U.S. v. F.D.L.

• Decision Date: 07 January 1988
• Docket Number: 86-5317,Nos. 86-5316,s. 86-5316
• Citation: 836 F.2d 1113
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. F.D.L. (Juvenile Male), Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. R.L.R. (Juvenile Male), Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1113

836 F.2d 1113

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. F.D.L. (Juvenile Male), Appellant.

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. R.L.R. (Juvenile Male), Appellant.

Nos. 86-5316, 86-5317.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted June 11, 1987.

Decided Jan. 7, 1988.

William L. Tilton, St. Paul, Minn., for appellant RLR.

Scott F. Tilsen, Minneapolis, Minn., for appellant FDL.

Donald M. Lewis, Minneapolis, Minn., for appellee.

Before McMILLIAN, Circuit Judge, FAIRCHILD, ^* Senior Circuit Judge, and JOHN R. GIBSON, Circuit Judge.

JOHN R. GIBSON, Circuit Judge.

F.D.L. and R.L.R. ¹ appeal from an adjudication of delinquency pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Secs. 5031 and 5032 (1982) following the district court's determination that defendants were guilty of committing involuntary manslaughter on an Indian reservation in violation of 18 U.S.C. Secs. 2, 1112(b) and 1153. ² On appeal, both F.D.L. and R.L.R. allege that the district court erred in rejecting their defense claim of temporary insanity by reason of involuntary intoxication. We affirm the judgment of the district court.

The case was tried to the court, and pursuant to Fed.R.Crim.P. 23(c), special findings were made.

On Monday, January 27, 1986, the frozen body of Loren Lyons was discovered in the back seat of his car, which was stuck in the snow off a road in Redlake, Minnesota. Lyons had died of hypothermia.

On the previous Friday night, F.D.L., R.L.R. and Connie Lussier, R.L.R.'s fifteen-year-old half-sister, after drinking several beers, went to Robert Nadeau's gas station in the "back of town" area of Redlake. There they met Lyons, who had also been drinking, and asked him for a ride. Lyons agreed and the group went to the home of R.L.R.'s grandmother, where R.L.R. picked up a television set which they planned to pawn to get money for marijuana. Over the next hour and a half, Lyons unsuccessfully attempted to "hock" the television set. However, R.L.R. did pawn his winter jacket for $20.00.

Abandoning the attempt to sell the television, Lyons pulled his car to the side of the road and rolled two marijuana cigarettes. Connie Lussier saw Lyons sprinkle a white powder on the marijuana. R.L.R., who was riding in the seat next to Lyons, did not see the white powder. There was testimony that the white powder Connie Lussier saw sprinkled on the marijuana was probably phencyclidine (commonly known as PCP or angel dust). Testimony established that PCP is commonly added to marijuana cigarettes and at the time of this incident was a problem on the Red Lake Reservation. Finally, the defendants and Connie Lussier testified they felt unusually "high" after smoking the marijuana.

The group drove around Red Lake for another twenty minutes or so, when Lyons stopped the car so the defendants could urinate. While the defendants were outside they heard a car door slam. Fearing that Lyons was going to drive off with Connie, leaving the two defendants stranded several miles from home, F.D.L. opened the driver's door of the car and began pulling Lyons out of the car. A fight followed. R.L.R. joined in when he thought he saw Lyons reach for a screwdriver to use as a weapon against F.D.L. Connie Lussier testified the beating lasted fifteen minutes. After the fight, Lyons was unconscious. F.D.L. and R.L.R. lifted Lyons into the car and put him in the back seat. They could hear him breathing and snoring, and didn't think they had hurt him badly. While the beating was not the actual cause of Lyons death, the district court found that the assault on Lyons was a proximate cause of his death.

F.D.L. and R.L.R. continued to drive, with Lyons in the back seat of the car. After dropping off Connie at the home of Sheldon Bailey, R.L.R. lost control of the car as he fumbled for a cigarette. The road was icy, and the car slid into a ditch and became embedded in a snow bank.

Leaving the motor and heater running, and a door ajar to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning, the defendants abandoned the car and walked about one-half mile to the home of Sheldon Bailey. R.L.R. walked that distance without his winter coat and testified that he didn't remember feeling cold. ³ From there, Sheldon Bailey drove R.L.R., F.D.L. and Connie to the home of Charles Bolio. R.L.R. left Bolio's house and walked one mile back to his grandmother's home, again without his winter jacket.

Over the weekend several people, including F.D.L., walked past Lyons' car in the ditch. No one observed until Monday that Lyons was in it. Temperatures in the area sank from eight degrees above zero on Friday night to twenty-six degrees below on Sunday night and Lyons froze to death.

On appeal, F.D.L. and R.L.R., relying on 18 U.S.C. Sec. 17, ⁴ argue that the trial court improperly rejected their claims of temporary insanity due to involuntary intoxication. R.L.R. filed a notice of intent to rely on such a defense as required by Fed.R.Crim.P. 12.2. ⁵ R.L.R.'s counsel, in his opening statement, informed the court that involuntary intoxication was an issue in the case, discussing it in some detail, and immediately afterwards F.D.L.'s counsel informed the court that his position was the same. F.D.L.'s counsel could have been far more specific in raising this defense, but we believe that the district court was properly apprised of it, particularly in view of the specificity with which R.L.R. had placed the defense in issue, and we will consider the issue for both defendants on appeal.

The Fifth Circuit has stated: "The concept of criminal responsibility in the federal courts is a congeries of judicially made rules of decision based on common law concepts." United States v. Lyons, 731 F.2d 243, 247 (5th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 930, 105 S.Ct. 323, 83 L.Ed.2d 260 (1984). The practice of relieving a defendant of criminal responsibility, because of involuntary intoxication, extends back to the earliest days of common law. See Annotation, When Intoxication Deemed Involuntary so as to Constitute a Defense to Criminal Charge, 73 A.L.R.3d 195 Sec. 2 (1976).

The courts dealing with this issue, nearly all of them state courts, have defined involuntary intoxication in essentially the same terms as insanity. Like insanity, involuntary intoxication diminishes the culpability of a crime. The defendant is excused from criminality because intoxication affects the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. Gilcrist v. Kincheloe, 589 F.Supp. 291 (E.D.Wash.1984) aff'd 774 F.2d 1173 (9th Cir.1985). See also W. Lafave & A. Scott, Handbook on Crim. Law, Sec. 45 at 342 (1972). Thus, the mental state of an involuntarily intoxicated defendant is measured by the test of legal insanity. Gilcrist, supra at 294, State v. Lucas, 368 N.W.2d 124 (Iowa 1985); Minnesota v. Altimus, 306 Minn. 462, 238 N.W.2d 851 (1976) (en banc); State v. Mriglot, 15 Wash.App. 446, 550 P.2d 17 (1976), aff'd 88 Wash.2d 573, 564 P.2d 784 (1977) (en banc). The Ninth Circuit has recognized involuntary intoxication as a basis for invoking the insanity defense and it has expressed the rule in the same terms. United States v. Henderson, 680 F.2d 659 (9th Cir.1982). But see Lyons, 731 F.2d at 245 (mere drug addiction, voluntary or involuntary, raises no issue of such a mental disease or defect as can serve as a basis for the insanity defense). These cases all require a finding that there has been involuntary ingestion of an intoxicant, usually through trickery, and that the defendant was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or wrongfulness of his acts. 73 A.L.R.3d 203-04 (1976) (cases cited therein).

There are facts in this record to support a finding that R.L.R. and F.D.L. were involuntarily intoxicated because, unknown to them, PCP had been added to their marijuana cigarettes. There was testimony that PCP is commonly added to marijuana cigarettes; that PCP was a problem on the reservation; and that PCP was added to the cigarettes smoked by the defendants. Additionally, testimony established that R.L.R. walked a considerable distance without his coat in extremely cold weather, conduct that is at least consistent with the anesthetic effects of PCP. It is also true that the court could have rejected the testimony that the intoxication was involuntary. The evidence offered to establish that PCP was in the marijuana cigarettes was not indisputable. The district court made no specific finding on this issue.

The findings of the district court, however, are sufficient to dispose of the involuntary intoxication defense, as they reject its second element, namely, that the defendants were unable to appreciate the nature and quality or wrongfulness of their acts. The district court found that at the time of the acts resulting in Lyons' death, the defendants were capable of knowing and did know, that their conduct was a threat to his life and they were able to foresee the consequences of their acts. These findings establish that R.L.R. and F.D.L. were able to appreciate the nature and quality or wrongfulness of their acts. Thus, the converse of the second element of the involuntary intoxication defense is established.

These are factual findings that will not be reversed unless clearly erroneous. United States v. Jones, 759 F.2d 633, 637 n. 3 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 837, 106 S.Ct. 113, 88 L.Ed.2d 92 (1985), (citing Anderson v. Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985). The appellants do not attack the district court findings on this issue, and our review of the record convinces us that the findings are not clearly erroneous. Accordingly, we reject the argument of F.D.L. and R.L.R. that the district court erred in refusing to accept the defense of involuntary intoxication.

Additionally, even if the district court believed that PCP was added to the marijuana, it may have determined the intoxication was not involuntary, but voluntary. R.L.R. and F.D.L. had voluntarily consumed beer and smoked marijuana...