw no one; he noticed only that the exercise bicycle moved a little bit. He then saw Sattler come out of Cell 1, wiping his hands off on his shirt. Sattler went to Cell 2, then came to Cell 4, where the other inmates were gathered, and said only "Has anybody got a problem with that?" Like other inmates, Law could hear someone gasping for breath in Cell 1 while Sattler returned to the main room to pace.

¶20 Inmates described Sattler as intimidating, unpredictable, temperamental and the "boss" of the cell block. He was bigger than the other inmates. Martinson, on the other hand, was described as a smaller, nonaggressive "happy go lucky kind of guy," who was quiet, wimpy, naive and a pest. Sattler apparently did not like Martinson very much and frequently would slap Martinson's bunk to frighten him.

¶21 According to inmate Shannon Swimmer (Swimmer), Sattler's attitude had undergone a change for the worse several weeks before Martinson's death when Sattler learned he would be receiving a significant sentence on the attempted deliberate homicide offense which resulted in his placement at the Jail. Indeed, he and Sattler devised a plan to escape from the Jail and...