State v. Washington

• Decision Date: 26 October 2016
• Docket Number: No. 15–1829.,15–1829.
• Citation: 888 N.W.2d 902 (Table)
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Tyrone R. WASHINGTON, Jr., Defendant–Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Court of Appeals

888 N.W.2d 902 (Table)

STATE of Iowa, Plaintiff–Appellee,
v.
Tyrone R. WASHINGTON, Jr., Defendant–Appellant.

No. 15–1829.

Court of Appeals of Iowa.

Oct. 26, 2016.

Mark C. Smith, State Appellate Defender, and Patricia A. Reynolds, Assistant Appellate Defender, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Louis S. Sloven, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

Heard by VAITHESWARAN, P.J., and POTTERFIELD and BOWER, JJ.

POTTERFIELD, Judge.

Tyrone Washington Jr. appeals from his conviction for first-degree murder. Washington maintains there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction for murder in the first degree,¹ and he claims the district court abused its discretion in denying his weight-of-the-evidence challenge. He also claims trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the admission of prior-bad-acts evidence and for failing to introduce evidence of a text message sent to him by the decedent. Last, he challenges the district court's denial of his motion to strike the second jury panel.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings.

On August 19, 2013, Washington was charged by trial information with murder in the first degree in the death of Justina Smith. Washington entered a plea of not guilty and gave notice he would claim self-defense.

The trial was initially set to begin on May 12, 2015.

On May 5, 2015, Washington filed a motion to strike the jury panel, arguing there was "a material departure from the statutory requirements" and "a violation of the defendant's rights under the 6th and 14th Amendments of the Constitution." In his motion, Washington noted that of the 137 potential jurors who had returned responses, zero had indicated they were African–American. Washington urged that the underrepresentation was "systemic and resulting in prejudice to the defendant's right to a jury made up of a ‘fair cross-section’ of the community."

A hearing was held on Washington's motion. At the hearing, the clerk of court and other employees from the clerk's office testified about the process used to empanel a jury, which started with groups of names of possible jurors from the county from the master list of names compiled by court administration in Des Moines. One of the employees testified that she and her coworkers were the people who excused jurors. When she was asked if the requests to be excused were "brought in front of a judge for them to decide on the deferral or the excuse," she stated, "No." She later clarified that some are brought in front of a judge.

On May 14, the court granted Washington's motion and discharged the panel. In its order, the court noted that of the 117 questionnaires submitted and the ninety-five panel members checked in, "there was no person of African–American, black, mixed racial, or other non-white origin" except one person who identified themselves as white and Native American. The court went on to state, "From a population that is approximately 4% African–American and 10% nonwhite [overall], that result could arise from standard deviation. But the sample pools previously presented by the defendant show that underrepresentation is consistent." Although the court did not find an action or inaction meant to exclude racial minorities, the court found there was "sufficient departure from statutory requirements and sufficient resulting prejudice to find the departure to be material."

A second jury panel was summoned on July 7, and Washington again moved to strike the panel. The court denied the motion, finding that of the 224 people that responded to the jury questionnaire, four had identified themselves as African–American—1.8% of the possible panel members. The court noted the changed practices of the county's clerk of court since the first jury was empaneled, including "increased follow up at the undeliverable and non-responded stages of the jury process" and allowing excuses only at "specific judicial direction or by a judge." The court found that the material departures from the statute had been sufficiently cured, and although African–Americans were underrepresented, Washington had not proved that it was the result of systematic exclusion.

Washington's jury trial began the same day. At the trial, Deputy Dennis Paulsen testified without objection that he first had contact with Smith and Washington in his capacity as a police officer on July 6, 2013, when he was called to Smith's apartment for a "domestic in progress." When he arrived, Washington told him that they had been fighting and both parties had shoved each other, but that the incident was being blown out of proportion. When Deputy Paulsen spoke with Smith, she told him Washington had choked her and slammed her down on the bed. The officer testified that he saw finger marks around Smith's neck and a bump or a bruise on the side of her head that he believed corroborated her version of the events.² Washington was arrested for domestic abuse assault, and a no-contact order was entered preventing Smith and Washington from having contact with each other.

Officers again were dispatched to Smith's apartment³ on August 1 after receiving an anonymous call that someone had broken in. When officers arrived, they found Washington hiding in an upstairs bedroom closet. He told the officers that he had used his key to enter—a key which was found on his person and later returned to him—and that he was meeting Smith at her request. Because the no-contact order was still in place,⁴ the officers again arrested Washington.

Tyrone Jones was with Smith on the morning of August 5, 2013. According to Jones, Smith told him they needed to go to the park to meet Washington so she could get her house key and some money that he owed her for bills. Once they got to the park, Jones stayed in Smith's car while she got out to speak to Washington. Jones testified he did not see Smith with a knife when she got out of the vehicle and he "did not know her to have [one]." Jones sat in the car for a few minutes before he wondered what was taking so long and looked back to see Smith and Washington. He saw what looked like Washington swinging at Smith and then got out to help Smith. Once he was outside of the car approaching the two, he saw that Washington had a knife in his hand. Jones stated he yelled at Washington, and Washington then made a slicing motion at Jones before running and getting in Smith's car. Once Washington was in the car, he drove towards Jones and Smith, in what Jones characterized as an attempt to run them over. Smith had fallen to the ground by this time, and Washington stopped the car, got out, and started kicking Smith. At this point, Jones called 911, and Washington again got in the car and then drove away. Smith had called 911 two minutes earlier shouting, "Help me! Help me! [unintelligible] at the park!" Jones attempted to help Smith until medical personnel arrived; he testified Smith was wheezing and unable to speak.⁵

Washington led officers on a high-speed chase before they were ultimately able to stop the vehicle and take him into custody. Photographs were taken of Washington at the time he was taken into custody, showing he had some blood on his clothing, but his clothes were not cut or stretched. Once he was taken to the jail, more photographs were taken of his bare hands and chest, showing that he had no injuries to his person, except one nick on his hand that may have been a scar. These photographs were admitted into evidence and shown to the jury.

A DNA analyst from the department of criminal investigations testified that of all the blood spots tested on Washington's clothing and the knife, which was recovered from the scene, only Smith's blood was found.

The medical examiner who performed the autopsy testified Smith had sustained twelve "sharp force" injuries involving her head, chest, abdomen, upper arms, lower legs, and both hands. Only two of the wounds were stab wounds⁶ ; one in the upper chest that went into her heart and lungs, and one in her upper abdomen that went into her liver. Each of the two stabs wounds was potentially fatal. Additionally, Smith had sustained blunt force injuries to her face and head, and her nose was broken. The medical examiner described a cut on one of Smith's hands as consistent with a defensive wound. He testified the other wounds may have also been defensive but they were not "classic."

Washington testified in his own defense; he stated that he went to the park to meet Smith at her request. When he got there, he told Smith he no longer wanted to be in a relationship with her and asked her for money she owed him. According to Washington, Smith then charged him with a knife that she had in the front pocket of the sweatshirt she was wearing. At some point, Washington was able to get the knife from Smith's hand, but she continued to charge at him, so he kept swinging the knife at her. Washington stated Jones then got out of the car and held him around the midsection, leaving Washington "sandwiched" in a two-on-one fight. During this ongoing struggle, Washington fell on top of Smith and she was stabbed as a result. Washington left in Smith's car because he panicked; he stated, "I felt at the time they weren't going to believe me because they didn't believe me before the incident that transpired with me and [Smith]." Washington denied kicking Smith in the head and said he did not know how her nose was broken. Washington did not call 911 for help.

The...