State v. Sawyer

• Citation: 422 So.2d 95
• Decision Date: 18 October 1982
• Docket Number: No. 81-KA-1566,81-KA-1566
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Robert SAWYER.
• Court: Supreme Court of Louisiana

Page 95

422 So.2d 95

STATE of Louisiana v. Robert SAWYER.

No. 81-KA-1566.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

Oct. 18, 1982.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 24, 1982.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., John M. Mamoulides, Dist. Atty., Phillip J. Boudousque, Abbott J. Reeves, William C. Credo, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-appellee.

David Katner, George Escher, New Orleans, for defendant-appellant.

LEMMON, Justice.

This is an appeal from a conviction of first degree murder and a sentence of death. The principal issue on review of the guilt phase of the trial is the sufficiency of the evidence of aggravated arson as an essential element of the offense. R.S. 14:30. The principal issues on review of the penalty phase involve (1) admission into evidence of defendant's indictment for second degree murder in an unrelated incident and his subsequent plea to involuntary manslaughter, (2) the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the aggravating circumstances found by the jury, and (3) the prosecutor's closing argument.

Facts

A series of bizarre and frightful events, which led to the death of Fran Arwood, occurred at the residence where defendant was living with Cynthia Shano and Ms. Shano's two young sons. Ms. Arwood was divorced from Ms. Shano's stepbrother, but remained friendly with her and often helped her by taking care of the children. Defendant had lived with Ms. Shano in Texas for several months and had professed an intention to marry her.

On September 28, 1979, Ms. Arwood was staying with Ms. Shano and helping with the children while Ms. Shano's mother was in the hospital. Defendant and Ms. Shano went out for the evening. Defendant returned at about 7:00 o'clock the next morning with Charles Lane, whom defendant had apparently met in a barroom and had invited to the residence for more drinking and talking. ¹

Defendant and Lane continued their drinking while listening to records. At some time during the morning, Ms. Shano left to check on her hospitalized mother. When she returned, she noticed that Ms. Arwood was bleeding from her mouth. Defendant told Ms. Shano that he had struck Ms. Arwood after an argument in which he accused Ms. Arwood of giving some pills to one of the children.

The reasons behind the events that followed are difficult to discern accurately from the record and more difficult to comprehend. However, defendant does not vigorously contest the fact that Ms. Arwood in his presence was beaten, scalded with boiling water and burned with lighter fluid, or that the ferocity of the attack and the severity of the injuries caused her to die several weeks later without ever regaining consciousness. ²

After the original altercation during Ms. Shano's absence, defendant and Lane, for some unexplained reason, decided that Ms Arwood needed a bath. When she resisted, defendant struck her in the face with his fist, and both men pummeled her with repeated blows. Ms. Shano objected, but defendant locked the front door and retained the key, threatening to harm Ms. Shano if she interfered or ever revealed the incident.

Acting in concert, defendant and Lane dragged Ms. Arwood by the hair to the bathroom, stripped her naked, and literally kicked her into the bathtub, where she was subjected to dunking, scalding with hot water, and additional beatings with their fists. ³ A final effort by Ms. Arwood to resist the sadistic actions of her tormentors resulted in defendant's kicking her in the chest, causing her head to strike either the tub or an adjacent windowsill with such force as to render her unconscious. Although she did not regain consciousness, defendant and Lane continued to use her body as the object of their brutality.

Defendant and Lane dragged her from the bathroom into the living room, where they dropped her, face down, onto the floor. Defendant then beat her with a belt as she lay on the floor, while Lane kicked her. They then placed her on her back on a sofa bed in the living room. As Ms. Shano went to the bathroom, she overheard defendant say to Lane that he (defendant) would show Lane "just how cruel he (defendant) could be". When she reentered the living room, she was struck by the pungent smell of burning flesh. She then discovered that defendant had poured lighter fluid on Ms. Arwood's body (particularly on her torso and genital area) and had set the lighter fluid afire. ⁴

Then, displaying a callous disregard for the helpless (and mortally injured) victim, defendant and Lane continued to lounge about the residence listening to records and discussing the disposition of Ms. Arwood's body. Lane fell asleep next to the beaten and swollen body of the victim.

Shortly after noon, Ms. Shano's sister and nephew came to visit. When the nephew knocked insistently, defendant gave Ms. Shano the key to open the door, and she ran screaming to the safety of her relatives. Her excited ravings ("They've killed Fran and they're trying to kill me") were incomprehensible to her nephew and sister until they looked inside and saw the gruesome scene and Ms. Arwood's beaten and blistered body. They also saw defendant sitting with his feet propped up on the edge of the couch.

In the meantime, Ms. Shano called for police and emergency units. When the authorities arrived, they took Lane and defendant to jail, and rushed Ms. Arwood to a hospital, where she subsequently died.

The grand jury indicted both men for first degree murder. Lane was convicted in a separate trial and sentenced to life imprisonment. ⁵ Defendant was convicted and sentenced to death.

Review of Guilt Phase

Defendant contends the evidence was insufficient to establish the essential elements of first degree murder.

R.S. 14:30, defining first degree murder, at the time of the offense provided in pertinent part:

"First degree murder is the killing of a human being:

"(1) When the offender has specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm and is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of ... aggravated arson ...;"

Although defendant presented the testimony of laymen and psychiatrists regarding his allegedly intoxicated condition and its effect on his ability to form a specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm, the jury reasonably rejected the defense. There was ample evidence from the testimony of the arresting officer and Ms. Shano from which a rational juror could have found that defendant acted with specific intent, despite his excessive consumption of alcohol.

There was also ample evidence from which a rational juror could have concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant was engaged in the perpetration of aggravated arson. ⁶ His act of igniting a flammable liquid, after pouring it onto the bed sheet (a movable) and the body of a helpless human being, certainly created a foreseeable risk of endangering human life. (This act also evidenced the specific intent to inflict great bodily harm.) The resulting flames set fire to the sheet and produced severe burns on the victim's body. ⁷ Thus, the evidence was plainly sufficient to support the conviction. ⁸ See State v. Lane, above; Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99

S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Additional Facts in Penalty Phase

At the sentencing hearing, both the state and defendant offered additional evidence.

Over defense objection, the state called a deputy prosecutor from Arkansas to present documentary evidence establishing the circumstances of defendant's prior indictment for second degree murder in the killing of a four-year-old child and his eventual plea to involuntary manslaughter. The records also revealed that the trial court was presented with the facts of the incident before accepting defendant's plea of guilty to involuntary manslaughter and sentencing him to serve three years in prison. ⁹ Defendant was released on parole after one year and successfully completed his parole.

Defendant and his older sister both testified about defendant's unhappy childhood. Defendant's mother committed suicide shortly after the birth of defendant and a twin sister, when the older sister was only four years old. The circumstances forced the family to separate, and, according to defendant's sister, his father seemed to blame defendant for the family woes. He was extremely harsh and brutal with defendant. ¹⁰ As a child, defendant was faced with long hours of hard work on his father's Tennessee farm. He received few rewards or gratifications for his labors, either in terms of parental words or actions reflecting praise and affection, or in opportunities for traditional childhood activities.

Understandably, defendant began to run away at an early age. He was eventually institutionalized, but ran away from the state mental health facility. He lived with various relatives until he was about 17, when he left to begin a series of riverboat jobs.

Defendant also gave his version of the events leading to his prior conviction for involuntary manslaughter. In response to defendant's professions of accident and of love and affection for the child, the prosecutor cross-examined him about the cause of various injuries on the child's body and about a statement he gave to police admitting that he had whipped the child.

Despite the evidence offered in mitigation, the jury recommended the death penalty, relying on three aggravating circumstances: (1) that defendant was engaged in the commission of aggravated arson, (2) that the offense was committed in an especially cruel, atrocious and heinous manner, and (3) that defendant had previously been convicted of an unrelated murder.

Review of Penalty Phase

Because the jury recommended the death penalty, this court must review the record to determine that the prosecutor and the trial court adhered to the procedural protections outlined by the Legislature and that the sentence is not excessive. See Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976). In reviewing a...