State v. Wilson
| Decision Date | 27 February 2020 |
| Docket Number | No. 20171011-CA,20171011-CA |
| Citation | 461 P.3d 1124 |
| Parties | STATE of Utah, Appellee, v. Jacquan David WILSON, Appellant. |
| Court | Utah Court of Appeals |
Scott L. Wiggins, Salt Lake City, Attorney for Appellant
Sean D. Reyes and Marian Decker, Salt Lake City, Attorneys for Appellee
Opinion
¶1 In an attempt to prevent his friend (Friend) from showing his pregnant girlfriend (Girlfriend) photographic proof of his infidelity, Jacquan David Wilson stabbed Friend six times with a serrated kitchen knife. A jury convicted Wilson of attempted murder, and Wilson appeals that conviction, claiming that his trial attorney rendered ineffective assistance. We affirm.
¶2 Wilson and Friend got to know each other at work, and the two of them soon became fast friends. They bonded "immediately," and began spending time "talk[ing], text[ing], work[ing] out, hit[ting] the mall, [and] chas[ing] women." At the time, Wilson did not have a permanent residence, but instead spent time "bouncing" between different places; at one point, for about a month, Wilson moved into and lived at Friend’s home with Friend and his parents. After living at Friend’s house, Wilson moved on to other accommodations, which sometimes included living with Girlfriend. Throughout their friendship, and even while he was living with Girlfriend, Wilson would periodically send Friend photographs of himself having sex with "different women," apparently in an effort to show that "his game was stronger than [Friend’s]."
¶3 While Wilson was living at Friend’s house, Friend lent Wilson some of his clothes, including a pair of True Religion jeans (the Jeans). Friend had purchased the Jeans upon receiving a promotion at work, and to him, they were not just a pair of pants, but were a symbolic "validation" of his professional success. Much to Friend’s displeasure, however, when Wilson moved out of Friend’s house, he took Friend’s Jeans with him. In the weeks that followed, Friend repeatedly asked Wilson to return the Jeans, but the two were apparently unable to effectuate the transfer.
¶4 A couple of months after he moved out, Wilson returned to Friend’s house for a visit, and told Friend that he had gotten Girlfriend pregnant, which he was excited about because he would now have somewhere more permanent "to lay his head for nine months." Meanwhile, Wilson was also seeing another woman (Girlfriend Two), who Friend knew was waiting for Wilson in the car. Unimpressed with Wilson’s behavior, Friend told Wilson he was "irresponsible" and called him "an ass," and then reiterated his request for Wilson to return the Jeans. In response, Wilson deflected, stating simply that he would return the Jeans later.
¶5 Over the course of the next few days, Friend made several attempts to retrieve the Jeans. Because Wilson had blocked Friend on Facebook after their arguments about Wilson’s attitude toward women, Friend began communicating through Girlfriend about the return of the Jeans, and at one point Friend even visited Girlfriend’s apartment to discuss the matter with her. Wilson even began to suspect some romantic involvement between Friend and Girlfriend, although no evidence of any such relationship is in the record. During the course of his communication with Girlfriend, Friend told her that he knew she was pregnant, and cautioned her that Wilson "may not be the person [Girlfriend] think[s] he is." He also stated that, if he didn’t get his Jeans back soon, he would be "[h]otter than hell’s flames." Eventually, Girlfriend told Friend that she and Wilson would swing by Friend’s house to drop off the Jeans.
¶6 That evening, Wilson came to Friend’s front door, knocked, and—when Friend opened the door—handed Friend a plastic bag containing the Jeans. The two began arguing, and Friend became angry with Wilson, and told Wilson that he was going to show Girlfriend—who was waiting in the car—all of the pictures Wilson had sent him of Wilson’s sexual exploits. Wilson responded by saying that Friend "wasn’t gonna do nothing," and tried to stop Friend from walking to the car. Friend then "kind of like pushed [Wilson] out of the way," not "hard," "just enough to like move him," and proceeded toward the car where Girlfriend was waiting. Friend then began to open the car door, calling Girlfriend’s name.
¶7 Suddenly, Friend felt what he thought was a punch in his left shoulder, followed by a number of other quick blows to his back, upper arm, and face. Although Friend did not immediately realize it, Wilson was stabbing him with a serrated kitchen knife whose blade was between six and ten inches long. When all was said and done, Wilson had stabbed Friend six times, with the last blow essentially "fillet[ing] [Friend’s] cheek off like [he] was some fish." Girlfriend heard Friend yell, "He stabbed me," as Wilson jumped in the car and commanded Girlfriend to drive away.
¶8 After Wilson and Girlfriend drove off, Friend lay bleeding in the street, calling for help, until his father heard him and drove him to the hospital. Friend had lost a "lot of blood," perhaps as much as "half of his blood volume," and one of his lungs had collapsed, putting him at risk for heart failure. Doctors also discovered that one of the stab wounds had resulted in a broken rib, an injury that requires "a lot of force" and is usually seen in "high velocity injuries" like car accidents. In addition, another of the stab wounds severed the cephalic vein in Friend’s right arm, and the stab to Friend’s face ran from his right eye to his right earlobe and was deep enough to create an open "flap" of skin and muscle.
¶9 As she drove Wilson away from the scene of the stabbing, Girlfriend was so frightened that she hit a curb as she was making a U-turn, and popped one of the car’s tires. Wilson became "upset, like [Girlfriend] had done it on purpose," and Girlfriend was "crying and hyperventilating" as she drove away. She ultimately stopped the car on the side of the freeway because the car could not go any further on the popped tire. Wilson called another friend (Driver) to come pick him up and, later that evening, he "adamant[ly]" told Girlfriend not to "talk[ ] to the police."
¶10 In part due to Wilson’s admonition, Girlfriend waited until the next day to call police and give a statement, and she later admitted that her initial statement was incomplete. For example, Girlfriend did not tell police that she had seen Wilson with a knife, and that, when Wilson jumped in her car after the stabbing, she recognized the knife he was holding as one of her roommate’s serrated kitchen knives. Girlfriend testified at trial that she regretted giving an incomplete statement to police, but that she had been scared to say anything against Wilson at the time because she was pregnant with his child, still in love with him, and afraid to anger him. Although her statement was incomplete, she affirmed at trial that the statement, as far as it went, had been accurate, including her statement that Friend "jumped in the car with me as if [he] was going to hurt me." Indeed, she testified that, when she saw Friend run toward her car and open the door, she was "freaking out" because she did not know what Friend was going to do, and thought he might be "reaching for [her], like he was going to hurt [her]." But in response to the State’s questioning, she acknowledged that Friend did not actually threaten her or do anything inconsistent with simply wanting to get in the car to speak to her.
¶11 After he walked away from Girlfriend’s car on the night of the stabbing, Wilson called Driver to ask for a ride. Driver had given Wilson rides before, so he didn’t think Wilson’s call was "terribly out of line," but when he arrived to pick Wilson up, he found Wilson "upset and disheveled," carrying a knife wrapped in a piece of cloth, and demanding a ride from Davis County to Salt Lake County. Driver first drove Wilson to pick up some clothing, and then headed to Wilson’s desired destination, stopping on the way to buy bandages and ointment to treat a cut on Wilson’s hand. Wilson told Driver about the stabbing, explaining that he had stabbed Friend because Friend had threatened Girlfriend. Eventually, Driver took Wilson to a church parking lot, where Wilson threw the knife in a dumpster, before dropping him off.
¶12 The next day, Wilson texted Girlfriend Two and asked her to come pick him up. Girlfriend Two, who was unaware of the stabbing, took Wilson to her apartment, where the two of them spent time with her kids. Then, Wilson texted Driver, who picked him up from Girlfriend Two’s apartment and unsuccessfully tried to convince Wilson to turn himself in. While Wilson was out, Girlfriend Two saw on Twitter that the local police had issued a felony warrant for Wilson’s arrest, and asked Wilson about it when he returned. Wilson explained to Girlfriend Two that, yes, he was wanted by the police, but that Friend had pushed him and that he had acted in self-defense.
¶13 The next day was Thanksgiving, and Wilson spent it with Girlfriend Two, who testified that Wilson was "paranoid" that he would be arrested. Growing increasingly frightened and worried, Girlfriend Two texted "the crime stoppers tip line" to report that Wilson was with her, and police soon arrived at her apartment. Girlfriend Two was so afraid Wilson would see that she had been texting the police that she threw her phone behind the refrigerator. The police began knocking on the door, shining flashlights through windows, and asking to be let in, but for over three hours Wilson refused to open the door and would not let anyone else do so either. Finally, a police hostage negotiator called Wilson’s cell phone and, with Girlfriend Two’s help, convinced Wilson to let the police in. Police then arrested Wilson and took him to the station for questioning.
¶14 During his interview, Wilson intimated...
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