Case Title: State v. Gundlah

Citation: 166 Vt. 518, 702 A.2d 52

Docket Number: 96-052

State: vermont

Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Date: 1997-07-03T00:00:00Z

Document:
State v. Gundlah  (96-052); 166 Vt. 518; 702 A.2d 52

[Filed 3-Jul-1997]

       NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under
  V.R.A.P. 40 as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont
  Reports.  Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions,
  Vermont Supreme Court, 109 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05609-0801 of
  any errors in order that corrections may be made before this opinion goes
  to press.

                                No. 96-052

State of Vermont                                  Supreme Court

     v.                                           On Appeal from
                                                  District Court of Vermont,
                                                  Unit No. 1, Windham Circuit
Charles H. Gundlah
                                                  March Term, 1997

Robert Grussing III, J.

Jeffrey L. Amestoy, Attorney General, and Susan R. Harritt, Assistant
  Attorney General, Montpelier, for plaintiff-appellee

Michael Rose, St. Albans, for defendant-appellant

PRESENT:   Dooley, Morse and Johnson, JJ., and Allen, C.J. (Ret.) and
  Dier, Supr. J. (Ret.), Specially Assigned

       JOHNSON, J.   Defendant Charles Gundlah appeals four of eighteen
  convictions that resulted from a series of incidents culminating in the
  murder of a schoolteacher, Robin Colson. Defendant argues that (1) the
  trial court abused its discretion by denying his motion for a mistrial
  after a State's witness repeated the nontestifying accomplice's hearsay
  statement implicating defendant in the murder; (2) the court abused its
  discretion by admitting into evidence a videotape showing the exhumation of
  Colson's body; (3) the court erred by denying his motion for judgment of
  acquittal with respect to one unlawful mischief count and two petit larceny
  counts; and (4) the sentencing court erred in considering as an aggravating
  factor that defendant was in custody under sentence of imprisonment.  We
  vacate one of the unlawful mischief convictions, but affirm the remaining
  convictions, including the felony-murder conviction.

       On April 8, 1991, defendant and Christopher Bacon, who at the time
  were both inmates at the Woodstock Correctional Facility, escaped together
  from a prison work crew.  Over the next four days, the men allegedly broke
  into and vandalized several summer camps before going

 

  to Colson's home to steal her car.  Late on April 11 or early the next
  morning, the two men allegedly entered Robin Colson's home, bludgeoned and
  stabbed her to death, buried her in a shallow grave near her home, and then
  took her car.  Two days later, the men were apprehended in Rutland.

       Following his arrest, Bacon related his version of the circumstances
  surrounding Colson's death to police in a tape-recorded statement. 
  Defendant and Bacon were tried separately.  This Court reversed Bacon's
  first murder conviction, see State v. Bacon, 163 Vt. 279,