State v. Williams, CR-93-0138-AP

• Citation: 904 P.2d 437,183 Ariz. 368
• Decision Date: 26 September 1995
• Docket Number: No. CR-93-0138-AP,CR-93-0138-AP
• Parties: STATE of Arizona, Appellee, v. Aryon WILLIAMS, Appellant.
• Court: Supreme Court of Arizona

Page 437

904 P.2d 437

183 Ariz. 368

STATE of Arizona, Appellee, v. Aryon WILLIAMS, Appellant.

No. CR-93-0138-AP.

Supreme Court of Arizona, In Banc.

Sept. 26, 1995.

Grant Woods, Attorney General by Paul J. McMurdie, Dawn M. Northup, Phoenix, for Appellee.

Harriette P. Levitt, Tucson, for Appellant.

MOELLER, Vice Chief Justice.

In one case, appellant Aryon Williams ("defendant") was charged with first degree murder. In another, he was charged with attempted first degree murder and armed robbery. The trial court consolidated the two cases for trial, and the jury found defendant guilty of all three offenses. Defendant was sentenced to death for first degree murder and to concurrent terms of imprisonment for armed robbery and attempted murder. This is defendant's automatic, direct appeal. See Ariz.R.Crim.P. 31.2(b); Ariz.Rev.Stat.Ann. (A.R.S.) §§ 13-4031, 13-4035 (1989). Defendant did not separately appeal the noncapital convictions and sentences and presents no independent issues concerning them, although we have reviewed them for fundamental error. For reasons discussed below, we affirm defendant's convictions and sentences.

FACTS

First Degree Murder of Rita. Defendant was convicted of murdering his former girlfriend, Rita DeLao. Although defendant and Rita were separated, they had a son together ("little Aryon") and maintained a close relationship. On Saturday, January 27, 1990, defendant and Rita spent part of the day together and made plans for Rita to spend When defendant returned to his apartment several hours later at about 7:00 or 8:00 that same morning he was wearing different clothes. He told Michelle that he had burned the clothes and shoes that he had been wearing. Michelle found Rita's shoes on the kitchen floor, but later that day noticed that they were gone.

[183 Ariz. 372] the night at defendant's apartment in Casa Grande. Defendant lived in the apartment with his current girlfriend, Michelle Deloney, but he told Michelle to spend Saturday night somewhere else. Defendant left Rita at his parents' house in Eloy on Saturday afternoon, expecting her to come to his apartment later that evening. Sometime after midnight, Rita telephoned defendant at his apartment and said that she wanted to come over. Michelle, however, was there, so defendant told Rita not to come. Rita called a second time and said that she was coming over. Rita appeared at defendant's apartment at about 3:00 a.m. Defendant went outside to talk to Rita, and they had an argument. When Rita confronted defendant with a gun, defendant knocked her down and disarmed her. She hit her head against a concrete sidewalk. Defendant went into the apartment, got a glass of water and his keys, and then left the apartment. He later told his family that the water was to clean up Rita's blood.

That same day at about 8:30 to 9:00 a.m., a hunter discovered Rita's body on a dirt road in Arizona City, about a twenty-minute drive from defendant's apartment. Rita had been shot once in the elbow and twice in the thigh, fracturing her femur. She had sustained multiple blunt force injuries including scrapes, bruises, and torn skin on her face, head, chest, abdomen, arms, shoulders, and back. She also had severe internal injuries, including multiple fractured ribs, a fractured breast bone, fractured collar bones, and massive fractures of the pelvic bone. Rita's lungs, liver, spleen, and bladder were torn, and there was a small amount of blood at the base of the brain, likely caused by injuries to the chest. She had been dragged by her heels or legs, and her injuries and tire tracks across her abdomen indicated that she had been run over by an automobile.

Rita's death was caused by multiple gunshot wounds associated with multiple fractures and internal injuries due to blunt force trauma. Although the medical examiner could not determine the sequence of all the injuries, he did determine that the injuries inflicted by the automobile occurred after a dramatic decrease in blood pressure, indicating that Rita was severely injured before being run over. Bullets recovered from the wounds and a firing pin found at the scene were consistent with the .32 caliber gun that defendant had taken from Rita earlier that morning. Police also recovered a metal spring and pieces of a steam iron at the scene.

When Rita did not show up for work that morning, her employer called her mother. Unaware of Rita's whereabouts, Rita's mother called defendant's mother and then later went with Rita's brother to speak to defendant at his parents' home in Eloy. Defendant told them that he had seen Rita, but that she had left Casa Grande at about 2:00 that morning to return to her apartment in Phoenix. Defendant then started laughing and told Rita's family that they would never find her and that he would give them a week and a half to find her before he took custody of little Aryon. Defendant told them that he would do anything to get custody of his son, even if he had to shoot or "beat the heck out of" someone to do it.

The next morning, Monday, January 29, 1990, defendant told Michelle that some of his friends had killed Rita. He told Michelle that he was present during the killing, but had only kicked Rita in the face. Defendant then drove Michelle to Rita's car, which was parked near a baseball field about seven-tenths of a mile from their apartment. As defendant approached the car, a Pinal County Sheriff's evidence technician who was processing the car stopped him. Defendant told the technician that he thought the car was Rita's and that if he were allowed to look inside the car, he could confirm his belief. He also told the technician that Rita was from Phoenix and that he had last seen her on Sunday morning at about 3:10 or 3:15 a.m.

Defendant later went to the Casa Grande Police Department to inquire about Rita. At Police did find defendant's fingerprints on several different surfaces on the exterior of Rita's car. They also found various stains resembling blood on the interior and exterior of the vehicle, including dark stains in the splash area near the tire well and on the wheel cover. A large stain on the emergency brake console was blood with the same type and enzyme markers as Rita's. Several of the other stains were human blood, but criminalists were unable to determine the type. There were traces of human blood on the left rear quarter panel, the left front spoiler, the splash area behind the left rear wheel, the left rear panel molding, and on several locations on the underside of the car. Inside the car, in addition to the stain on the emergency brake console, there was human blood on the driver's door and on the driver's seat.

[183 Ariz. 373] the department, Detective Wesbrock of the Pinal County Sheriff's Office interviewed defendant and told him that Rita was dead. After the interview, Wesbrock went with defendant to defendant's apartment. While at the apartment, Detective Wesbrock had a brief discussion with Michelle, who told him that defendant was home with her on the night of the murder. After obtaining written consent from both defendant and Michelle, Detective Wesbrock examined defendant's .45 caliber automatic handgun. He also searched defendant's drawers and closet and seized all the clothing defendant had worn the previous week. Shortly after Wesbrock left, defendant told Michelle that the police would find his fingerprints on Rita's car because he had been with Rita the night before. He also told Michelle that she should continue to tell police that he was home with her all night.

About two weeks after Rita's murder, defendant admitted to Michelle that he had in fact killed Rita. He told Michelle that he shot Rita in the arm and in the side and that he hit her in the head with a steam iron and a pole. He told Michelle that when Rita tried to get up and run, he knocked her down and repeatedly ran over her with a car. Defendant finally told Michelle that if she told anyone, "he would do his 25 years and he would get out and he would kill [her] if he had to go through [her] entire family to do it." Defendant also shared details of Rita's murder with two of his co-workers, but did not admit to them his involvement.

Armed Robbery and Attempted First Degree Murder of Norma. In the early hours of March 5, 1990, five weeks after Rita's murder, defendant entered a Circle K convenience store and asked the cashier, Norma Soto, where her boyfriend was. Defendant knew both Norma and her boyfriend. Norma told defendant where her boyfriend was, and defendant left. About an hour later, at around 2:20 a.m., defendant returned. He had a gun and appeared upset and angry. Defendant accused Norma of spreading rumors that he had killed Rita and asked her for the money in the register. While she was handing defendant the money, defendant told her to get in his car so they could go to the desert and talk. When Norma refused, defendant said that he would give her to the count of three to get in the car. Norma started to cry and begged defendant not to hurt her. Defendant fired, hitting Norma in the forehead, abdomen, and left hand.

At approximately 2:45 a.m., Officer Fortier of the Eloy Police Department drove by the store on a routine security check and noticed the front doors standing open. Thinking this unusual, he went inside. When he did not see the clerk, he went to the counter and saw the registers standing open. He then saw a trail of blood, followed it, and found Norma sitting in the manager's office covered with blood, holding a rag over her stomach. After calling for help, he asked Norma what happened, and she said that Aryon Williams had robbed her. She said initially that she did not know who shot her, but while waiting for the ambulance she repeatedly said, "Aryon shot me." Norma also told paramedics and a Pinal County Sheriff's deputy that Aryon Williams had shot her. At the scene, police recovered three .45 caliber bullet casings that were later...