State v. Smith
| Decision Date | 21 December 2018 |
| Docket Number | 117,424,Nos. 117,423 ,s. 117,423 |
| Citation | 432 P.3d 109 (Table) |
| Parties | STATE of Kansas, Appellee, v. Curtis A. SMITH, Appellant. |
| Court | Kansas Court of Appeals |
Peter Maharry, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, for appellant.
Matt J. Maloney, assistant district attorney, Marc Bennett, district attorney, and Derek Schmidt, attorney general, for appellee.
Before Malone, P.J., PIERRON, J., and BURGESS, S.J.
A jury convicted Curtis A. Smith of aggravated kidnapping, rape, aggravated battery, three counts of criminal threat, criminal damage to property, and violation of a protection order. The district court sentenced Smith to a total of 911 months of incarceration and ordered each sentence to run consecutively. Smith appeals. We affirm.
Smith met D.S. on the dating website Plenty of Fish in the spring of 2015. For their first date, D.S. picked Smith up at his grandmother's house. He took a large bag with him. They went to her apartment to hang out with her adult son and some friends. After the rest of the company had left, Smith asked to shower there. Smith spent that night at D.S.'s apartment and when she asked him to leave, he asked to stay a couple days because he had just returned to Wichita and was trying to figure out living arrangements. At first, they were good friends, but eventually they became involved in a romantic relationship.
As time went on, D.S. asked Smith a few times about his living arrangements and he always replied that he was working on it. Things began going downhill the longer Smith stayed. He took control of her car, money, and phone. He also became verbally abusive, calling her names and threatening to burn her alive and pimp her out on Back Page. D.S. testified, "Oh, everything was Back Page, everything was burn me alive, everything was I'm gonna check your temperature when you get home," which meant he was going to beat her. Smith was "always drunk" and grabbed D.S. several times. One time, she refused to go to the liquor store for him and he grabbed her and flung her on the bed. He told her, "You're lucky I'm not gonna go full fledge." It was easier for D.S. to surrender and do as he asked than to continue the fight. D.S. also reported incidents of nonconsensual sex, times in which Smith proceeded to have intercourse with her without her consent. This included one time when she verbalized she did not want to have sex and "he just went ahead and did it."
In reference to the escalation of behaviors, D.S. testified, She continued asking Smith to leave, but he refused. When her son, T.G., was about to be discharged from the military, she asked him to return to Wichita to help her.
T.G. moved in on October 2, 2015. Initially, Smith treated D.S. well, but as time went on, T.G. saw more of his bad behaviors surface. He testified: "Her mobile devices were all basically on lock, she wasn't allowed to leave the house really as much, always questioning when she did anything, where she was going, what she was doing, the time, just every little thing was monitored, micromanaged." Smith threatened to burn T.G. and D.S. with gasoline while they were sleeping. T.G. did not intervene when Smith was verbally abusive out of fear that the conflict would become physical.
D.S.'s employer participated in domestic violence awareness in the month of October. While D.S. was in a training class at work, Smith sent her threatening texts that she shared with her class. A supervisor later pulled her out of class to talk about getting help. D.S. hesitated because she did not want the situation to get worse.
Shortly thereafter, Smith and D.S. were arguing about her not going to buy him more alcohol. Smith punched D.S. then pinned her against the wall by her throat. T.G. ran in and told Smith "if he ever touched my mother again, I'll kill you."
D.S. stated she did not want any issues; she just wanted him to take his things and leave.
After work, T.G. took D.S. to the Wichita Police Department. She gave the officers her house key and the paperwork to serve Smith. Officer Katherine Goebel went with another officer to D.S.'s apartment at approximately 8 p.m. on October 21, 2015. Smith was under the influence of alcohol and argumentative when she served him. He took about 15 to 20 minutes to gather his things. He called S.R. to pick him up.
S.R., had known Smith since she was 14. She took Smith to her house so he could make some calls. Smith acted like he did not know why D.S. had obtained a PFA and he denied all her allegations. He messaged some people on Facebook and when he had not been able to get a hold of anybody, he asked to stay the night. S.R. agreed to let him stay that night only. The next day, she took him to a few places to help him find a place to stay, but she realized he was just trying to buy marijuana.
After they returned to S.R.'s house, Smith became upset and blamed S.R. for ruining his life. She offered to talk to D.S. and see if they could work things out. Smith grabbed her by the back of her neck and shoved her, telling her, When she refused, he choked her, pinning her against her dresser for 5 or 6 seconds. As he held her by the throat, he told S.R. that he was not going anywhere now that he finally had her. S.R. stated she did not call police because she knew it would only get worse if she did. Plus, Smith had taken her phone and would not give it back.
Every day, S.R. drove Smith to D.S.'s apartment complex. He claimed he needed to get money from somebody who owed him. On October 27, 2015, as she drove through the lot, Smith, who had a glass full of liquor, "flipped out", and spilled the alcohol on the floorboard and on himself. She tried handing him something to wipe off with, but he had gotten out of the car and was cussing at her. He broke the rain guard off her passenger window and threw it straight through the car, grazing S.R.'s eye. He walked around to the driver's side, reached through the open window, and slammed S.R.'s head against the side of the vehicle. Smith said something like "you need to park your little ass over there or leave" and so she left. As she drove off, her vision started getting "fuzzy" so she pulled into a parking lot to check her eye and find her phone. When she looked up, Smith was walking toward the vehicle and he looked angry. He grabbed her head again and slammed it against the side of the vehicle. He told her she needed to start listening and know her role. Smith got back into the passenger seat and told her to go home. S.R. told Smith he had to leave. He agreed to get his things and find somewhere else to stay.
On the way home, she pulled in behind a police car and tried to stay close. She told Smith that it might have been best to call police and have an officer present at the house to make sure everything went smoothly. Smith did not want police involved and she knew something bad was going to happen. S.R. then drove into the Wendy's parking lot and tried to go inside. He grabbed her by the arm and forced her back into the car. He told her to calm down and just go home. He assured her there would be no problems.
When they arrived at S.R.'s home, she asked him to stay in the car. As she unlocked the door, Smith flung the door open, shoved her into the house, took her keys, and slammed the door behind them. S.R. threatened to call 911, but Smith would not allow it. He smacked the phone out of her hand and every time she tried to leave, he grabbed her by the hair to keep her in the house. Then Smith began beating her. He knocked her to the floor and punched her repeatedly on the side of her head. S.R. testified:
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At one point, Smith grabbed S.R. by the throat with one hand as he punched her with the other. He choked her to the point she could not breathe and she lost consciousness. When she woke up, she was on the floor and confused. Her head was throbbing, her eyes were swelling, and her nose hurt. When she went to the bathroom to see the damage, Smith followed behind her. She asked him why he was doing that to her and he told her "you just don't know when to stop, you need to shut your fuckin' mouth ... you'll learn your role." She sat on the couch and asked him for medical treatment. He told her that neither of them were leaving.
S.R. asked Smith to take her to her mother's house. He grabbed her from behind, threw her on the couch, and began beating her again. He choked her again to the point she lost consciousness. When she awoke, Smith continued beating her until she lost consciousness again. S.R. stated that although the violence lasted only minutes, it felt like hours.
When Smith stopped, S.R. begged him for hours to...
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