State v. Solis

• Decision Date: 09 September 2016
• Docket Number: No. 111,556,111,556
• Citation: 378 P.3d 532
• Parties: State of Kansas, Appellee, v. Jose Benjamin Solis, Appellant.
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

378 P.3d 532

State of Kansas, Appellee,

v.Jose Benjamin Solis, Appellant.

No. 111,556

Supreme Court of Kansas.

September 9, 2016

Carol Longenecker Schmidt, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, argued the cause and was on the briefs for appellant.

Steven J. Obermeier, senior deputy district attorney, argued the cause, and Stephen M. Howe, district attorney, and Derek Schmidt, attorney general, were with him on the brief for appellee.

The opinion of the court was delivered by Johnson

, J.:

Jose Benjamin Solis directly appeals his first-degree premeditated murder conviction emanating from the strangulation death of his former girlfriend. He raises issues about the State's use of evidence of prior incidences of domestic battery, about the exclusion and inclusion of certain jury instructions, and about the cumulative effect of the trial errors. Finding no reversible error, we affirm.

Factual and Procedural Overview

Solis met Natasha Crump at Job Corps in Manhattan, and a live-together relationship ensued that resulted in the birth of a child, Alizaia. The family moved to the Johnson County area, and the relationship became volatile and violent. In March 2006, Solis was charged with domestic battery for an incident in which he tried to throw Crump and Alizaia out of the apartment; he was on probation at the time of Crump's death.

Additionally, Crump's coworkers witnessed arguments between her and Solis, together with disruptive, harassing behavior by Solis. A male coworker pretended he was gay so that he could socialize with Crump without Solis becoming violently jealous. Crump's boss would sometimes give her a ride home but would drop her off at the entrance to the apartment complex parking lot to avoid being observed by Solis. In August 2006, Solis was banned from the restaurant and surrounding property where Crump worked because of repeated disruptive incidents in which Solis came to the restaurant to yell and argue with Crump. After being banned, Solis would pace back and forth at the gas station across the street while Crump was at work. In September 2006, during Olathe's Old Settler's Days, Crump and several coworkers were leaving the restaurant after a late shift when Solis and Crump began screaming at each other. Coworkers intervened, and Solis left. Several times, Crump's boss and sister saw bruises on Crump's arms; Crump attributed these injuries to Solis.

Shortly before she died, Crump moved into her own apartment in Ottawa. But when Crump's car became inoperable, she stayed at Solis' apartment because it was close to her work. She told people she felt safe at Solis' apartment because Alizaia was there, also. Just before Crump died, she had gone on a date with a man with whom she seemed interested.

On Friday night, December 22, 2006, Crump went Christmas shopping with her sister and male coworker to buy Christmas presents for Alizaia. The male coworker had given Crump a Christmas card earlier that day. After shopping and a late meal, the male coworker dropped Crump off at Solis' apartment with plans to pick her up the next morning for work. But the next morning, the coworker could not get anyone to answer the door at Solis' apartment, despite repeated attempts, so he went on to work without Crump.

Meanwhile, on that Friday evening, December 22, Solis left his work at Pizza Hut and began drinking with a friend, Frankie Lawson, at another apartment in Solis' complex that belonged to Lawson's mother. Solis, Lawson, and Lawson's uncle drank throughout the evening, and friends of Lawson stopped by the apartment for a time. Solis became intoxicated, but he and the uncle made a trip to Gardner, returning around 1 a.m.

Either late on December 22 or early on December 23, Crump was strangled to death in a bedroom at Solis' apartment. Medical personnel arriving around 11:30 a.m. on December 23 found Crump dead, face down on the bed. The coroner, Dr. Michael Handler, opined that Crump died of manual strangulation, as evidenced by the petechial hemorrhages

on her face and neck and the large bruises on her neck and the back of her head. Additionally, the corpse had abrasions, cuts and scrapes, on the face and neck. Together, the marks were consistent with Crump being beaten or choked during a violent struggle. A sexual assault examination revealed evidence of sexual intercourse, and DNA test results implicated Solis.

Solis talked to Officer Cynethea Evans shortly after the police arrived at the apartment the morning of December 23, 2006. He said that he had last seen Crump about 11 p.m. the night before; then he and Alizaia had gone to sleep on the couch. When he awakened, he thought Crump had left for work. Unprompted, Solis told Officer Evans that he had locked the apartment door the night before but that it was unlocked when he awoke. Solis said Crump had slept in the apartment bedroom by herself; that Crump had locked the bedroom door; and that it was still locked when he woke up. Solis told police he called Crump's job and then her sister before forcing the still-locked bedroom door open and seeing her body and then calling 911. When Evans asked Solis if Crump abused drugs, Solis said he did not know. An autopsy found no drugs in Crump's system.

Solis further told Officer Evans that when he came home around 10 or 11 p.m. on December 22, he and Crump had argued about Christmas. He had fresh scratches on his arms, neck, and face, which he said Crump had caused. Solis said he did not hit Crump during the argument but that he left for a short time, returning around midnight. Alizaia was watching TV on the couch and Crump was in the bedroom, talking to someone, when Solis went to sleep on the couch.

Solis' version of his whereabouts on that Friday was contradicted by the trial testimony of Lawson and his mother. They said Solis was drinking at the mother's apartment for most of the evening, left at some point with Lawson's uncle to drive to Gardner, and returned around 1 a.m.

Fifteen to 20 minutes after first speaking with Officer Evans, Solis volunteered that he and Crump had sex the previous night. He also asked Officer Evans if drugs were involved in the death before making the unsolicited comment that he had previously kicked Crump out of the apartment because of drugs. Later that day, Solis told Lawson and his mother that he and Crump had sex before she died.

Detective Patrick Foster interviewed Solis twice. The first time was on the Saturday Crump's body was discovered but before the autopsy results were completed and before the death was officially ruled a homicide. The second interview was 1 day later, after the homicide ruling.

In the first interview, Solis told the detective that he and Crump had sex after the argument they had at around 10:10 p.m. on Friday. But according to the respective eyewitnesses, Crump was shopping at that time and Solis was drinking with friends and making a trip to Gardner.

Notably, the police found no signs of forced entry to the apartment. They did find Solis' fingerprints on Crump's cell phone and on the Christmas card and envelope given to Crump by her male coworker.

Solis' DNA was found on Crump's cell phone, in semen collected from within Crump, and in the fingernail scrapings. A mixture of Solis' and Crump's DNA was found in bloodstains on the shirt Solis was wearing when he first spoke to police. Solis' DNA was in semen stains on Crump's underwear, undershirt, sweatpants, and work shirt. Crump's male coworker and her recent date were both excluded as possible donors of any of the biological material tested for DNA.

Solis first told police that he had received the scratches and cuts on his arms, face, and neck when he and Crump had argued over Christmas plans. Later, he told Lawson and Lawson's mother that the fight was sparked by a call from Lawson's mother, albeit the mother could not recall any such call and cell phone records did not reflect the call. Interestingly, cell phone records indicated that, on Saturday morning, when Solis said he was looking for Crump, he called her job and called her sisters, but he did not call Crump.

Solis was originally charged with first-degree murder and rape. The State later amended the complaint to omit the rape charge.

There were two jury trials. The jury could not reach a unanimous verdict in the first trial, in 2008. In 2010, a second jury trial produced a verdict of guilty to first-degree murder.

Before the first jury trial, the State filed a motion to admit evidence of prior wrongdoing by Solis pursuant to K.S.A. 60–455

. Specifically, the State sought to introduce: (1) evidence of a prior domestic battery conviction from March 2006 in which Solis abused Crump and for which he was on probation at the time of Crump's death; and (2) testimony from those persons who witnessed arguments between Solis and Crump and saw bruises on Crump's arms attributed to Solis. During a pretrial hearing, Solis' counsel objected on the basis that the State was attempting to offer propensity evidence.

The district court ruled that evidence of the discordant relationship between Solis and Crump from December 2006 would be admitted but reserved any ruling on the other evidence pending the court's review of State v. Gunby , 282 Kan. 39, 144 P.3d 647 (2006)

.

The district court later issued an order: (1) excluding evidence of the March 2006 domestic battery conviction; (2) allowing relationship evidence from December 2006 as relevant to show motive and identity and to demonstrate the discordant nature of the relationship; and (3) declining to rule immediately on relationship evidence from between March and December 2006, instead directing the State to make a specific proffer before introducing the evidence so the court could “make the analysis required by K.S.A. 60–455

and Gunby.” During the trial, the State did make proffers of the evidence before introducing it, and the judge allowed testimony by witnesses about bruises on Crump's arms and incriminating statements Crump made...