State v. Williams
| Decision Date | 02 April 2013 |
| Docket Number | 42319-7-II |
| Parties | STATE OF WASHINGTON, Respondent, v. STEVEN GRANT WILLIAMS, Appellant. |
| Court | Washington Court of Appeals |
UNPUBLISHED OPINION
Steven Grant Williams appeals his jury trial conviction and exceptional sentence for second degree assault of a child based on his having physically abused his girlfriend's seven-year-old son, DR.[1] Williams argues that (1) during closing argument, the prosecutor committed misconduct by misstating the law and appealing to the jury's passions and prejudices; (2) he (Williams) received ineffective assistance when his trial counsel failed to object to the prosecutor's improper closing argument; and (3) the State presented insufficient evidence to support the three aggravating factors on which the trial court based his exceptional sentence.
In his Statement of Additional Grounds (SAG), [2] Williams also asserts that (1) during closing argument, the prosecutor "misinstructed"[3] the jury about the elements of his crime; (2) the State's search warrant was not sufficiently particular in describing the items to be seized from his home; (3) the prosecutor "made up"[4] several allegations against him; and (4) his disciplinary spankings of DR could not constitute criminal assault of a child as a matter of law. Williams also challenges several of the jury's implied findings and raises a number of issues concerning matters outside the trial record. We affirm.
As of summer 2010, seven-year-old DR had been on an. Individualized Educational Program since kindergarten: He was having difficulty in school; likely had undiagnosed learning disabilities; could not count to 10, recite his ABC's, or perform work at grade level; and had recently failed first grade. He was stubborn about personal hygiene matters, such as brushing his teeth and showering. With his mother's consent, he had been living with his paternal grandparents for a couple of years.
In late July 2010, however, DR spent about three weeks with his mother and her boyfriend, Steven Grant Williams. No one else was present in the home at the time.[5] Because DR's mother worked the graveyard shift and slept during the day, Williams became DR's primary caretaker and disciplinarian. DR's mother agreed that Williams could spank DR with an "open palm[ ]" on the buttocks; but she did not allow Williams to use any other forms of discipline. 2 Verbatim Report of Proceedings (VRP) at 208.
Williams soon disapproved of certain aspects of DR's behavior and personal hygiene. According to Williams, DR did not know how to do chores, to put dishes away, to flush the toilet, to brush his teeth, or to wash his hair and penis; DR watched too much TV. 3 VRP at 329. Williams believed it was his duty to correct these "problems" and to help DR "become a productive member of society." 3 VRP at 330.
On the second day of DR's visit, Williams began spanking DR swatting him four or five times with an open palm on the outside of his pants. When DR appeared unaffected, Williams instructed DR to pull down his pants and then hit him a few more times directly on his bare buttocks. When DR's mother saw the resulting "purple hand prints" and large hand-sized bruise on DR's buttocks, she became very upset and told Williams never to touch DR again. Clerk's Papers (CP) at 52.
But Williams continued to "spank" DR, hitting him with a belt across his bare arms, back, and buttocks, thinking it would have less "impact";[6] these "spankings, " however, also left bruises on DR. When DR did not perform well on his math and reading, Williams "choke[d]" DR several times; Williams once threw DR across the room, causing DR to hit his head on a bookshelf. 1 VRP at 45.
DR's bathing habits particularly bothered Williams, who "fought a lot" with DR about taking showers. 2 VRP at 214. After DR's mother left for work, Williams would wake up DR and make him shower a second time. DR did not like getting his face and hair wet and frequently resisted Williams' attempts to make him shower. According to Williams, DR "went berserk" and kicked Williams in the crotch. 3 VRP at 315. "[F]rustrat[ed]" by DR's resistance, Williams "whipped off his belt, got within "a foot or so" of DR's body, and gave him a "couple of slaps" him with the belt. 3 VRP at 322, 334.
These bathtime "slaps" eventually escalated to the point where Williams was regularly making DR strip naked in the living room, covering DR's eyes with a bandana, taping his mouth shut with black electric tape,, binding his wrists, and hitting DR across his naked front and back • with a belt. Williams also shoved DR's head in the toilet, poured cold water over him, and wrote the words "Stop staring" on DR's buttocks because Williams thought it was "funny" and the "bruising from [DR's] butt was healing up." CP at 74, 75.
One morning DR awoke with two black eyes, which DR's mother and Williams could not explain; nor did they not seek medical treatment for him. When DR's grandparents picked him up a couple of days later on August 18, they immediately noticed his black eyes and the "[m]assive bruising" all over his body. 1 VRP at 85. DR's mother appeared to be "extremely nervous or scared, " was acting "defensive, " and told DR's grandparents that a vitamin deficiency had caused DR's black eyes. 1 VRP at 70, 85. Extremely concerned, DR's grandparents took him to the hospital.
Dr. Jonathan Halper thoroughly examined DR. DR's vital signs were normal, but he had bruises and injuries over "almost every part of him, " including his scapula, shoulders, back, forearms, clavicle, lower abdomen, legs, penis, and both buttocks; DR also had blood and bruising in both eyes and he was missing a tooth. 1 VRP at 24. The bruises were different colors and appeared to be of varying ages, indicating that DR had sustained the injuries over a period of time. The words '"Stop staring'" had been written in Magic Marker on his DR's buttock. 1 VRP at 28. The hospital photographed DR's bruises. Because DR's bruises and injuries were so extensive, Dr. Halper (1) believed DR had been the "victim of something horrible, " likely had been physically assaulted, and bruised as the result of "nonaccidental trauma"[7]; and (2) referred him to Seattle Children's Hospital to receive specialist care.
At Seattle Children's Hospital later that same day, Dr. Kenneth Feldman also examined DR. He confirmed that DR had no broken bones or organ damage but that DR had a "tremendous number of bruises" on the soft body parts, or padded areas, of his body, where children do not normally sustain bruises. 2 VRP at 148. Dr. Feldman (1) observed and photographed the same injuries that Dr. Halper had noted; (2) found additional bruising on DR's wrists, hipbone, kneecaps, armpits, shins, inner thighs, ankle, and scrotum; (3) observed a bruise with "patterning" on the shaft of DR's penis, which looked like it had been caused by an "impact[ ] object";[8] (4) noted a "composite bruise"[9] on DR's buttocks, indicating repeated blows; (5) noted that the bruising on DR's eyes would have similarly resulted from "separate blows to each eye";[10] and (6) ruled out any preexisting medical reasons, such as a bleeding disorder, for DR's bruises. When asked how the bruises had started, DR replied to Dr. Feldman, "When he [Williams] gets mad." 2 VRP at 143. DR also told Dr. Feldman how Williams had taped his (DR's) mouth shut, bound his wrists together, placed electric tape over his eyes, dunked his head in cold water, shoved his head in a toilet, and beaten him repeatedly with a belt. Based on the distribution and character of DR's bruises and DR's disclosures, Dr. Feldman was "100 percent" certain that DR had been abused. 2 VRP at 149.
The next day, DR's grandparents took him to Olympia for two child forensic interviews, during which he made similar disclosures. DR stated that (1) Williams had put him in cold shower to help him "[b]e nice . . ., not fuss, [and] not be ... a cry baby";[11] (2) he (DR) had gotten his bruises from being "spanked";[12] (3) he had been "slapped silly";[13] and (4) Williams had grabbed him by the throat and choked him while stating, "Stop it or I'll fcking kill you, "[14]and, "[I]f you keep that up I'm going to kill you." 1 VRP at 97.
The police obtained a search warrant for Williams' home, where they discovered several belts strewn throughout the rooms, duct tape on the bathroom floor, and black electrical tape with cotton in the kitchen trashcan. VRP at 97-98, 100, 102-03, 106-09. Based on this evidence and DR's disclosures, the police arrested Williams for child abuse and read him his Miranda[15]rights.
Williams waived his rights and gave a statement to the police. Williams claimed that he was at his "fcking wits end, trying to get [DR] to clean himself properly"[16] and admitted that he had (1) pushed DR's head toward to toilet when he did not flush, (2) restrained DR in the shower, (3) grabbed DR's head and told him to "stop acting like a little *sshole and get in the water, "[17] (4) spanked DR hard enough to leave "purple hand prints"[18] on his buttocks, (5) tried to "remove" the handprint bruises on DR's buttocks by using a hairbrush to rub lotion on the bruises, and (6) written on DR's buttocks. CP at 74. Williams laughed frequently about DR's hygiene, stating that DR's hair smelled like "feces" and that he had "never seen the head of his d*ck before." CP at 46. Williams repeatedly minimized DR's injuries and asserted that he (Williams) had experienced the same, or worse, injuries as a child.
The State charged Williams with second degree assault of a child. It also alleged three aggravating sentencing factors: that...
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