Woodham v. State
| Citation | 800 So.2d 1148 |
| Decision Date | 29 November 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 1998-KA-01689-SCT.,1998-KA-01689-SCT. |
| Parties | Luke T. WOODHAM v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi |
Leslie D. Roussell, Collins, Attorney for Appellant.
Office of the Attorney General by Billy L. Gore, Jackson, Attorneys for Appellee.
EN BANC.
¶ 1. Luke T. Woodham was indicted on October 20, 1997, in Rankin County for the murder of his mother, Mary Ann Woodham. A five-day jury trial was conducted in Neshoba County following a change of venue. On June 5, 1998, the jury returned a guilty verdict, and Woodham was sentenced to life imprisonment in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Woodham appeals from this conviction and sentence. Finding no reversible error by the trial court, we affirm Woodham's conviction and sentence.
¶ 2. On June 5, 1998, Woodham, a sixteen-year-old high school student, was convicted of stabbing his mother to death and sentenced to life imprisonment. At trial, Woodham testified that he had no recollection of killing his mother. He described his relationship with his mother as devoid of love and essentially nonexistent. He recalled his earliest memories of home life while on the stand. These consisted of his parents fighting and finally divorcing when he was in the sixth grade. Woodham testified that he was often left without adult supervision. He never had any close relationships with his extended family, and he described his childhood as lonely.
¶ 3. At trial, he stated that he had suffered from depression as early as age eight. Classmates picked on him as early as kindergarten; and, according to Woodham, the further he went in school, the more intense the picking, name calling and physical bullying became. In high school, he was indifferent regarding his school work and had to repeat his ninth grade year. He testified that he began to seclude himself from others with the exception of a girlfriend, whom he contended provided him with the love he had waited for all of his life. When the relationship ended, however, he began an emotional downward spiral.
¶ 4. Grant Boyette, an older high school student, befriended Luke and other unpopular students at school. These students began spending time together-playing video games, reading books and discussing philosophy. At some point, Woodham detailed how the group began dabbling in the occult under the guidance of Boyette. Witnesses testified that Boyette began preaching satanic teachings to the other members of the group, later named "The Kroth." ¶ 5. At trial, Woodham testified that on the day of his mother's death, he heard Boyette's voice in his head directing him to kill his mother. He recalled the following:
I remember I woke up that morning, and I had seen the demons I'd seen all the time when Grant had told me to do something. And he was telling me that I was nothing and that I'd always be nothing; ... And I remember getting the knife, and I got a pillow. And I walked into my mother's room. And I remember Grant's voice and he told me that I had to do all of this.. I remember I just closed my eyes, and I just followed myself. I didn't want to do any of it ... I kept hearing his voice. And my eyes were closed. When I opened them, my mother was lying on her bed dead.
¶ 6. Lucas Thompson, a classmate of Woodham, testified that the night prior to the homicide, Woodham told him in a telephone conversation that he was going to kill his mom the next day with a knife. Thompson did not believe him; however, when they spoke again the next morning, Woodham, who was on the other phone line with Boyette, informed Thompson that he had in fact done it.
¶ 7. Woodham's blood and the blood of his mother were found on a butcher knife removed from the crime scene. Dr. Steven Hayne, the State's pathologist and author of Mary Woodham's autopsy, detailed her injuries:
There were multiple types of injuries. Specifically there was evidence of blunt force trauma. There was evidence of multiple slash wounds. There was evidence of multiple stab wounds. In fact a total of seven stab wounds were identified, and eleven slash wounds were noted during the course of the autopsy. In addition, there were superficial injuries consisting of scratches or abrasions located on multiple surfaces of the body. There was also one small cut located over the front of the left arm. And there was also areas of bruising located predominantly over the right side of the face.
He concluded that the ultimate cause of death was attributable to "three stab wounds of the chest, to include a stab wound of the heart, a stab wound of the right lung, a stab wound of the left lung, and the subsequent collection of a large volume of blood bleeding into the chest cavity to a volume of approximately three quarts of blood...."
¶ 8. Shortly after Woodham was taken into custody and mirandized, an investigator observed a large cut on Woodham's hand and asked him how he had cut his hand. Woodham paused for a moment and responded, "Killing my mom." A jail administrator testified he also asked Woodham the same question and received the same answer. Investigators obtained written and video recorded statements from Woodham. In their presence, Woodham signed a waiver of rights form, a video release form and a form styled "Voluntary Statement" in which he confessed to killing his mother. In the "Voluntary Statement" Woodham wrote the following:
I woke up this morning, got a butcher knife, and a pillow. I got into my mother's room at about 5:00 a.m. I put the pillow over her head and stabbed her.
He further explained in a videotaped confession that killing his mother was the only way that he could get the gun and the car.
¶ 9. A jury convicted Woodham of murder on June 5, 1998. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Aggrieved by the jury's verdict, he has timely filed this appeal.
¶ 10. Woodham raises four issues on appeal. First, he argues that the trial court erred in not allowing defense counsel to further question two witnesses called by the defense following the witnesses' invocations of their Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves. Second, Woodham asserts that he was denied due process of law when the trial court admitted his written and videotaped confessions into evidence following its determination that his waiver of his Miranda rights was valid. Third, he contends that the trial court committed reversible error when it refused proposed defense jury instructions D-5, D-6, D-9, D-10, D-11(A). The fourth argument advanced by Woodham is that the evidence of his legal insanity was so great that any reasonable jury could not have found him sane beyond a reasonable doubt.
¶ 11. During his case in chief, Woodham called Grant Boyette, who was indicted for crimes arising out of the same occurrence, to testify. Under the direction of his attorney, however, Boyette invoked his Fifth Amendment rights immediately after taking the stand. The following dialog occurred:
¶ 12. At a bench conference, Woodham informed the Court that he intended to ask Boyette whether he was present at the Woodham's home the day his mother was killed. The court ruled it improper, however, suggesting that to ask questions before the jury once Boyette invoked his Fifth Amendment rights would amount to the attorney testifying.
¶ 13. After calling Boyette, Woodham called Lucas Thompson, who had previously testified for the prosecution, to the stand. He attempted to cross-examine Thompson on several subjects relevant to Woodham's state of mind, but the following took place:
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Caston v. State
...be found." Coleman v. State, 697 So.2d 777 (Miss.1997) (quoting Collins v. State, 691 So.2d 918 (Miss.1997)). See also Woodham v. State, 800 So.2d 1148, 1156 (Miss.2001); Milano v. State, 790 So.2d 179, 183 (Miss.2001); Pulphus v. State, 782 So.2d at 1224. Following this well-settled law an......
-
Thorson v. State
...considering the jury instructions as a whole, the trial court properly refused to grant Jury Instruction DS-10. See Woodham v. State, 800 So.2d 1148, 1156 (Miss.2001); Williams v. State, 803 So.2d 1159, 1163 (Miss.2001). This issue is without VII. Jury Instructions DS-4 and DS-14 s 53. Thor......
-
Edmonds v. State, 2004-CT-02081-SCT.
...through counsel. United States v. Williams, 927 F.2d 95, 99 (2d Cir.1991); Chan, 184 F.Supp.2d at 341. ¶ 17. In Woodham v. State, 800 So.2d 1148, 1154-55 (Miss.2001), we approved of a "blanket" invocation of the Fifth [A] blanket claim of the privilege is proper where the proceeding is crim......
-
Edmonds v. State, No. 2004-CT-02081-SCT (Miss. 1/4/2007)
...intention and will not change." ¶13. We have previously approved of a "blanket" invocation of the Fifth Amendment. Woodham v. State, 800 So. 2d 1148, 1154-55 (Miss. 2001). We [A] blanket claim of the privilege is proper where the proceeding is criminal in nature and the record affirmatively......