State v. Trefethen
| Decision Date | 16 April 2021 |
| Docket Number | No. 119,981,119,981 |
| Citation | 484 P.3d 911 (Table) |
| Parties | STATE of Kansas, Appellee, v. Bradley M. TREFETHEN, Appellant. |
| Court | Kansas Court of Appeals |
James M. Latta, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, for appellant.
Lance J. Gillett, assistant district attorney, Marc Bennett, district attorney, and Derek Schmidt, attorney general, for appellee.
Before Buser, P.J., Hill and Warner, JJ.
Bradley M. Trefethen appeals his conviction for reckless aggravated battery in violation of K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 21-5413(b)(2)(A). Trefethen raises several issues on appeal. First, he contends insufficient evidence supports his conviction because the State failed to prove that he unintentionally committed an act causing great bodily harm. Second, Trefethen contends that a jury instruction stating that proof of a higher culpable mental state proves a lesser mental state unconstitutionally relieved the State of its burden to prove that he acted recklessly. Third, he asserts the district court committed additional instances of clear error when instructing the jury on lesser included offenses and bodily harm and by failing to instruct on the definition of intentional conduct. Finally, Trefethen claims that reckless aggravated battery is a logical impossibility and, as a result, is not a valid crime in Kansas.
In August 2016, Trefethen and A.N. moved in together after dating for about a month. A.N.'s two sons lived with the couple and Trefethen's daughter occasionally stayed with them. A.N.'s youngest son, J.N., slept in a crib located in the couple's bedroom. When the couple first moved in together, A.N.'s father had watched the kids while the couple worked. But in September 2016, Trefethen sustained an injury to his shoulder and was disabled from work. As a result, Trefethen began watching the children while A.N. was at work.
On October 8, 2016, J.N., who was 16 months old at the time, had not been feeling well due to an eye infection
. At about 1:30 p.m., A.N. checked on Trefethen and the children before leaving for work. When A.N. left, J.N. was lying on the loveseat next to Trefethen and was starting to fall asleep. At 3:27 p.m., A.N. texted Trefethen and asked how everything was going at the residence. Trefethen responded by text 13 minutes later:
After this explanation, Trefethen texted that he tried to get J.N. to stand and walk, but the child would not keep his legs straight and would just sit down. A.N. asked whether she needed to come home. Trefethen replied that he was not sure and deferred to her judgment. A.N. came home to assess the situation.
Once home, A.N. inspected J.N.'s legs and saw no swelling or bruising but she noticed that J.N. would cry every time she tried to move him. A.N. decided to take J.N. to the hospital. At the hospital, diagnostic tests revealed that J.N. had sustained fractures to his tibias
and fibulas in both legs near his ankles. As a consequence, both of J.N.'s legs were placed in casts for about six weeks.
While at the hospital, emergency room physicians called Doctor Katherine Melhorn to examine J.N. because they believed his injuries were the result of child abuse. Doctor Melhorn—a certified pediatrician and child abuse specialist—assessed J.N. and noted that he was upset and in obvious pain. In addition to the leg fractures
, Doctor Melhorn noticed that J.N. had numerous bruises on his body, a swollen right eye, and some swelling and abrasions to his mouth.
Doctor Melhorn spoke with A.N., who provided Trefethen's explanation that J.N. had crawled out of his crib, got his foot stuck, and was found hanging upside down from the crib. Doctor Melhorn believed that J.N.'s injuries were inconsistent with Trefethen's explanation. Instead, in Doctor Melhorn's opinion, J.N.'s injuries were indicative of child abuse, and the leg fractures
were the result of the child's legs being grabbed and forcefully broken. Doctor Melhorn also concluded that J.N.'s other injuries showed inflicted trauma, noting that his ear bruises indicated he was slapped on the head, his mouth injuries were consistent with being slapped or punched in the mouth, and other bruises were located in areas where accidental bruises do not usually occur.
Detective Dan Ribble, assigned to the Exploited and Missing Child Unit, was dispatched to the hospital to investigate J.N.'s injuries. A.N. told Detective Ribble about Trefethen's explanation that J.N. fell out of the crib and his right leg became stuck between the crib slats. On the other hand, Doctor Melhorn told Detective Ribble that J.N.'s leg injuries were not consistent with falling out of a crib or any twisting motion. Instead, Doctor Melhorn explained that J.N.'s leg fractures
were either caused by someone directly applying force until the legs snapped or by grabbing his legs near the location of the fractures and pulling up in a forceful manner.
After obtaining this information, Detective Ribble interviewed Trefethen. During a recorded interview, Trefethen initially recounted that he was watching television when he heard a thud and found J.N. with his right foot stuck in the crib slats. Detective Ribble confronted Trefethen, however, with Doctor Melhorn's expert opinion that the crib did not cause J.N.'s injuries. When the detective pressed Trefethen to admit how J.N. broke his legs, Trefethen stated that J.N. would not stop screaming after he fell out of the crib, so he grabbed J.N. by the bottom of his legs and yanked him up to make him laugh. Trefethen explained that although he was frustrated at the time, he intended to make J.N. laugh and "wasn't trying to hurt him at all."
Detective Ribble had Trefethen demonstrate on a doll how he pulled up on J.N.'s legs. Trefethen reenacted standing over J.N., grabbing him just above the ankles, and jerking him into the air about head high. Trefethen described feeling a popping sensation in his hands when he jerked up. He agreed that his action of yanking J.N. into the air was what likely broke his legs, described his actions as a dumb way of trying to stop the child's crying, and admitted that he "lost control for a moment." But Trefethen repeatedly explained that he "didn't mean to" break J.N.'s legs. Trefethen also denied causing any of the bruises on J.N.'s body.
The State charged Trefethen with severity level 4 aggravated battery under K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 21-5413(b)(1)(A), for knowingly causing great bodily harm or disfigurement to J.N. The State also charged Trefethen with abuse of a child.
At trial, A.N. testified that on October 8, 2016, she left work and came home after Trefethen texted her that J.N. had fallen out of his crib and may be injured. A.N. recounted Trefethen's explanation that he was watching television when he heard a thud followed by crying and went into the bedroom where he saw J.N. on the floor with his right leg stuck between the crib slats. A.N. was not surprised that J.N. had fallen out of the crib because J.N. had been seen climbing on the crib and A.N. had previously expressed her concern that he would "end up climbing out and breaking something."
After A.N. took J.N. to the hospital, she learned that J.N. sustained fractures to both legs near his ankles. J.N. was admitted to the hospital for four days and his legs were placed in casts. As a result of J.N.'s injuries, A.N. took a year off from work to care for her son.
At trial, Doctor Melhorn testified regarding her observations of J.N.'s leg injuries, noting that the fractures were "[n]ot at all" consistent with Trefethen's explanation that the injuries occurred when J.N. fell out of the crib. Because all four of the bones were broken in the same area, Doctor Melhorn opined that the fractures were the result of inflicted trauma that required "a mechanism where probably those legs were grabbed and forcefully broken, in the absence of some other explanation that could explain all of that together." Doctor Melhorn testified that it was impossible that J.N. sustained his leg fractures
by falling out of a crib and getting his leg stuck. However, Doctor Melhorn testified that Trefethen's explanation that he grabbed J.N. above the ankles and forcefully jerked up was consistent with the injuries the child sustained.
Detective Ribble testified regarding his recorded interview with Trefethen, which was played for the jury. Detective Ribble recounted Trefethen's initial explanation that J.N. injured his leg when he fell out of the crib and got his foot stuck in the crib slats. But Detective Ribble also testified to Trefethen's later admission that he "grabbed [J.N] by the bottoms of his legs and yanked him up, in an attempt to get him to laugh."
Trefethen testified in his own defense, claiming that his statement to Detective Ribble about pulling J.N. up by the ankles was untrue. Instead, Trefethen explained that he heard a thud in the bedroom, found J.N. with his right foot stuck in the crib slats, freed J.N.'s leg from the crib, and texted A.N. about the incident. Trefethen denied grabbing J.N. by the ankles at any time during the day.
At the close of evidence, the district court instructed the jury on the charged offenses and four lesser included offenses of severity level 4 aggravated battery: (1) severity level 5 reckless aggravated battery under K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 21-5413(b)(2)(A) ; (2) severity level 7 knowing aggravated battery under K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 21-5413(b)(1)(B) ; (3) severity level 8 reckless aggravated battery under K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 21-5413(b)(2)(B) ; and (4) simple battery under K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 21-5413(a)(1).
The jury found...
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