U.S. v. Lame

• Decision Date: 18 October 1983
• Docket Number: No. 83-1063,83-1063
• Citation: 716 F.2d 515
• Parties: 14 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 152 UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Leroy Lloyd LAME, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 515

716 F.2d 515

14 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 152

UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Leroy Lloyd LAME, Appellant.

No. 83-1063.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Argued June 17, 1983.

Decided Aug. 31, 1983.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied Oct. 18, 1983.

James D. Leach, Rapid City, S.D., for Mr. Lame.

Philip N. Hogen, U.S. Atty., D.S.D., Reed Rasmussen, Asst. U.S. Atty., Rapid City, S.D., for appellee.

Before HEANEY, Circuit Judge, and GIBSON and ROSENN, ^* Senior Circuit Judges.

ROSENN, Senior Circuit Judge.

Leroy Lloyd Lame was tried to a jury in the United States District Court and convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the death of his girlfriend, Lavina Ardith Two Bulls. Lame appeals his conviction, challenging the validity of the indictment, the failure of the trial court to suppress Lame's statement to FBI agents, and several trial court rulings. We affirm.

I.

Leroy Lloyd Lame (Lame), a fifty-six year old native American, spent Thursday, April 22, 1982, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation "drinking" with his girl friend, Lavina Ardith Two Bulls (Lavina). Late in the day, Lame and Lavina returned to the home of Lame's mother, who was out of town. At the house they were joined by a mutual friend, Oscar Blackstone (Oscar), in whose company they continued to drink. After a time, Lame went off to pick up his brother Charles and his brother's girl friend, Josephine Afraid of Bear (Josephine). When Lame returned with Charles and Josephine, he found Lavina in bed with Oscar. Both Lavina and Oscar were extremely drunk. Oscar fled the room, leaving Lavina with Lame.

Lame grabbed Lavina by the throat, shook her, and slapped her. She fell out of bed, and in doing so struck her head on the floor. When Lame pulled Lavina back up on the bed, she apparently had a seizure. Lame apparently thought nothing of this since Lavina often had seizures when she drank. After Lavina recovered from the seizure, she began to pull Lame's hair, biting and kicking him. He then hit her many times with the heel of his hands, and struck her with his fist.

The morning following the incident (Friday, April 23), Lame went into town with Charles, Oscar, and Josephine to buy more wine. Lavina did not feel well and Lame asked whether she wanted to go to the hospital. She replied in the negative. Later that evening, Lavina suffered a seizure or a stroke. She had convulsions and apparently bled from the nose or mouth. Lame asked Josephine to get Lavina a wet towel, which she did. At this time, Josephine looked into the bedroom and observed that Lavina was apparently conscious. On Saturday, Lame, Charles, Josephine, and other relatives and companions continued to drink. By Saturday night, Lavina was breathing very heavily. One Julie Warrior, the girl friend of Lame's nephew, slept at Lame's mother's house that night and heard Lavina's heavy breathing and a strange noise coming from her throat. Julie did not, however, take any action because she believed that Lame was in the bedroom with Lavina and would take care of her. Sunday morning, Lavina was dead. Lame fled the house. The other people sleeping in the house discovered Lavina's body and called the police shortly before 10:00 A.M. Sunday morning.

Lavina's body was taken to Pine Ridge Hospital. A medical examination and autopsy revealed that she probably died between 3:00 A.M. and 5:00 A.M. on Sunday morning from a subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhage (a slow hemorrhaging on the surface of the brain). Two forensic pathologists testified that the primary cause of death was "blunt force trauma" to the head. The nature of the hemorrhage was such that it was almost certainly caused by Lavina striking her head on the floor. Aside from the fatal hemorrhage, Lavina's autopsy revealed only bruises. There was sufficient medical testimony from which the jury could infer that because of the type of injuries the decedent sustained, the injuries that she incurred on Thursday night could have caused her death on Sunday morning. Prompt medical attention for the decedent's head injury might have saved her life.

While Lavina's body was being taken to Pine Ridge Hospital, tribal police searched for Leroy Lame. The police apprehended him in the early afternoon at the Sioux Nation Shopping Center. Lame appeared to be intoxicated, so the police arrested him for drunkenness and disorderly conduct. He was arraigned the next day on this charge, pled guilty, and the court sentenced him to pay $12.50 in court costs and a $10 fine. The judge then explained to Lame that he had three choices: he could pay immediately; receive a stay of execution until the fine was paid; or work the fine off at a rate of either $3 or $6 a day. Lame did not offer to pay the fine or request a stay of execution; he was thereupon returned to jail.

Later that afternoon, two agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), arrived to interview Lame concerning Lavina's death. The tribal policeman who originally arrested Lame was also present. Lame signed a valid Miranda waiver, and proceeded to describe the events on the day of the assault. He then went on to describe the events of Friday morning. He said that before he went out for more wine, he asked Lavina whether she wanted to go to the hospital. At this point, one of the FBI agents brought the conversation back to the facts of the assault. The FBI agent stated that he didn't believe that Lame merely hit Lavina with his hands, but with a baseball bat. Lame became angry, denied using the bat, and said, "If you don't believe me maybe I should get a lawyer." The agents made no reply to this remark and after a short pause Lame resumed his narrative. He then went on to describe the events of the next two days during which he alternately went out drinking and returned to the house to care for Lavina until she eventually died.

The defendant was indicted for second degree murder in violation of 18 U.S.C. Secs. 1153 and 1111. The jury acquitted him of second degree murder, but convicted him of the lesser included offense of involuntary manslaughter. Trial Judge Bogue sentenced Lame to three years imprisonment.

II.

On appeal, defendant's first challenge is to the validity of his indictment. He offers two distinct arguments.

A.

First, Lame asserts that his indictment was facially inadequate in that it did not clearly allege second degree murder. This argument is patently frivolous. The indictment read as follows:

On or about the 22nd day of April, 1982, at Oglala, in Indian country, in the District of South Dakota, Leroy Lloyd Lame, an Indian, did unlawfully beat and strike Lavina Ardith Two Bulls, a/k/a White Magpie, a/k/a Running Hawk, and as the result ... [she] did die on or about the 24th or 25th day of April, 1982. Thus, Leroy Lloyd Lame did unlawfully and with malice aforethought, murder a human being, Lavina Ardith Two Bulls ... in violation of 18 U.S.C. Secs. 1153 and 1111.

An indictment is sufficient if it contains the elements of the offense charged, fairly informs a defendant of the charge against which he must defend, and, "enables him to plead an acquittal or conviction in bar of future prosecutions for the same offense." Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87, 117, 94 S.Ct. 2887, 2907, 41 L.Ed.2d 590 (1974). The elements of second degree murder, for purposes of crimes committed on Indian lands within the Eighth Circuit, are (1) the unlawful taking of a human life with (2) malice aforethought. Beardslee v. United States, 387 F.2d 280, 293 (8th Cir.1967). Lame's indictment alleges both elements of second degree murder. It is sufficiently specific as to time and place to pinpoint the incident complained of and avoid double jeopardy problems. Therefore, the indictment is facially adequate.

B.

Second, the defendant complains that the district court refused to order disclosure of the grand jury transcripts to him. Prior to the commencement of the grand jury proceedings, defense counsel sent the United States Attorney a list of exculpatory facts that he believed should be presented to the grand jury. These included information that Lame and Lavina had been lovers for at least a year before the fatal incident, that Lame found Lavina in bed with Oscar, that Lame attended to Lavina over the weekend, and that apparently none of the people who were in the house over the weekend thought that Lavina was ill enough to have to go to the hospital. In the district court Lame contended that the United States Attorney never presented this information to the grand jury, for if he had, the grand jury would not have indicted Lame for second degree murder. Therefore, he sought access to the grand jury transcripts for the purpose of showing that the exculpatory information had not been imparted to the grand jury, and that the indictment should therefore be dismissed.

The court rejected Lame's request for access to the grand jury transcripts because he did not demonstrate the particularized need required by Fed.R.Crim.P. 6(e)(3)(C)(ii). We agree. "The grand jury possesses broad investigative power to enable it to carry out this [accusatorial] function. It may compel production of such evidence and testimony as it considers appropriate, 'unrestrained by the technical procedural and evidentiary rules governing the conduct of the criminal trials.' " United States v. Ciambrone, 601 F.2d 616, 622 (2d Cir.1979) (quoting United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 343, 94 S.Ct. 613, 617, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974)). In guiding the progress of the grand jury, the United States Attorney may not engage in fundamentally unfair tactics or deliberately mislead the jury. He may not, for instance, introduce evidence that he knows to be perjured, or conceal substantial evidence negating guilt. Id. at 623. At the same time, the United States Attorney is not obliged "to search for and submit to a grand jury evidence favorable to the defense or negating guilt, when it has not been requested by...