Case Name: STATE of Tennessee, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. David Earl MILLER, Defendant-Appellant
Court: Tennessee Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Tennessee
Decision Date: 1984-05-29
Citations: 674 S.W.2d 279
Docket Number: 
Parties: STATE of Tennessee, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. David Earl MILLER, Defendant-Appellant.
Judges: COOPER, BROCK and DROWOTA, JJ., concur.
Reporter: South Western Reporter Second Series
Volume: 674
Pages: 279–290

Head Matter:
STATE of Tennessee, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. David Earl MILLER, Defendant-Appellant.
Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Knoxville.
May 29, 1984.
Rehearing Denied June 25, 1984.
Andru Volinsky, Public Defender, Manchester, N.H., Mark Evan Olive, U.N.C. School of Law, Chapel Hill, N.C., for defendant-appellant.
William M. Leech, Jr., Atty. Gen., Wayne E. Uhl, Asst. Atty. Gen., Nashville, for plaintiff-appellee.

Opinion:
OPINION
HARBISON, Justice.
This is a direct appeal from a conviction of murder in the first degree and sentence of death, based upon the aggravating circumstances that the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or - cruel in that it involved torture or depravity of mind.
I
The victim, Lee Standifer, had diffused brain damage when born and was mildly retarded. She was twenty-three years old when she was murdered. She had been employed for about two years with a company that hired handicapped persons and was living at the Y.W.C.A. in downtown Knoxville, as a step toward her independence. She called her parents' home in Knoxville two or three times a day and visited them almost every weekend. She had her last conversation with her mother at about 5:30 p.m. on May 20, 1981.
In July 1979, defendant was hitch-hiking through Knoxville and was picked up by Benjamin Calvin Thomas, an ordained minister and school principal. On that occasion defendant cut the grass at Thomas' house in South Knoxville, was paid and resumed his hitch-hiking. Defendant returned to Knoxville a few weeks later and at the time of the murder had been living in the home of Thomas for more than a year. Thomas admitted that he had homosexual drives or inclinations and that early in his acquaintance with defendant they had a homosexual relationship. However, Thomas testified that defendant was not interested or responsive, that such a relationship gave him religious problems and that after a short period they were merely friends living together, and according to Thomas their relationship was almost that of father and son. A book which defendant had checked out of the Knoxville Public Library and other books belonging to him found at the Thomas home would support an inference that defendant had a morbid interest in sex.
In the early evening of May 20, 1981, defendant was at the Hideaway Lounge in downtown Knoxville. Lee Standifer was a few blocks away at the Y.W.C.A. and they conversed by telephone. They had been seen together at the Trailways Bus Station cafeteria prior to that date. After their telephone conversation defendant was seen walking to the Y.W.C.A., the victim awaiting there and the two of them walking away together. Apparently they first went to the Hideaway Lounge. They were next seen at the Knoxville Public Library, and then at the Trailways cafeteria, both in downtown Knoxville. There defendant engaged a taxi driver who drove defendant and Ms. Standifer to a point in South Knoxville near the Thomas residence.
Later that evening Thomas returned from Wednesday night church activities and drove into the basement garage of his home. He noticed that the area was wet, and after he got out of his car he saw defendant on the stairs to the basement. Defendant was not wearing a shirt and was in blue jeans. Thomas asked him why the basement floor was wet and defendant said he had "just hosed it out" because it needed to be cleaned. Thomas found the kitchen floor wet and two streams of blood leading from the living room to the dining room and kitchen area. He testified that when he asked for an explanation defendant said he had gotten into a fight and received a bloody nose. Thomas testified that he thought his carpet was ruined, and he told defendant that he could not "take this mess, you are just going to have to leave." Early the next morning Thomas drove defendant on 1-40 to the Mabry Hood Road exit, gave him twenty-five dollars and understood that defendant intended to hitch-hike to Houston, Texas.
Thomas did not return to his home until about 6:30 p.m. on the evening of May 21. As he was going down his driveway he saw a blue T-shirt hanging on a dogwood tree in his backyard. He got out of his car, walked over to examine the T-shirt and saw a nude female body lying face up with dried blood on the face, head and portions of the body. Pieces of rope were wrapped around it and he assumed the person to be dead. He went into his house and called the police.
That night and the next day the investigating police officers found blood spots on the walls of the living room near the fireplace, the kitchen, the inside of the garage door in the basement and other places. There was a poker in the living room and a hammer was found in the yard about fifty feet from the body near a jacket, shoes and panties identified as belonging to the victim and all blood-stained. The body was approximately 100 feet from the house, near a large tree in a sheltered thicket and in an unkept part of the yard with a deep accumulation of leaves. The victim's arms were extended over her head. A large hemp rope had been tied around her neck and extended up to bind her wrists, with sufficient extra length to use to drag the body.
A pathologist, Dr. Evans, testified that the victim had a wound on the right side of the forehead and a wound over the left eye, each of which was approximately three inches long and one-half inch wide. Each resulted in a skull fracture and a subarach-noid hematoma. Dr. Evans was of the opinion that those two wounds could have been caused by the poker kept in the living room of the Thomas residence. A stab wound passed completely through the neck and shattered the jawbone. According to Dr. Evans this indicated the use of an instrument such as a Bowie knife. He testified that substantial force had necessarily been used to pass the instrument through the jawbone. There were a total of five stab wounds in the chest area and one stab wound in the stomach. There was a stab wound into the floor of the mouth made with an instrument similar to that used to produce the neck stab wounds. There was a stab wound over the heart, eight to nine inches in depth that passed through the heart and aorta. Another stab wound went through the rib cage and completely through the fifth rib and a third stab wound went through the center of the chest. Again, Dr. Evans indicated that human strength may have been inadequate to plunge an instrument into a bony rib and that a hammer might have been used to drive a sharp instrument into those wounds.
There were two stab wounds in the back. One passed through the bony rib but the other one hit the left shoulder blade and did not penetrate except to the depth of the blade, approximately one inch. There were multiple bruises on the upper left and right thighs. Two were about the size of a hand that required a great deal of force and were inflicted before death in the opinion of the pathologist. He identified a number of the stab wounds as probably having been inflicted after the death of the victim. There were numerous scrapes and scratches and minor bruises to the legs, knees and upper body front and back, probably caused by dragging the body over rough surfaces. Dr. Evans testified that he found spermatozoa of fairly recent origin in the vagina of the victim.
Defendant was apprehended in Columbus, Ohio, on May 29,1981, waived extradition and was returned to Knoxville by Detectives Winston and Ailor of the Knoxville Police Department. The officers interviewed defendant on tape in Columbus and again in Knoxville. Miranda rights were read and waived in writing on both occasions. The Columbus tape was not introduced into evidence because, according to Winston, it was of poor quality.
During the Knoxville interview that began at 6 p.m. on May 30, 1981, defendant confirmed prior testimony that he was at the Hideaway Lounge, had a telephone conversation with Lee Standifer and went to the Y.W.C.A.: that they took a taxi at the Trailways Bus station and got out at Wise Hills and Stone Road. He did not remember going to the library but said he might have. He said he got out of the taxi and walked the remainder of the way to Thomas' house to clear his head, that he was drunk and a little sick. He said that when they got to the house Lee wanted to talk, and they went into the living room by the fireplace. She wanted to know what he was going to do and he told her he was going back to Houston. She became upset because she didn't want him to leave, grabbed his arm and he "turned around and hit her." He said he hit her with his fist and she fell down and when asked about additional blows he said he could not remember. At that point the interview continued as follows:
"WINSTON: Okay, tell me about when you removed her body from the room.
MILLER: I dragged her, pulled her out in the kitchen, went downstairs, got a rope and came back up, tied her up. And, she .
WINSTON: Tied what?
MILLER: I don't know.
WINSTON: Did you tie her neck or her hands or what did you tie?
MILLER: I might have tied her neck and her hands, her hands or feet. I don't remember.
WINSTON: But you do remember hitting her don't you?
MILLER: Yes.
WINSTON: And you do remember the blood?
MILLER: Yeah, it just sprayed all over when I hit her.
WINSTON: It did? You knew you'd hurt her bad didn't you?
MILLER: Yeah.
WINSTON: You knew she was dead by the time you got her in the kitchen, didn't you? Had she quit moving them?
MILLER: She quit breathing.
WINSTON: She quit breathing? What did you do then?
MILLER: Drug her downstairs through the basement and out through the yard. And pulled her over into the woods."
Defendant further related that he went back inside and "started rinsing everything down." His version of what happened after Thomas- came home and his leaving the next morning was remarkably consistent with the testimony of Thomas as to what occurred.
II.
The defenses interposed at trial were that the evidence was insufficient to prove defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, that defendant was so intoxicated that he could not be convicted of premeditated murder and that he was insane.
In our opinion, no evidence was introduced by either the State or the defendant sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt as to defendant's sanity, unless it could be said that atrocious, brutal acts inflicted upon Lee Standifer, in and of themselves, were sufficient to do so. However, a psychiatrist who examined defendant in June and November of 1981 was called by the State and expressed the opinion that defendant was not suffering from any mental disease or defect at the time of the murder, that he knew right from wrong and was able to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. Thus, if a jury question existed as to whether defendant's sanity was proven beyond a reasonable doubt, that issue was submitted to the jury under a correct charge by the trial judge and they necessarily found that defendant was sane. The record contains substantial material evidence to support such a finding in addition to the testimony of the psychiatrist.
The issue of intoxication from drugs or alcohol or both and whether its degree was sufficient to negate premeditation was a contested issue in the case. Several of the State's witnesses had expressed opinions prior to trial with respect to the de fendant's intoxication on the night of May 20, 1981. These indicated a higher degree of intoxication than their direct testimony at trial.
Charlotte Jane Campbell, testifying for defendant, said she was at the Hideaway Lounge the afternoon of May 20, 1981, saw defendant buy one or more hits of L.S.D. and saw him put the cardboard containing the substance L.S.D. in his mouth and chew it. The witness bought some of the same drug and said it took effect on her in about thirty minutes and lasted about twelve hours; that it was a stronger drug than she normally had experienced. She testified that she bought three hits and chewed one and one-half hits, sharing the other half with a friend. She did not know whether defendant had more than one hit or whether or not he was also drinking intoxicating liquor. Three witnesses who saw defendant and the victim at the public library testified that defendant was intoxicated, noting that he was loud and staggered. Two of the witnesses smelled alcohol on his breath. All three witnesses were vague with respect to the degree of defendant's intoxication. The cashier at the Trailways cafeteria, who had known defendant for about eight months, testified that he spilled his coffee all the way to a booth, swayed and that his eyes were dilated and had a strange look.
On the other hand, there was considerable testimony from witnesses testifying for the State with respect to the degree of defendant's intoxication that support the jury's finding that it was not sufficient to render defendant incapable of forming a premeditated and deliberate design to kill. The jury was properly charged on that issue and their verdict was approved by the trial judge.
III.
Defendant contends that the Knoxville taped interview and typed transcript should have been suppressed because it was tainted by the Ohio interview, which was prefaced by inaccurate Miranda warnings and trickery in procuring the signed waiver of rights. Defendant has seized upon the first words on tape that can be heard, by officer Winston, which, standing alone, would constitute an incomplete and inaccurate Miranda rights warning. However, Winston testified that he had read to defendant the typed form of complete Miranda rights that preceded the waiver on the single sheet that defendant signed. This recited that he had read the statement of rights, understood them, and was willing to make a statement, answer questions and did not want a lawyer. We find no violation of Miranda based upon the initial aspect of the interrogation in Ohio.
Defendant also contends that the interrogation techniques employed by officers Winston and Ailor at the jail in Ohio were psychologically coercive to the extent that the interrogation was improperly influenced and involuntary under the teachings of Miranda and that the taint of that interrogation rendered the Knoxville interrogation inadmissible. We do not agree.
Defendant at no time undertook to repudiate his confessions, either at the suppression hearing or at trial. A conclusion that they were involuntary or improper can only be based upon the tapes themselves or the testimony of the officers. There is no testimony by any witness that the officers unduly or improperly undertook to persuade the accused to give an incriminating statement.
On the contrary, it is uncontradicted that when the officers first undertook to interrogate the accused, he asked them what evidence they had against him. They properly advised him that they could not discuss the matter with him until he signed a waiver of his rights. He did so, and then began talking with them. He began his statement to them with an obvious falsehood — that he was engaged in a fight with another man at the home where the murder occurred, and that his own extensive nose-bleeding accounted for the blood found there. The officers then began to advise him of the evidence which they actually had. When faced with all of this, he finally admitted to having struck the decedent and having disposed of her body. He never admitted stabbing her or otherwise mutilating the body.
There is no indication in the record that he thought that he would escape the death penalty, or a life sentence or some other heavy penalty. At two points in the transcript of the first tape he stated that he knew that he could spend the rest of his life behind bars and that he might receive the death penalty. He was not misled by any statement of the officers that he might receive as little as ten years.
At more than thirty places in the transcript of the original tape the reporter has marked the record as being indiscernible. There is a great deal of background noise in the first tape. We do not believe that it was merely a ruse on the part of the officers not to use it at the trial. The second tape is clear, much more concise, and without any defect or indiscernible portions.
Under the holding of this Court in State v. Kelly, 603 S.W.2d 726 (Tenn.1980), we are of the opinion that the trial court correctly held that the incriminating statements given by the accused were voluntary, were given after proper warning, and were not the result of any improper influence or persuasion by the interrogating officers.
We have carefully considered all of the other issues presented on appeal and are satisfied that the record fully supports the conviction of the accused.
With respect to the sentencing hearing, however, we find reversible error. The State introduced evidence that defendant had been twice arrested on charges of rape. Both charges were dismissed. We are of the opinion that introduction of this evidence was improper and that a new sentencing hearing is required. See State v. Teague, 645 S.W.2d 392 (Tenn.1983); see also State v. Adkins, 653 S.W.2d 708 (Tenn.1983).
In its brief the State points to an apparent inconsistency between the holding of this Court in State v. Teague, 645 S.W.2d 392 (Tenn.1983), holding arrest records generally inadmissible, and Houston v. State, 593 S.W.2d 267 (Tenn.1980), in which such records were permitted to be considered by the jury at the sentencing hearing.
Ordinarily mere arrests or indictments are not evidence of the commission of a prior crime. They are nothing more than charges or accusations made by the arresting or indicting authority upon such information as that authority had at the time. They should, in our opinion, generally be held inadmissible, unless the accused makes them admissible for impeachment in some manner, such as his testifying that he had never been arrested or indicted. There may be other instances in which they could become relevant and admissible upon some specific issue. This apparently was the situation in the Houston case, supra, where defendant's testimony in a suppression hearing was held admissible to impeach contrary testimony given at the sentencing hearing. This is not the situation in the present case.
The conviction of defendant is affirmed. The death sentence is set aside and the cause is remanded to the trial court for a new sentencing hearing. Costs on appeal are taxed to the State.
COOPER, BROCK and DROWOTA, JJ., concur.
FONES, C.J., files a dissenting opinion.
. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966).
. See Montesi v. State, 220 Tenn. 354, 417 S.W.2d 554 (1967).