U.S. v. Veltmann
| Decision Date | 15 November 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 92-2762,92-2762 |
| Citation | 6 F.3d 1483 |
| Parties | 38 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 377 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Carl VELTMANN and Christopher Veltmann, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Allan A. Ackerman, Chicago, IL, for Carl Veltmann and Christopher Veltmann.
Joseph K. Ruddy, Asst. U.S. Atty., Tampa, FL, for U.S.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Before FAY and HATCHETT, Circuit Judges, and JOHNSON, Senior Circuit Judge.
Defendants Chris Veltmann and Carl Veltmann were convicted of matricide and uxoricide respectively. 1 Each defendant was also found guilty on twenty eight counts of mail and wire fraud based on insurance claims arising from Elizabeth Veltmann's death and fire damage to the family home. 2 Defendants appeal their convictions based on the trial court's (1) denial of their motions for judgment of acquittal, (2) use of a non-pattern reasonable doubt instruction, (3) admission of evidence of prior, remote, non-similar fires, (4) exclusion of state-of-mind evidence, and (5) admission of Chris Veltmann's post-arrest statements implicating Carl Veltmann. We AFFIRM the trial court's denial of defendants' motions for acquittal, and find no error in the reasonable doubt instruction given. We REVERSE, however, on several of the trial court's evidentiary rulings.
Elizabeth Veltmann ("Elizabeth") died the evening of January 7, 1990 during a fire in the home she shared with her husband, Carl Veltmann ("Carl"). The couple had just returned from a week-long honeymoon cruise with Elizabeth's son, Christopher Veltmann ("Chris"), and his new bride.
The fire was caused by arson; the crux of the case is the identity of the arsonist(s). The government theorized that Carl and Chris set fire to the house with the knowledge that Elizabeth was inside and with intent to recover proceeds under various insurance policies. 3 Defendants argued that Elizabeth, beset with fiscal worries and physical maladies, committed suicide after setting fire to the home. To evaluate the sufficiency of the evidence and harmlessness of evidentiary rulings, we must review in some detail the relevant facts pertaining to the fire, Elizabeth's state of mind, and the circumstantial case against the defendants.
On January 7, 1990, at 9:41 p.m., a neighbor called 911 after hearing an alarm and seeing smoke and flames coming from a second floor window of the Veltmann's three story residence. Firefighters broke into the house through the locked front door and found Elizabeth unconscious in the third floor master bedroom. She could not be revived. No one else was found in the home.
The investigation revealed the fire had three separate points of origin. The majority of damage was caused by a fire in the first floor foyer. This fire was started with newspapers and possibly a small amount of accelerant. The second fire was in the garage and the third in the dumbwaiter in the second floor kitchen. These two fires essentially "went nowhere." The oven was turned onto the "clean" position, and a firefighter reported that the burners were glowing. Experts' estimates of the burn time 4 ranged from twenty to fifty minutes. It seems that the fires were lit between roughly 8:50 p.m. and 9:20 p.m.
None of the ten smoke detectors in the residence were sounding when firefighters arrived. The government contended that the smoke detectors were "disarmed" before the fire was set. 5 Seven batteries were recovered There was contradictory evidence about the home protection system. The Veltmanns were convinced they were protected by a combined burglar/fire alarm system. Government witnesses, however, testified that the alarm system did not monitor for fires at all. The system, when properly installed, had a "line seizure" mechanism. When such a device is triggered it "seizes" the phone lines and automatically calls the monitoring service. The government argued that the alarm was deactivated before the fire because it was "parallel wired" which prevented the system from seizing the phone line if any telephone in the house was off the hook. 6 In fact, the master bedroom telephone was off the hook with the receiver lying on the floor next to the bed. The absence of soot under the phone indicated it was on the floor during all or most of the fire. Testimony suggested that the phone was off the hook from at least 7:00 p.m. on January 7th. Accordingly, even if the system were equipped with fire detection devices as defendants believed, it could not have called the monitoring station when the fire began. However, the audible alarm outside the house was apparently triggered at some point during the fire which bolsters defendants' suggestion that the system was working. 7
all functioned when properly connected. One smoke detector did not contain batteries at all. According to Carl, two smoke detectors were hooked up to operate electrically. None of the smoke detectors or the batteries were fingerprinted. The plug portions of the batteries were not tested by the government for carbon deposits which may have revealed whether they were connected to the detectors during the fire. Defendants' fire investigator testified that given the absence of soot inside some smoke detectors and underneath the contact points, the batteries were fully connected during the fire. Defendants further argued that the third floor batteries must have fallen out during the fire because soot deposits were observed under the batteries rather than around them.
The government emphasized that Elizabeth was locked inside the house with no means of escape. 8 Firefighters believed that all exterior doors required an inside key to be unlocked, however, it appears that only the front door and perhaps one other was so equipped. The sliding glass door in the master bedroom opened onto a screened porch; there was no testimony that this door was locked. The government claimed that all windows were shut, creating an oven-like effect. However, at least three witnesses saw flames coming out of a second or third floor window.
There was no forced entry into the house other than that made by firefighters. Although numerous people had access to keys, there were apparently no suspects other than Carl and Chris who had both access to the house and knowledge of the home protection systems.
The defense's case rested on proof that Elizabeth was suicidal. Elizabeth's autopsy revealed that her blood-alcohol level at death was .149, with a .33 level of Dalmane, a prescription sedative, in her system. Carbon monoxide test samples yielded a 73 to 75 percent result evidencing the cause of death as acute carbon monoxide intoxication from the inhalation of smoke and gases. The physician testified he did not consider suicide Contradictions permeate evidence of Elizabeth's physical and psychological condition. Elizabeth and Carl were married for twenty-five years, were business partners, and were described by a number of witnesses as a loving and devoted couple. Elizabeth was happy about Chris' recent marriage and excited about the honeymoon cruise. But numerous indicators point to Elizabeth's deep distress over her medical and financial problems.
because it was not suggested by the police. Although Elizabeth was discovered two feet away from the sliding glass door, there is no forensic evidence that she was attempting to escape because her feet were not analyzed for soot deposits. She was found lying face down on the floor, clutching a tissue or handkerchief, nearby bills, bank statements, and family photos strewn across the floor. Approximately a year and a half after her death, Carl found an undated suicide note written by Elizabeth. 9 The authenticity of the note was not challenged
Elizabeth suffered from a variety of physical maladies. 10 She was treated for years with a variety of pain killers, and eventually became a prescription drug addict. In 1987, Elizabeth suffered respiratory arrest as a result of a self-induced drug overdose. Psychiatrists suspected a suicide attempt, but Elizabeth steadfastly refused to admit she was depressed and checked out of the hospital against medical advice. An addictionologist concluded that Elizabeth eventually became desperate for drugs as evidenced by stockpiling her supply, forging a prescription, obtaining drugs in her father's name, and trying to manipulate a nurse and another friend into providing her with drugs illegally. The expert postulated that she took most or all of the drugs in her system near the time of death. He concluded that the sudden infusion of alcohol and prescription drugs was consistent with suicide by overdose. But with a delay of fifteen to sixty minutes between taking the drugs and becoming incapacitated by their effect, considering her tolerance level, Elizabeth was probably able to set a simple fire and negotiate the stairs in the house (or operate the elevator) for some period of time after taking the drugs. The government's expert believed that given her level of drug intoxication, Elizabeth was not ambulatory during the time in which the fire must have been set.
In addition to being chemically dependent, Elizabeth was deeply troubled about what seemed to be impending financial ruin. She needed money for drugs and was trying to keep her dependency a secret. The Veltmann's corporation filed for bankruptcy in December, 1989. Their home, built in 1985 with Elizabeth as general contractor, was on the market. In the months preceding her death, Elizabeth tried to borrow money from a number of people.
The most telling indicator of Elizabeth's monetary dilemma and mental state was not admitted into evidence. In a videotaped deposition, Carl Engstrom testified that Elizabeth extracted $500,000 from him over the past twenty-five to thirty years. She was apparently...
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Hearsay
...of intent may be introduced as a means to prove that the declarant acted in accordance with that intent. United States v. Veltmann , 6 F.3d 1483 (11th Cir. 1993). A statement of an alleged murder victim, that she was suicidal, should have been admitted under the state of mind exception to s......
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Hearsay
...of intent may be introduced as a means to prove that the declarant acted in accordance with that intent. United States v. Veltmann , 6 F.3d 1483 (11th Cir. 1993). A statement of an alleged murder victim, that she was suicidal, should have been admitted under the state of mind exception to s......