State v. Teague

• Citation: 645 S.W.2d 392
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee, Appellee, v. Raymond Eugene TEAGUE, Appellant.
• Decision Date: 31 January 1983
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Page 392

645 S.W.2d 392

STATE of Tennessee, Appellee, v. Raymond Eugene TEAGUE, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Tennessee,

at Knoxville.

Jan. 31, 1983.

Edward E. Davis, Robert J. Batson, Jr., Chattanooga, for appellant.

Wayne E. Uhl, Asst. Atty. Gen., William M. Leech, Jr., Atty. Gen., Nashville, for appellee.

OPINION

COOPER, Justice.

Appellant, Raymond Eugene Teague, has appealed his conviction of murder in the first degree, and the sentence of death. On reviewing the record, we find no merit in any of the several assignments of error directed to the guilt phase of the trial. We are of the opinion, however, that the admission in evidence of a warrant charging appellant with conspiracy to commit murder was error which requires a reversal of the penalty of death and a remand of the cause for a sentencing hearing.

The victim was Terri Teague, who was formerly married to the appellant. Mrs. Teague's body was found at about 10:30 a.m., on April 4, 1980, floating face down in the bathtub in her apartment on Towne Hills Drive in Chattanooga, Tennessee. An autopsy revealed that within an hour before her death, Mrs. Teague had sustained a blow to her left temple of sufficient force to "addle" her, and which could have caused her to be unconscious.

Mrs. Teague, who lived alone, was very security conscious. In addition to the regular door locks, her front door had a deadbolt lock and a safety chain, and she had had a peephole installed. She kept a heavy piece of furniture pushed against the back door, to make entry through that door more difficult. At the time her body was discovered, the front door was secured only by the regular door locks. A pane of glass in the back door had been broken and pieces of glass were on the kitchen floor, indicating that the blow that broke the glass came from outside. Further, one end of the piece of furniture normally against the back door had been moved away from the door.

The detective team assigned to investigate Mrs. Teague's death knew her from another homicide investigation. In July of 1979, John Mark Edmonds was killed, evidently by shots fired by Mrs. Teague. The circumstances of that killing are not shown in the record. However, the record does show that Mrs. Teague agreed to help the police in their investigation of the homicide by concealing a transmitter on her person and recording conversations with appellant relative to the death of Edmonds. Subsequently, appellant was charged in a two-count indictment with the murder of Edmonds, and with the moving, inciting, counselling, hiring, and commanding or procuring Teresa Teague to murder Edmonds. Mrs. Teague was scheduled to be a key witness for the prosecution. After the indictment was returned, appellant found out about the taped conversations and obtained transcripts of the tapings. Appellant admitted in the trial of this case that in one of the taped conversations, he had told Mrs. Teague that if she died she would die in a bathtub. ¹

The detectives also learned from police records that within the time frame of Mrs. Teague's death, appellant had been arrested on Town Hills Drive at a point almost in front of Mrs. Teague's apartment. Officer Chandler, who made the arrest, testified that he had been dispatched to the Towne Hills Drive area to investigate the occupants of a truck seen in the subdivision on several occasions in the early morning hours of April 4, 1980. The officer stopped the truck by flashing his "blue" police light. Marshall Skinner was driving the truck, Jimmy Cook was seated in the middle and appellant was on the passenger side. The officer asked Skinner for his driver's license. As Skinner was getting it, the officer heard the noise of metal striking metal in the cab of the truck, and saw appellant bending over. The officer drew his revolver, ran to the back of the truck, ordered the men out and had them place their hands upon the tailgate of the truck. Officer Chandler then looked into the truck and saw a loaded and cocked .45 caliber automatic pistol on the floor at the point where appellant had been seated. On appellant admitting the pistol was his, he was arrested and charged with unlawfully carrying a pistol with the intent to go armed.

While these events were taking place, a second officer, Fred Layne, arrived at the scene and assisted in the arrest and in filling out field interrogation forms. The officers testified that no search was made of the truck at the scene of the arrest, but each noticed a brown plastic garbage bag, apparently filled with clothing, sitting on the floor of the truck cab.

The officers also testified that in conversation at the scene of the arrest, Officer Chandler mentioned that his report of the incident would result in the three men being suspects in the event a burglary or murder later was reported to have occurred in the area. On hearing this, appellant fainted and collapsed on the ground. Appellant's explanation was that he was highly nervous at having been arrested at the point of a gun.

Appellant was transported to and was incarcerated in the Hamilton County jail. Within a few hours and before the body of Mrs. Teague was discovered, Jimmy Cook arranged to have appellant released on bond.

After learning of the arrest of appellant on the gun charge, and where it occurred, the detectives immediately began looking for the appellant, Cook, and Skinner. Jimmy Cook was located almost immediately and made a statement to the detectives. Appellant was arrested and charged with murder soon afterward. Marshall Skinner came to police headquarters two days later to make his statement. Skinner then took the police to the place where he had thrown a brown plastic garbage bag, which Skinner stated had been brought to the truck by appellant.

The bag contained a yellow sheet matching the one found in the washing machine in Terri Teague's apartment. Hair on the sheet was found to be microscopically identical to Mrs. Teague's hair. A blouse and skirt of Mrs. Teague's were also in the bag. Several shards of glass found in the bag matched the breakage pattern of the broken pane of glass in the back door and carpet fibers found in the bag matched samples taken from the Teague apartment. The bag also contained a letter from the District Attorney to Mrs. Teague advising her that the trial of appellant on the charge of murdering Edmonds had been passed to a later date. A pair of gloves in the bag were identified as belonging to appellant and having been worn by him on the night the murder of Mrs. Teague occurred.

In their statements, and at trial, both Cook and Skinner testified that appellant had directed them into the subdivision where Mrs. Teague lived and had pointed out her apartment. They also testified that on the first two trips through the subdivision, the appellant had told them not to stop as the lights were on in the Teague apartment. On two occasions, after the lights in the apartment were out, they let appellant out of the truck near the apartment and returned to pick him up at the times specified by appellant. On the second occasion, they saw appellant on the porch of the Teague apartment. The door to the apartment was open, and appellant had a brown plastic garbage bag in his hand. According to them, appellant brought the bag to the truck. They further testified that as the truck started to move away from the vicinity of the Teague apartment, a police car came over the crest of the hill with its "blue lights" flashing. Skinner testified that when Teague saw the police car, he said, "Oh, shit. I kilt that bitch." Cook testified that as appellant got into the truck, he said that he had killed Terri. Cook also testified that about a month and a half before Mrs. Teague's death, appellant had expressed the belief that if Terri were "out of the way" the Edmonds' murder case would never go to court, and that on the night of Terri's death, appellant had said "he was going to kill Terri."

Appellant insists that the above evidence is insufficient to prove either the "corpus delicti" or the criminal agency of appellant beyond a reasonable doubt. We disagree. "Corpus delicti" may be established by a confession, if supported by other direct or circumstantial evidence consistent with the confession. Barksdale v. State, 200 Tenn. 322, 326, 292 S.W.2d 193, 195 (1956). Here the state presented evidence that forcible entry was made into Terri Teague's apartment on the night of her death. She drowned in a full bathtub despite the fact she never took baths in a tub. The sheet from her bed, clothing worn by her, shards of glass from the back door, and correspondence addressed to Mrs. Teague were removed from the apartment on the night of her death. These are the same items found in the plastic garbage bag. In addition, there is evidence that appellant had the motive and opportunity to kill Terri Teague. He told her in a taped conversation that if she died, it would be in a bathtub. He expressed the opinion to Cook that his indictment for murder of Mark Edmonds would never go to court if Terri were out of the way. On the night of Terri's death, appellant told Cook that he was going to kill Terri. After he left Terri's apartment, he told both Skinner and Cook that he had killed her. We think this evidence is sufficient for any rational jury to find that both the "corpus delicti" and the criminal agency of the appellant were proven beyond a reasonable doubt and justifies the jury finding appellant guilty of murder in the first degree.

In a separate assignment of error, the appellant raises the specter that the state withheld evidence material to the issue of "corpus delicti." We agree with appellant that if the state did this and the evidence was material either to guilt or punishment, it would be a violation of due process and the conviction of appellant would have to be reversed. See Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 1196-97, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). But we find no...