Opinion ID: 2824552
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The offenses and trials

Text: Shelton stands convicted of the first-degree murder of Thorpe, the second-degree murder of Craig, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of theft, and two weapons charges. Most of the basic facts are undisputed. On January 11, 1981, Thorpe and Craig were driving through Madeline, California on the way to college when Shelton, Thomas, and Benjamin Silva spotted them at a gas station and subsequently abducted them. The three men took the couple to Shelton’s cabin, where Thorpe was chained to a tree while Craig was held inside. The next day, Thorpe was shot to death with a machine gun. At Silva’s direction, Thomas dismembered Thorpe’s body and the two men disposed of it in a remote location. Craig was murdered on the side of the road a few days later. She had been shot twice. Thomas was subsequently arrested for a probation violation. While in custody, Thomas told the police about the murders and directed them to Thorpe’s remains and other physical evidence of the crimes. Shelton turned himself in shortly thereafter, waived his rights, and gave a series of SHELTON V. MARSHALL 5 partially inculpatory though sometimes inconsistent statements to the police. He also led them to Craig’s remains. At Shelton’s trial, the State’s evidence consisted primarily of Thomas’s testimony, Shelton’s own statements to investigators, and a series of notes passed between Shelton and Thomas while the two were in jail.1 The defense case consisted of Shelton’s testimony that he had been present during the crimes but that he was intoxicated on various drugs and alcohol, did not willingly participate, and feared that if he resisted or tried to leave, Silva would kill him and his family.2 There was thus no dispute that Shelton was at least present for all of the crimes. At issue with respect to Thorpe’s murder—the only question we deal with in this opinion—is the degree of Shelton’s participation and whether he possessed the requisite mens rea, i.e, whether he “deliberated and premeditated” as required by California law for a conviction of first-degree murder. See infra note 13. At trial, Thomas and Shelton testified to different versions of the crimes. In both versions, Silva was the primary instigator. Their testimony differed greatly, however, 1 The jury also heard testimony about the scene of the crimes, the condition of the bodies, the property of the victims that was recovered, the weapons and other items found in the cabin and the surrounding area, and the local geography. None of this evidence conveyed anything about Shelton’s particular role in the crimes, with the exception of testimony that Shelton’s fingerprints were found on a car stereo taken from the victims’ car and on sundry items in the cabin, and that he was wearing Thorpe’s boots when he turned himself in. None of this testimony shed any light on the question whether Shelton was guilty of first-degree deliberate and premeditated murder. 2 At the time of the crimes, Silva was a Hell’s Angel and a fugitive. Shelton and Thomas’s relationships to the Angels was less clear. 6 SHELTON V. MARSHALL regarding the degree of Shelton’s participation. According to Shelton, when Silva spotted the couple at the gas station and proposed kidnapping them, Shelton said that he “didn’t want no part of it.” He initially denied that the men had discussed kidnapping and killing people before they saw Thorpe and Craig, but when his recollection was refreshed with a copy of a statement he gave to an investigator the day after he turned himself in, he admitted that the three men had discussed kidnapping a girl a few weeks before the crimes. A few miles past the gas station, Silva used a red light to pull the couple’s car over. Shelton testified that he was with Silva when he purchased a light like the one used, but that it was purchased for an unrelated prank and he never held it during the kidnapping. Once the victims’ car stopped, Silva and Thomas ran up to it, entered it, and abducted the couple at gunpoint. Shelton remained in the truck in which the three men had arrived and followed the couple’s car to his cabin; he testified that he did not drive off because he believed that “Silva would have killed me. . . . He would have killed my family.” When they arrived at Shelton’s property, Silva told Craig and Thorpe to get on the back of the truck, which Shelton then drove to the cabin. Shelton then remained at the cabin with Craig, Thorpe, and Silva, while Thomas left for a short period. When Thomas returned, he and Silva took Thorpe outside, and he later told Shelton that they had chained Thorpe to a tree. Silva and Thomas then left until morning. While they were gone, Shelton gave Thorpe a sleeping bag. Shelton testified that after Silva and Thomas returned the next day, Silva “said he was moving [Thorpe] because he could be seen from the road.” Shelton, who said that he believed that he was unarmed, stated that he then walked with SHELTON V. MARSHALL 7 Thorpe, who was still chained, up a hill, while “[Silva] took off . . . to get . . . some more chain and stuff.” Shelton denied knowing that Thorpe was being taken up the hill to be killed, and said that he did not speak to Thorpe while they waited “not [a] very long” time before Silva returned. Shelton testified that when Silva returned, he “heard a click and . . . turned around and [Silva] was standing there with a machine gun;” Shelton said he was halfway between Silva and Thorpe and “jumped behind a tree when the bullets started flying.” After Silva emptied a clip (thirty bullets) into Thorpe, Shelton said that Thorpe fell to the ground, and then Silva fired half of another clip into him. According to Shelton, Silva then “gave [Shelton] the gun and said shoot him.” Shelton admitted that he then fired the rest of the clip at Thorpe, but stated that he didn’t think that he hit him and that he “wasn’t aiming at him.” He said that although he had previously told police that he hit Thorpe in the eye, “that was something that stuck in my mind from something else.” Shelton stated that if he hadn’t shot at Thorpe, Silva would have killed him “the second I said no.” Shelton testified that in the days following Thorpe’s murder, he tried to protect Craig from Silva. He said that at one point he left the cabin with her and that they ran across a meadow and over a hill “when [Silva] caught us.” He also stated that he thought that he could talk Silva out of killing Craig, that at one point he had in fact talked Silva out of killing her, that Craig liked Shelton more than the others and was not afraid of him, and that she could have left at any time. He denied knowing that she would be killed when he and Silva left the cabin with her, purportedly to take her to see the head of the Hell’s Angels. Shelton stated that Silva stopped along the way to buy Craig a Pepsi and that Silva was very calm, leading him to believe that he would not shoot her. 8 SHELTON V. MARSHALL Silva later stopped the truck to change drivers but then suddenly shot Craig as he rounded the vehicle. Finally, Shelton testified that he was on speed, “reds, valium, and pot” the night of the kidnapping but that he was not intoxicated when Craig was killed. Thomas’s testimony about Shelton’s role in the crimes differed considerably. In his account, none of the men consumed any alcohol or drugs during the course of the criminal activities. According to Thomas, Shelton and Silva had discussed kidnapping people prior to the crimes and said that if they did so, they would have to kill them. At the Madeline gas station, Silva said he “wanted” Craig, and Shelton remarked that she was pretty. Just prior to the kidnapping, Thomas and Shelton swapped positions in the truck after Shelton declined to do the kidnapping because he was too well known in the area. Thomas testified that it was Shelton and Silva who chained Thorpe to the tree outside of the cabin, that it was Thomas who gave him a sleeping bag, and that Shelton became upset when Craig was left unguarded. With respect to Thorpe’s murder, Thomas testified that Shelton was armed when he left with Silva and Thorpe to go up the hill, that Shelton returned and told Thomas to turn on the stereo, and that Silva later returned and told him to turn up the volume—the inference being that they wanted to mask the sound of gunfire. According to Thomas, Shelton later confessed his role in Thorpe’s murder to Thomas, stating that he had watched Thorpe while Silva went to get a machine gun; that Thorpe cried and asked to be unchained; and that while waiting for Silva, Shelton told Thorpe “to look at the mountain, because SHELTON V. MARSHALL 9 it was the last thing he would see.” Thomas also said that Shelton told him that Thorpe’s arm was reaching up after Silva emptied the first clip into him, that Silva then shot him again, and that then “[Shelton] took the machine gun and shot the guy all over again.” Finally, Thomas testified that Shelton laughed as he recounted the murder to him. The jury also heard testimony regarding incriminating statements that Shelton made to various law enforcement officials after turning himself in, both via the reading of transcripts and officer testimony.3 In interviews on January 31, 1981 and February 1, 1981, Shelton professed to have been intoxicated during the kidnapping, yet recounted details of the events, including that the men discussed kidnapping a female before the abduction. According to this testimony, he also stated that he was armed during the initial kidnapping, that he had sex with Craig in the cabin but that, unlike when Silva and Thomas had sex with her, his sexual acts were not forcible.4 During the initial interviews on January 31 and February 1, Shelton claimed that he was not present for Thorpe’s murder and that he learned about it from Thomas. A sergeant 3 The jury heard (or was read): (1) a transcript of an interview on January 31, 1981; (2) testimony from Sergeant Coulter of the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office about interviews on February 1, 1981 and February 2, 1981; (3) a transcript of an interview on February 2, 1981; and (4) testimony from an investigator for the California Department of Justice about an unrecorded interview with Shelton on February 3, 1981. 4 On January 31, Shelton stated in a recorded interview that he was “always armed” during this period in which the crimes took place. On February 3, he said he might have been armed during the kidnapping but wasn’t sure. 10 SHELTON V. MARSHALL testified that Shelton stated that while he was inside the cabin with Craig, “Mr. Thomas and Silva came in and told him to turn the music up on the stereo. And a little later they came back and told him to turn it up a little louder.” The sergeant also testified that Shelton said that before Silva and he left the cabin with Craig, Silva told him he was going to kill her with a baseball bat, and that Shelton “indicate[d] that he didn’t believe she had any chance to escape or leave.” Shelton’s account of Craig’s murder was otherwise consistent with his account on the stand—that Silva stopped the car to switch drivers, but then, without any indication of his intent to do so, suddenly shot Craig. Shelton’s story regarding Thorpe’s murder changed during interviews on February 2. He first denied being present during Thorpe’s killing. Later, in interviews on that day and the next, however, he admitted being present and recounted the Thorpe killing consistently with his trial testimony, except that he said nothing about what he thought Silva was planning to do (either when they went up the hill or when Silva left him with Thorpe) and he admitted that he “might have” been armed at the time but wasn’t sure. In these interviews, Shelton never gave any indication that he knew in advance that Silva was planning to shoot Thorpe. At trial, Shelton claimed that his story had changed from the initial interviews because he had tried to block out the Thorpe murder. During an interview on February 2, Shelton said that the reason he at one point took Craig across a meadow and over a hill was that he thought the Hell’s Angels were coming and that he and Silva “hadn’t come to an agreement yet as to what was going to happen to her.” He explained that they might SHELTON V. MARSHALL 11 make her “a prostitute, x-rated movie maker, club passaround” or someone’s “old lady.” An investigator with the California Department of Justice testified, on the basis of the only unrecorded interview, that on February 3, 1981, Shelton stated that prior to the kidnapping, “there had been a conversation that if in fact [a] kidnapping were to take place that they might have to kill the victims”; that “Mr. Silva spoke of it on numerous occasions”; and that Silva and Shelton had purchased the red light in preparation for committing a kidnapping. The investigator also testified that Shelton told him that when he and Silva left the cabin with Craig, he was convinced that she would be murdered—about 90% sure—but “felt by his being present perhaps somewhat he could intercede and save her.” Shelton’s statements on February 2 and 3 regarding Craig’s murder were otherwise the same as at trial. The prosecution also introduced into evidence several notes that Shelton wrote to Thomas while the two were in jail subsequent to Shelton learning that Thomas was cooperating with the prosecution and subsequent to all of Shelton’s inculpatory statements to the police. The notes have no bearing on the issue in this appeal, as they did not discuss Thorpe’s murder or contain evidence of premeditation or deliberation.5 5 For example, in one note Shelton told Thomas to tell his lawyer that he decided to tell the truth because “Joe almost died last night, and was refused medical attention, and you felt sorry for me.” In another note, he told Thomas that “if the lawyer can’t get you off, I’ll break you out.” He also said that Thomas should testify that Shelton received a ride from an old cowboy after they saw the couple at the gas station and was not seen again until the crimes were over. A third note told Thomas to start attending bible study because it would help their case. 12 SHELTON V. MARSHALL On November 17, 1981, after deliberating for two and a half days, the jury convicted Shelton of the first-degree murder of Thorpe, the second-degree murder of Craig, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of theft, possession of a machine gun, possession of a silencer, and one special circumstance with respect to the Thorpe murder, making Shelton eligible for the death penalty. Significantly, the verdict reflects that the jury acquitted Shelton of the charge of first-degree murder of Craig. After the jury declined to impose a capital sentence for Thorpe’s murder, the court sentenced Shelton to life without parole on that charge and fifteen years to life for Craig’s murder in the second degree to be served consecutively. It stayed its sentences with respect to the other counts. On June 27, 1984, the California Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment but struck the special circumstance in an unpublished opinion. Shelton was then resentenced to twenty-five years to life for the murder of Thorpe. Silva was tried after Shelton in January 1982. Thomas was again the principal prosecution witness. Shelton was called to testify, but invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. See Silva v. Woodford (“Silva I”), 279 F.3d 825, 828 (9th Cir. 2002). Silva was convicted of the first-degree murder of Thorpe, the kidnapping and theft of both Thorpe and Craig, and possession of a machine gun and silencer. Id. at 829. He was acquitted, however, of the murder of Craig. He was then sentenced to death for the murder of Thorpe. Id.