State v. Wilson
| Decision Date | 24 January 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 94-2537,94-2537 |
| Citation | 74 Ohio St.3d 381,659 N.E.2d 292 |
| Parties | The STATE of Ohio, Appellee, v. WILSON, Appellant. |
| Court | Ohio Supreme Court |
In Elyria, on Saturday, May 4, 1991, around 1:30 p.m., defendant-appellant, Daniel Wilson, killed Carol Lutz by locking her in the trunk of her car, puncturing the gas tank, and setting the car on fire. Wilson then walked away, allowing Carol Lutz to be baked alive.
On the previous afternoon, Wilson was drinking at the Empire Tavern, a bar he frequented. Between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m., he went to the home of Angie Shelton, a girl he dated. As they argued, Wilson got mad, "slammed" her "against the wall," threw her on the bed, and "went to hit" her. Shelton told him that if he hit her, she "would be the last person that he hit." Wilson then left, and later returned to the Empire Tavern.
That evening, Carol Lutz drove her 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass to the Empire Tavern to meet Douglas Pritt, an old boyfriend, and Wilson, apparently a new friend. Pritt, Lutz and Wilson played pool and drank together. Pritt left the bar sometime between 12:30 a.m. and 1:00 a.m. Lutz left close to 2:30 a.m., and Wilson left right after she did. According to Wilson's confession, Lutz offered him a ride home. She drove with him to the trailer where he lived. Once there, they drank one or two beers. Wilson vaguely recalled driving to Lorain to search for a party, and stopping at his father's house.
Darlene DeBolt, a service station cashier in Stow, stated that Wilson stopped at the station around 5:55 a.m. on May 4. He was driving a black Oldsmobile Cutlass and appeared to be alone. DeBolt did not hear any noise coming from the Oldsmobile. Wilson told DeBolt, an old friend, that the car was his, that he had just driven from Canada, and that he "stopped a few states back for a few beers." DeBolt smelled alcohol on him. Wilson tried to get DeBolt to go out with him and was "persistent and pushy." DeBolt refused to leave work and after sixty or ninety minutes, Wilson left.
When Wilson woke up on May 4, around 7:30-8:00 a.m., he was in a parking lot, sitting in the driver's seat of Lutz's Oldsmobile. Lutz, who was locked in the trunk, asked him to let her out, but he did not. Wilson could not recall how she got there. He drove to various places including a park where he took a walk. He remembers thinking, "How am I going to get out of this?" Throughout this time, Lutz remained locked in the trunk.
Later that morning, Wilson drove to a school and parked the Oldsmobile. After awhile he took off the gas cap, stuffed a rag in the open neck of the gas tank and lit the rag. This time, the fire burned out. Lutz told him "she really had to go to the bathroom." He "took the rag back out" of the gas tank and "let her [out to] go to the bathroom."
When he "told her to get back" in the trunk, Lutz told Wilson, "she'd go home and forget about it." Wilson didn't believe her and thought to himself, "How can you forget about being locked in a trunk?" Wilson stated that he did not just leave her in the trunk because he
When Wilson told her to get back in the trunk a second time, she complied. She sat in the trunk for fifteen to twenty minutes with the lid up. They talked, and "[s]he asked me why don't I just let her go?" He "even gave her a cigarette." Then he closed the trunk lid, "poked a hole in the gas tank," stuffed a towel or blanket into the gas tank, "let it soak with gas * * * and * * * lit it." Then he "walked away from the car" and went to a nearby park.
While out driving that day, Janette Patton and her mother noticed smoke and saw Lutz's Oldsmobile enveloped in fire. Within a short time, an ambulance arrived. A paramedic opened a door to check for people and saw that there were none in the passenger compartment.
At 1:34 p.m., the Elyria Fire Department responded to reports of a car fire. Firemen extinguished the fire and forced open the trunk of the Oldsmobile. Steam and smoke poured from the opened trunk obscuring their view. When firemen extinguished the remaining flames, they found Lutz's body.
Lutz died from third-degree burns and carbon monoxide poisoning. Her body was almost totally covered with third-degree burns. Her clothing and hair had mostly burned off. Portions of her skin "had burst open as a result of the buildup of heat in the tissues of the body." Lutz's body had been, essentially, cooked "in a metal container just as if it were in an oven." Her soot-covered body emitted a petroleum odor. Lutz had no alcohol in her system, nor had she eaten recently.
An arson investigator estimated that the flames could have heated the trunk to over 550 degrees, which could cause combustibles there to ignite and catch fire. There were no holes in the trunk, but there was a puncture in the gas tank. Investigators found a gas cap under the driver's seat and a tire iron and cross bar in the back seat. Several samples of materials taken from inside the car tested positive for kerosene.
Police detective Ray Riley traced the car to Carol Lutz and learned that she had last been seen with Wilson at the Empire Tavern. On May 9, police took Wilson into custody. Riley interviewed Wilson after advising him of his Miranda rights. Wilson waived his rights and agreed to talk with the police. Riley tape-recorded the interview. Wilson confessed to keeping Lutz locked in the trunk of the Oldsmobile intermittently from 7:30 a.m. on May 4 until the time of her death. It appears that around 1:30 p.m., he killed her by setting the Oldsmobile on fire.
The grand jury indicted Wilson on three aggravated murder counts. Count I charged aggravated murder by prior calculation and design; Count II charged felony-murder (kidnapping); and Count III, as amended, charged felony-murder (aggravated arson). Each murder count had three death specifications. Specification one charged murder to escape "detection, apprehension, trial, or punishment" for kidnapping, specification two charged murder during kidnapping, and specification three charged murder during an aggravated arson. Wilson was also indicted for kidnapping (Count IV) and aggravated arson (Count V).
Wilson defended himself at trial by claiming intoxication and lack of prior calculation and design. The jury found Wilson guilty on all counts.
At the penalty phase, the prosecutor elected to proceed to sentencing only on Count I, prior calculation and design, and specification one, evading detection or punishment for another offense in violation of R.C. 2929.04(A)(3). Accordingly, neither the court nor jury considered the other two murder counts or the felony-murder death penalty specifications in assessing the penalty.
At the outset of the defense's case, a forensic toxicologist explained the effect that alcoholism has on a person's body, mind, and behavior. Linda Wilson, Wilson's mother, David Wilson, his younger brother, and Wilson's grandfather and aunt testified as to his childhood. Wilson's parents had two other sons, Donald and David; Wilson was the middle child.
Wilson's alcoholic father brutalized his wife and three sons throughout Wilson's childhood. Wilson's father would lock his sons in their bedroom at night and refuse to let them out, even to go to the bathroom. The father teased and belittled his sons. In drunken rages, Wilson's father would call his sons, "liars, cheats, and thieves," accuse them of stealing things he could not find, and hit them on their bare backsides with a leather belt. Linda Wilson testified that her husband frequently slapped and terrorized her. When Wilson was twelve, he was arrested for the vandalism of a friend's house. A year or so later, his mother moved out of the family home. She took Donald with her, and left Wilson and David with their father.
Wilson's father did not properly care for his sons, omitting even to buy food. Wilson and David were forced to steal to survive. They regularly broke into neighbors' homes to steal food or money. When he was fourteen, Wilson broke into a neighbor's house. When the neighbor surprised him, Wilson struck the elderly man, causing him to fall and break his hip. Wilson then ripped the phone cord out of the wall and left. The neighbor was not found for two days and died as a result of his injuries and the passage of time.
A juvenile court adjudged Wilson delinquent by reason of involuntary manslaughter and remanded him to the custody of the Department of Youth Services. Wilson spent one year in a state facility for serious offenders, and then went to a halfway house. He fared well at both facilities. Although Wilson was initially reluctant to accept responsibility for his neighbor's death, he did so eventually.
Days before reaching the age of seventeen, Wilson went to live with Shirley Spinney, a foster parent. Wilson adjusted well to living with Spinney. He graduated from high school, with a B average, and worked part-time while in school. After high school, Wilson continued to live with Spinney even after released from the custody of Youth Services. Wilson attended college for two semesters while continuing to work. Spinney described Wilson as incredibly compassionate, sensitive and considerate. Ultimately, Spinney discovered Wilson had a serious drinking problem. At times, he got very drunk and would call her, and she would get him and take him home.
In 1988, Spinney's other foster child, Mark, was killed in an accident. Wilson was devastated by Mark's death and he began to drink more heavily. His girlfriend noted that Mark's death had a strong impact on Wilson and that he seemed like a different person when he was drinking. The next year, Wilson left Spinney's home to live with friends. He next moved in with his mother and...
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