State v. Young

Decision Date24 May 2000
Docket NumberNo. 21911.,21911.
Citation999 P.2d 230,93 Haw. 224
PartiesSTATE of Hawai`i, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Monte Louis YOUNG, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.
CourtHawaii Supreme Court

Michael G.M. Ostendorp, Honolulu, on the briefs, for defendant-appellant.

James M. Anderson, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, on the briefs, for plaintiff-appellee.

MOON, C.J., LEVINSON, NAKAYAMA, RAMIL, JJ., and Circuit Judge AMANO1, Assigned by Reason of Vacancy

Opinion of the Court by NAKAYAMA, J.

Defendant-appellant Monte Louis Young, Jr. appeals his conviction of one count of murder in the second degree, in violation of Hawai`i Revised Statutes (HRS) § 707-701.5(1) (1993), and his sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole under HRS § 706-657 (Supp.1998). On appeal, Young argues that the trial court erred in: (1) finding him penally responsible; (2) failing to convict him of manslaughter instead of murder in the second degree; (3) denying his motion to dismiss the complaint or, in the alternative, to strike the enhanced sentencing language from the complaint; and (4) sentencing him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. We affirm Young's conviction and vacate his enhanced sentence. We hold that one of the findings of fact relied upon by the sentencing court was clearly erroneous. Without the erroneous finding, there is not substantial evidence that Young's attack was "unnecessarily torturous" to the victim, as required by HRS § 706-657, and therefore, the sentencing court erred in sentencing Young to an enhanced sentence. We vacate Young's sentence and remand for resentencing.

I. BACKGROUND

On the morning of May 10, 1997, Young went to the Burger King on the corner of University Avenue and Metcalf Street. Young approached Brian Yonizaki, a Burger King employee who was sweeping the patio, and asked him for some money. After Yonizaki refused, Young swore at him and walked away. Young then retrieved a hammer from his truck. He returned to the Burger King patio, approached Paul Ulbrich, pulled the hammer out from behind his back, and struck Ulbrich on the back of the head. Young repeatedly hit Ulbrich and continued to hit him after he fell to the ground. According to eyewitnesses, Ulbrich did not scream or struggle. After the attack, Young jumped over the wall on the Metcalf Street side of Burger King, discarded the hammer in the parking lot, and fled the scene in his truck. Ulbrich was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead approximately two hours after the attack. According to the testimony at trial, Ulbrich was a stranger to Young prior to the incident.

Young was arrested in connection with Ulbrich's death on May 13, 1997. Stephen Dung, the arresting detective, did not note any concerns about Young's ability to understand what was happening at the time of his arrest. The next day, Detective Dung asked Young to consent to a search of his car. According to Detective Dung's testimony, Young said that he would not sign the consent form "because he thought that he may be mentally incapacitated but he really wasn't sure." Detective Dung asked Young if he understood that he was under arrest for Ulbrich's murder. Young replied, "Look, I'm not proud of what I did; and the guy's dead; right?" Detective Dung warned Young that he shouldn't make a statement, but Young continued, "There's a lot of circumstances involved that you guys don't understand." Detective Dung then ordered Young to stop and apprised him of his rights. Young requested an attorney. During this time, Young responded appropriately to questions and seemed to understand what was happening.

On May 21, 1997, Young was charged by complaint with murder in the second degree. The complaint also alleged that the murder was "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel" under HRS § 706-657. On September 10, 1997, Young filed a motion to dismiss the complaint or, in the alternative, to strike the enhanced sentencing language on the ground that the statute was unconstitutional. A hearing was conducted on January 9, 1998 and continued to June 4, 1998, after Young's conviction. The circuit court denied the motion, ruling that HRS § 706-657 was constitutional and that it applied to the facts adduced at trial.2

On September 18, 1997, the court appointed Gary Farkas, Ph.D., Arnold Golden, M.D., and Stephen Choy, Ph.D., to examine the defendant and determine his fitness to proceed and penal responsibility. All three concluded that Young was capable of understanding the proceedings against him and assisting in his defense. They also opined that he should not be held penally responsible. Dr. Golden concluded, "In my opinion, the capacity of the defendant to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct and to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law was substantially impaired by the above mentioned physical and mental disorders and defects at the time of the alleged conduct." Dr. Choy concluded that "the Defendant was substantially impaired both cognitively and volitionally at the time of the alleged conduct." Dr. Farkas concluded that it was likely that, at the time of the offense, Young's diagnosis was: "AXIS I—Psychotic Disorder, NOS (289.9), rule out Schizophrenia, Paranoid Type (295.3) versus Substance-Induced Persisting Psychotic Disorder (292.1). Polysubstance Dependence, by history (304.80)[.] AXIS II—Deferred[.] AXIS III—Status post subarachnoid hemorrhage and temporoparietal contusion, by history[.]" In an order dated November 21, 1997, the court found Young fit to proceed.

In the jury-waived trial, Beatrix-Mona Tanuwidjaya, who was waiting outside for Burger King to open on the morning of the attack, testified that she saw Young speaking to Ulbrich. When she heard a blow, she looked up and saw Young hit Ulbrich with the hammer. She stood up and screamed. Tanuwidjaya testified that Young appeared angry and that his anger seemed to increase as he struck Ulbrich. She also stated that, although Young initially swung the hammer with one hand, he later used both hands.

Yonizaki testified that after he refused to give Young money, he continued to sweep the patio. He heard "about three hits[,]" looked up, and saw Young hitting Ulbrich. Young ordered him to "get in before I kill you," and Yonizaki went inside. Tesiery De-Guzman, a Burger King cashier who was preparing food inside during the incident, testified that she saw Young hit Ulbrich six to eight times.

Chi Cheung Leung testified that he was driving up to the intersection of University Avenue and Metcalf Street when he heard yelling. He looked toward the Burger King and saw Young pushing and yelling at Ulbrich, who did not resist. Later, he saw Young hit Ulbrich in the back of the head and the upper back. As he drove away, he heard three more blows that sounded like "[h]itting the concrete floor."

The parties stipulated to the testimony of two eyewitnesses, Keiko Tanaka and Thomas Bell. Tanaka would have testified that she saw Young strike Ulbrich a couple of times and that, after each blow, Young paused to assess the damage. Bell would have testified that he looked out from his window in the Atherton YMCA when heard a loud noise. He saw Young swinging at something on the ground. Bell thought Young was hitting one of the concrete tables because the impact sounds were so loud. He also heard a high-pitched scream. He saw Young swing three to five times.

Marcus Keep, M.D., who examined Ulbrich at Queen's Hospital, testified that there had been extensive damage to Ulbrich's skull, which was fractured "from the backside . . . all the way from the base, where the spinal cord enters, all the way to the top. It was like a cracked walnut[.]" He also described Ulbrich's injuries as "extremely severe . . . , very disturbing and horrifying[,]" and caused by "significant force[.]"

The defense called each of the doctors on the three-member panel. All of them testified that Young suffered from some sort of psychosis and, at the time of the offense, lacked the substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the law. They also testified that Young was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the offense. However, Dr. Choy acknowledged, "[I]t's very unclear which came first, the substance abuse or the psychosis, but ... both exist."

The defense also called Lisa Eby, Young's live-in girlfriend at the time of the offense. She testified that Young drank about eight beers each night and smoked two joints of marijuana a day. However, when he was being interviewed by the panel members, Young admitted to more excessive use of alcohol and marijuana. Eby said that she and Young had also tried cocaine and crystal methamphetamine, but that from April 19, 1997 to May 7, the last time she saw him, she did not see him "do anything else besides drink or smoke marijuana." According to Eby, after Young suffered a concussion in a fight with some Marines in April 1997, he began to act strangely. In the week before the murder, Young complained that his head was bothering him and his behavior grew worse. Young would mumble to himself and talk nonsense. He also believed that federal agents had him under surveillance and that aliens were after him. Eby testified that Young would lock her in the house when he left and that he once took her to Schofield Barracks because "he wanted to get [her] some protection from the aliens." The prosecution called Honolulu Police Department Officer Gisele Ruiz as a rebuttal witness. Officer Ruiz was the administrative officer at the receiving desk in the main station on May 8, 1997, when Young was jailed for abuse of a household member. Ruiz testified that Young did not behave in a dangerous manner and did not appear to be hallucinating or delusional. Ruiz also testified that Young was placed in a cell with other prisoners and not in a padded cell for disorderly, psychotic, or insane prisoners. Young was jailed on May 11, 1997 for...

To continue reading

Request your trial
30 cases
  • State v. White
    • United States
    • Hawaii Supreme Court
    • March 10, 2006
    ...be determined by the jury, the trier of fact in criminal cases, unless a jury is waived by the defendant. See State v. Young, 93 Hawai`i 224, 237, 999 P.2d 230, 243 (2000) (concluding that "a jury may infer that the victim suffered unnecessary torture based upon circumstantial evidence, if ......
  • State v. Jess
    • United States
    • Hawaii Supreme Court
    • March 31, 2008
    ...court could empanel a new jury to make extended sentencing findings pursuant to new procedural safeguards announced in State v. Young, 93 Hawai`i 224, 999 P.2d 230 (2000). (Citing Peralto, 95 Hawai`i at 7-8, 18 P.3d at 209-10.) Similarly, the prosecution maintains, the failure at Jess's fir......
  • Beneficial Hawaii, Inc. v. Kida
    • United States
    • Hawaii Supreme Court
    • August 31, 2001
    ...if a construction can be legitimately found which will give force to and preserve all words of the statute." State v. Young, 93 Hawai`i 224, 236 n. 6, 999 P.2d 230, 242 n. 6 (2000) (citations omitted). Second, the dissent suggests that our holding provides an incentive to consumers to use u......
  • State v. Maugaotega
    • United States
    • Hawaii Supreme Court
    • October 1, 2007
    ...during the pendency of the defendants' appeal — should apply to the defendants' own cases, we concluded that [i]f [State v.] Young[, 93 Hawai`i 224, 999 P.2d 230 (2000),] applies retroactively, the Peraltos' enhanced sentences must be vacated and the cases remanded for a new sentencing hear......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT