State v. Spurlock

• Decision Date: 20 May 1993
• Docket Number: No. 01-C-01-9205-CC-00167,01-C-01-9205-CC-00167
• Citation: 874 S.W.2d 602
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee, Appellee, v. Robert SPURLOCK, Appellant.
• Court: Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 602

874 S.W.2d 602

STATE of Tennessee, Appellee, v. Robert SPURLOCK, Appellant.

No. 01-C-01-9205-CC-00167.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee at Nashville.

May 20, 1993.

Rehearing Denied Aug. 5, 1993.

Charles W. Burson, Atty. Gen. and Reporter, Kimbra R. Spann, Asst. Atty. Gen., Nashville, Lawrence Ray Whitley, Dist. Atty. Gen., Jerry R. Kitchen, Asst. Dist. Atty. Gen., Gallatin, for appellee.

Lionel R. Barrett, Jr., John G. Oliva, Jr., Nashville, for appellant.

OPINION

JONES, Judge.

The appellant, Robert Spurlock, was convicted of murder in the first degree by a jury of his peers. The jury sentenced the appellant to life in the Department of Correction.

The appellant contends that his constitutional rights to due process of law and a fair trial were violated because the State of Tennessee failed to furnish him exculpatory evidence within the meaning of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). He further contends that the failure of the State of Tennessee to furnish this same material when timely requested violated Rule 26.2, Tenn.R.Crim.P., commonly referred to as the Tennessee Jencks Act. The appellant argues that the State's violations of Brady and Rule 26.2 were so blatant that the prosecution against him should be dismissed. In the alternative, the appellant asks this Court to grant him a new trial.

The judgment of the trial court is reversed; and this cause is remanded to the trial court for a new trial. This Court is of the opinion and finds that the State of Tennessee deprived the appellant of due process of law and a fair trial by failing to furnish the appellant with exculpatory evidence that was in its possession or the possession of the Sumner County Sheriff's Department. The State of Tennessee also failed to correct the false testimony given by a material state witness; and the state further used false evidence in its case in chief. The appellant's contention that the action of the State of Tennessee violated Rule 26.2, Tenn.R.Crim.P., is rendered moot.

On the morning of February 21, 1989, an employee of the Sumner County Highway Department found the body of Lonnie Malone in a concrete culvert while working on Bug Hollow Road. The cause of Malone's death was the excessive loss of blood caused by stab wounds to the neck and chest. One of the stab wounds severed an artery.

The Sumner County Sheriff's Department immediately suspected that Ronnie Marshall and the appellant killed Malone. The deputies theorized that Marshall and Malone sold drugs for Spurlock. When Malone failed to pay for the drugs that he had received, Spurlock decided to kill him. According to the State, Marshall aided and abetted the appellant in the killing of the victim. Marshall supposedly found Malone, delivered him to Spurlock, and Marshall was present when Spurlock killed the victim.

When the Sumner County Sheriff's Department attempted to contact Marshall on the morning of February 22, 1989, it was discovered that Marshall had travelled to Fort Walton Beach, Florida a few hours after Malone was murdered. Marshall subsequently learned that the sheriff's office was looking for him. He voluntarily returned to Gallatin. Marshall denied that he killed the victim or that he aided and abetted Spurlock in the killing of the victim. Marshall was convicted of murder in the first degree in a separate trial; and the jury sentenced him to life in the Department of Correction. On appeal this Court reversed Marshall's conviction and remanded the cause to the trial court for a new trial. State v. Marshall, 845 S.W.2d 228 (Tenn.Crim.App.1992).

The Sumner County Sheriff's Department searched Spurlock's residence and motor vehicles on February 22, 1989, under color of a search warrant. The deputies executing the warrant did not find any evidence that linked Spurlock to the murder. The deputies did discover records that linked Spurlock to drug trafficking. Nothing was found in the motor vehicles that indicated an act of violence had occurred inside either vehicle.

The State established during the trial that Ronnie Marshall and Lonnie Malone were selling marijuana for Spurlock. Both Marshall and Malone were indebted for the marijuana they had received from Spurlock. Approximately two weeks prior to Malone's murder Spurlock attempted to find him. On one occasion he went to the home of Teresa Malone. When Spurlock discovered that the victim was not at the residence, he told those present that if the victim did not pay him promptly, he was going to take the victim to "the country and beat him up." On another occasion he told a friend of the victim that if the victim "mess[ed] up his money, ... he was going to beat him [the victim] every day until he got his money and he would kill anybody who messed with his money." Later, Spurlock told this same friend that he was going to kill the victim. On the date in question Spurlock told another friend of the victim that if Malone didn't pay the debt, he would be "pushing up daisies."

Henry Junior Apple testified that Spurlock and Marshall approached him on the evening of February 20, 1989. According to Apple, Spurlock wanted to know if he had seen Lonnie Malone. Apple told Spurlock that he had not seen Malone. Spurlock then asked Apple if he wanted to drink beer with them. Apple responded in the affirmative; and Spurlock told Apple to get into the car, a gray Escort. Apple got into the back seat of the vehicle. As they rode through Gallatin, they saw Malone walking along a roadway. Malone got in the back seat of the vehicle after being invited to drink beer with Spurlock, Marshall, and Apple. As they drove toward Bug Hollow Road in rural Sumner County, Spurlock asked Malone if he had the money that he owed him. Malone told Spurlock that he did not have the money, but he would borrow it from his uncle. Spurlock told Malone that he wanted his money then. When they got to Bug Hollow Road, Apple was told to get out of the car because the others did not want Apple to know where the illicit drugs were kept. Spurlock gave Apple one-fourth of an ounce of cocaine and drove away. Apple admitted that he was already "high" from the ingestion of cocaine. He stated that he "snorted" two lines of cocaine while waiting for Spurlock to return.

Apple testified that he heard two screams approximately fifteen minutes after he exited the vehicle. A short time later, Spurlock returned in a blue pickup truck. Apple got into the truck and offered to return the cocaine, but Spurlock told him to keep the cocaine because "we've got plenty up here, we're having a party." When Apple asked where Marshall and Malone were, Spurlock said that they were at the party. Spurlock showed Apple undergarments worn by women. Apple testified that there was a pistol on the seat of the truck; and there was blood on Spurlock's shirt. Apple was taken to a store in Gallatin. When he exited the truck, Spurlock told him not to tell anyone where he had been. Spurlock supposedly told him that he would be sorry if he revealed where he had been.

I.

Defense counsel made a timely request for exculpatory evidence in the possession of the district attorney general or a law enforcement agency participating in the investigation of the Malone murder. An assistant district attorney general advised counsel: "There is no exculpatory or mitigating evidence known to the State at this time." The response concluded: "I believe this is all the discovery in this case, but if additional discovery becomes available you will be advised promptly." The state never furnished any exculpatory evidence to defense counsel. During the hearing on the amended motion for a new trial, the deputy who investigated the Malone murder testified that no one from the district attorney general's office made inquiry about or otherwise discussed the existence of exculpatory evidence in the possession of the Sumner County Sheriff's Department.

Since Malone's body was discovered in rural Sumner County, the Sumner County Sheriff's Department investigated Malone's murder. Numerous witnesses were interviewed. Some of these witnesses identified Robert Thomas "Astro" Coats as the person who either killed Malone or participated in the murder. Coats admitted to one person that he had killed Malone.

Coats left the Gallatin area and went to Florida with Mary Skinner shortly after Malone's body was discovered. Thomas Wayne Dyer, Skinner's nephew, was living in Florida. Coats told Dyer:

"Astro" stated that he killed a guy named "Shitty." [Malone's nickname]. "Astro" stated that he cut his throat and left him in the hollow. Coats told Dyer that this fellow owed him some money and he did not have it. Coats told Dyer that he picked up [Malone] and they went riding and were doing drugs and they went to Bug Hollow Road. They got out of the car to use the bathroom and Coats says that he stabbed [Malone]. Coats said that there was blood all over his car and he had to clean it up. Dyer also states that Coats showed him the knife that he said he killed [Malone] with. It was a lock blade type knife. Also Dyer says that Coats told him not to say anything to anyone about what he said.

Dyer was interviewed by the Sumner County Sheriff's Department on May 9, 1989.

Mary Skinner was Coats' girlfriend. She was interviewed by the Sumner County Sheriff's Department on May 15, 1989. She told the deputy who interviewed her that Coats and Joe Neal Bohannon would go to the north side of Gallatin and "cop" dope. She further related that Coats "would carry an ounce or half ounce of pot to the north side and go back a while later and pick up his money or parts of it." On one occasion Coats told Skinner that "a black guy owed him some money," but he "would never say who or how much." When Coats decided to leave Gallatin, he told Skinner that "he was afraid there [were] some sealed indictments on him coming from the grand jury for selling pot and cocaine." Coats abandoned a...