Opinion ID: 1057985
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: facts adduced during penalty phase

Text: Prior to the State adducing any testimony during the penalty phase of Defendant's trial, the trial court heard the proposed testimony of Dr. Ronald Sundstrom and Ms. McPike in a jury-out hearing. Dr. Sundstrom is a professor of philosophy at the University of Memphis and employed the victim as his teaching assistant. Dr. Sundstrom described the effect of the victim's murder on himself, his undergraduate students, his graduate students, and the philosophy department as a whole. Ms. McPike is the victim's mother. She described the effect of the victim's murder on her family and the victim's friends. The trial court found that this proposed testimony was basically related to the emotional and psychological impact that it's had on the family and friends and colleagues and ruled that the probative value of this evidence outweighed its prejudicial effect. Accordingly, the trial court determined this testimony was admissible. Thereafter, with the jury returned to the courtroom, Dr. Sundstrom testified that the victim had been his teaching assistant while a graduate student at the school. She began working for him in August 1999. As one of his teaching assistants, the victim mentored sixty of his one hundred eighty students, grading their papers, teaching some discussion sessions, and counseling them about their coursework. Prior to her death, the victim had met with these students six times. Dr. Sundstrom testified about the impact of the victim's disappearance and death on the philosophy department: Well, the impact was tremendous. It's hard to quantify. The psychological impact  the every-day-life impact was tremendous on [the students she mentored, her associate graduate students, and the faculty]. The undergraduates whom she taught w[ere] very afraid that, you know, the course wasn't going to go on. They were traumatized  someone they knew intimately was murdered in this way. .... Many of them couldn't finish  many of them could not go on. Many of them could not complete their papers. It was very difficult for the undergraduates. I had a number of undergraduates approach me, and you know, who was caring for the undergraduates? There were so many of them to care for. Some would approach me in tears about this. It was very difficult for them, and unfortunately I didn't have the ability to care for them. There were too many of them. The same with these graduate students. .... [T]he whole department ground to a halt. The students did not turn in their papers. Teachers did not teach. Life just didn't go on as we watched the news and as we waited for her to come back. .... Numbers of the other faculty, including myself, could not teach. We just couldn't teach, you know, under those circumstances. Our lives were devastated. Everything, again, ground to a halt. There was little to no activity around, you know, this education that we're supposed to be providing to everybody. The graduate students themselves were severely affected because, you know, this was their program. They hoped to be  to get master degrees or Ph.D.'s in philosophy, and many of them just couldn't finish classes  couldn't turn in papers. Dr. Sundstrom testified that he believed one of the graduate students left because of this. Other graduate students were unable to complete their coursework and received incompletes. Some of the graduate students were not able to complete these courses later, resulting in the incomplete grades becoming F's. Dr. Sundstrom testified that, for these students, their future is very much in question as professors of philosophy. Dr. Sundstrom continued: the structure of an academic department was brought to a complete standstill, and we just huddled together and cried. That was it. That's all we could do. Nancy McPike, the victim's mother, testified that the victim's death never, ever leaves her family. She testified about the difficulties the victim's younger brother had doing his schoolwork in sixth and seventh grades. She testified about her husband's inability to start new projects. Ms. McPike herself had been unable to complete her graduate school coursework. Ms. McPike's mother, the victim's grandmother, cries and doesn't understand. Ms. McPike explained that the victim's best friend had had an argument with the victim just before the kidnapping. Ms. McPike testified that [t]hey can never make up and that the friend has been in therapy ever since. She had herself admitted to a hospital because she was afraid she would take her own life because of this. Ms. McPike continued: You know, I told you everyone loved Hillary. Everyone just loved her right away. She has a whole army of friends out here who came to witness this. She has friends all over the world who will never have her again. She was such a great friend, and it makes you sick to your stomach. Sometimes when I think that she's dead, I just can't breathe anymore. When I saw her picture  this beautiful picture, I could hardly breathe. .... It's devastating. It's devastating. I don't know what it means for her to be dead and for me to be alive. I just don't know what it means. Joe Warren, an employee in the Criminal Court Clerk's Office in Shelby County, Tennessee, testified that Defendant was convicted in Shelby County in 1974 of three counts of robbery with a deadly weapon and one count of rape. Mary Alice Busby, the Circuit Court Clerk in Lafayette County, Mississippi, testified that Defendant was convicted in 2001 in Mississippi of kidnapping and manslaughter. Concerning this kidnapping conviction, James Allen Nault of Oxford, Mississippi, testified that, on November 15, 1999, he saw Defendant trying to kidnap his wife. Mr. Nault approached Defendant, at which time Defendant pointed a shotgun at him. Mr. Nault told Defendant to take him instead of his wife, and Defendant agreed. They got into Mr. Nault's car with Mr. Nault driving and Defendant keeping the gun pointed at Mr. Nault. While they drove, Defendant threatened to kill several people that Mr. Nault knew. At Defendant's direction, Mr. Nault drove them down a gravel road. Defendant got out and walked off into the woods. Concerning the Mississippi manslaughter conviction, Sheriff Buddy East testified that he began looking for Defendant after hearing of Mr. Nault's kidnapping. He sent investigators to the residence of Mr. William Bramlett, one of the persons Defendant had threatened while talking to Mr. Nault. These law enforcement persons located Mr. Bramlett and warned him about Defendant. They continued looking for Defendant but were unable to locate him. The next morning, November 16, 1999, Mr. Bramlett was reported missing. Mr. Bramlett's vehicle was not at his residence. Sheriff East put out an alert for Mr. Bramlett and his pick-up truck. Officers walked through Mr. Bramlett's residence but did not find him. The next day, a family member found Mr. Bramlett's body in his home, hidden under a mattress. Mr. Bramlett had been shot with a .22 caliber pistol. Law enforcement then released information through the media in an effort to apprehend Defendant. The information indicated that Defendant was wanted for capital murder. Sheriff East testified that Mr. Bramlett's truck was eventually found two or three miles from Jessie Cochran's house. As its final piece of evidence during the penalty phase of Defendant's trial, the State submitted certified records from Alabama reflecting Defendant's 1982 conviction of robbery in the first degree. Defendant put on no proof. Upon conclusion of the proof, the jury found the existence of three aggravating circumstances: (a) Defendant was previously convicted of one or more felonies, other than the present charge, the statutory elements of which involve the use of violence to the person; (b) the offense was committed for the purpose of avoiding, interfering with, or preventing a lawful arrest or prosecution of Defendant or another; and (c) the murder was knowingly committed, solicited, directed, or aided by Defendant while Defendant had a substantial role in committing or attempting to commit, or was fleeing after having a substantial role in committing or attempting to commit, theft. See Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(2), (6), (7). The jury further determined that the aggravating circumstances outweighed any mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt. Accordingly, the jury sentenced Defendant to death for his first degree premeditated murder of Hillary Johnson. This appeal followed.