Opinion ID: 2974154
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Facts and Trial

Text: When reviewing Slagle’s case on direct appeal, the Supreme Court of Ohio considered the trial record and made the following factual findings, which, according to 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1), are presumed correct unless rebutted by clear and convincing evidence: In the early morning hours of August 13, 1987, the victim Mari Anne Pope was awakened in her home by appellant. Two children, who she had agreed to watch for her neighbors, were also awakened. The children awoke to the voice of Mari Anne inquiring as to who this person was that had entered her home. A man’s voice angrily threatened her and ordered her to roll onto her stomach. The man asked if there were others in the house, to which she replied that there were two children upstairs. The man told the victim not to move and that he had a knife at her back. The children then heard Mari Anne begin to pray. The man responded by ordering her to stop praying. The children recognized the voice and knew the man as Billy Slagle, who lived next door. They first sought to hide, and then to escape. They scurried through the hall and out the back door. One of the children looked into the bedroom and observed Slagle sitting on top of the victim, who was lying upon her stomach. Slagle had on only his underwear. As the children exited, the victim could be heard screaming. The children were admitted into a neighbor’s home and police were called. Police officers arrived momentarily and as they moved around the house, shining a flashlight into the windows, one officer observed a man standing in the rear bedroom. The officer entered and observed appellant attempting to hide in the dining room, armed with blood-covered scissors. After ordering appellant to discard the scissors and lie face down on the floor, the officer placed handcuffs on him. The officer then went into the bedroom. He observed Mari Anne Pope lying across the middle of the bed. Her nightgown was pulled up around her neck. She was drenched in blood with large holes in her body. On the floor lay Mari Anne’s broken rosary, and appellant’s tank-top T-shirt. The officer called to his companion, telling him to call for medical treatment and to take custody of the handcuffed man on the dining room floor. The other officer responded that there was no one on the dining room floor and both officers began to search. Appellant had gotten up and hidden himself in a hallway closet. When the officer passed the closet door in this as yet darkened home, appellant burst from the closet and sought to escape. The No. 04-3490 Slagle v. Bagley Page 3 first officer to react testified that appellant was very quick and agile. The officer was unable to subdue appellant until two other officers entered the fray. Appellant was observed to have blood on his hands and clothing. He also had a number of superficial scratches and bruises. Despite efforts to save her, Mari Anne Pope was pronounced dead at 6:00 a.m. The coroner reported that she had been stabbed seventeen times, with many of the stab wounds having been inflicted in and around her chest area. There were four stab wounds in her abdomen, five in the upper and lower extremities, with eight to the chest area, including wounds to the right atrium, pulmonary artery and right lung. She had also been severely beaten about her head and face. At 10:00 a.m. the same day, Detective John J. McKibben interviewed appellant, after having first advised him of his Fifth Amendment rights. At first, appellant claimed to have no knowledge of the events of that morning. After being reminded that he had been arrested in the victim’s home, appellant described his actions on the night of August 12 and the morning of August 13 in some detail. State v. Slagle, 605 N.E.2d 916, 920-21 (Ohio 1992). Slagle told Detective McKibben that he entered through a window and proceeded to the basement, looking for something to steal. Slagle said that he took his shoes off and then went upstairs to the room in which the children were sleeping. He next went to Pope’s bedroom. As he was searching in her purse, Pope woke up and began screaming. He placed his hands on her mouth to quiet her. Slagle said that they began fighting for the sewing scissors that were next to the bed, and that he ultimately stabbed her “maybe 3 times.” JA 464. Slagle also admitted that he tried to rape Pope, but he said that he could not get an erection. After the murder, he saw a flashlight shining into the window, so he ran into a kitchen closet, where the police found him. He said that he was sorry for what had happened. Slagle provided the patrolmen with the name and address of his friend Mike Davis, and with Slagle’s social security number, date of birth, and residence. Detective McKidden said that, although Slagle’s eyes were glassy, McKidden smelled no alcohol on Slagle’s person at the scene or the next morning. At trial, the evidence revealed that eighteen-year-old Slagle spent the afternoon and evening of the murder with his friends Mike Davis, Kim Jones, and William Vivolo. It is unclear how much Slagle drank that night. Davis testified that he had about twenty beers that day and night and that he and Slagle “always kept up with each other.” Slagle also had shots of whiskey and smoked about $50 worth of marijuana. Mike Davis’s sister, Andrea, arrived later. She testified that by the early morning Slagle’s eyes were bloodshot and that he was slurring his speech. Slagle, according to Mike Davis however, was not staggering, vomiting, or falling over. He left in the early morning on a bicycle and rode for two miles to get home. Slagle chose to testify. He stated that he broke into Pope’s house to steal something so that he would have money for alcohol the next day. He did not recall any events after entering Pope’s house until he was fighting with her and holding bloody scissors. He only recalled stabbing Pope once, and he testified that he did not know why he killed her. On cross-examination, the prosecution asked several questions that Slagle now challenges. The prosecution asked Slagle about his education and work history. The State then asked Slagle how he made money when he was not working. Slagle responded that he sold marijuana to anyone. The State asked whether he sold marijuana to children, and Slagle testified that he did not. When the State asked, over defense counsel’s objection, whether Slagle had ever broken into a house to get money, Slagle responded that he had done so twice. The prosecution also asked No. 04-3490 Slagle v. Bagley Page 4 whether he supported his family or whether his family supported him. Slagle answered that he was not responsible for anyone. The State later asked Slagle whether he knew what a rosary was, whether Pope began to pray as he attempted to rape her, whether he told her to shut up, and whether he liked and said prayers. Slagle testified that he did not remember her praying, that he saw nothing wrong with prayers, and that he says prayers. The prosecution then asked Slagle whether he would have murdered the police officer at the scene, JA 652, murdered the children, JA 654, and taken the scissors home to “use them in the next—,” JA 656. Defense counsel’s objection cut off the prosecutor. The court sustained the objection, told the prosecution that “the question is highly improper[,]” and instructed the jury to disregard the inquiry. JA 654-56. Near the end of the cross-examination, when Slagle responded that he did not think that Pope scratched his face, the prosecution responded, “Policemen don’t scratch. Isn’t that a fact?” JA 657. The trial court sustained defense counsel’s objection as to whether it is a fact that policemen scratch. Throughout the trial, the defense’s primary argument was that Slagle was too drunk to form the intent to murder. The defense called expert witnesses to testify to Slagle’s alcoholism and to the fact that a high level of intoxication can preclude one from being able to form intent. The State responded with its own expert who testified that alcohol is processed rapidly in the body and that consumption of a large amount of alcohol does not guarantee that an individual will remain intoxicated at a future time. The trial judge instructed the jury that evidence of intoxication was “admissible for the purpose of showing that the defendant’s mind was in such condition that he was not capable of forming the specific intent to kill . . . Pope.” JA 707. Slagle now challenges several comments and insinuations that the prosecution made during its closing arguments at the end of the guilt phase of the trial. Slagle’s counsel did not object to the following comments: that Slagle had previously broken into homes and sold drugs, see, e.g., JA 668, 679, 687, 695; that “It’s a damn good thing the kids didn’t wake up[,]” JA 670; and that Slagle had “the nerve to tell [the jury] ‘I pray[,]’” JA 670. Slagle also now challenges, but did not object at trial to, the prosecution’s speculation that one walking on floorboards would cause the floor to creak, JA 667; the prosecution’s suggestion, by saying repeatedly that Slagle killed Pope to prevent her from identifying him, that Slagle had been charged with committing murder to escape “detection, apprehension, trial, or punishment” under Ohio Revised Code § 2929.04(A)(3), see JA 667, 670, 675-76; the prosecution’s vouching for the credibility of several state witnesses (e.g., “I put my money on the homicide detectives[.]”), JA 692, 701, 671; and the prosecution’s speculation as to Pope’s mental state before her death, JA 670 (“She was ready to meet God.”). Slagle’s counsel, however, did not sit idly by during the State’s closing argument. Defense counsel objected, almost always successfully, to the following statements that Slagle now challenges: that “It is a good thing that he didn’t know Howard could identify him[,]” JA 672; that Slagle was one of the “greatest threats against community and civilization[,]” JA 702; that a defense witness offered “only liberal quack theories[,]” JA 700; that the defense’s experts were called only to generate sympathy for Slagle, JA 682; that defense witness Mike Davis was “an admitted drug user” who “crawled out of a hole[,]” JA 693; that defense counsel was in a “mad scramble to salvage [Slagle’s] credibility[,]” JA 691; and that defense counsel coached Slagle not to remember events by framing questions in the form of “Do you remember that, Billy?” JA 688. Defense counsel also objected to the prosecution’s implication that Slagle had a tolerance to alcohol, JA 666; the prosecution’s reference to an expert’s statement made outside the record that “the body doesn’t lie[,]” JA 693; and the prosecution’s improper comparison of Slagle to bank robbers when using a bank-robbery analogy, JA 697-98. No. 04-3490 Slagle v. Bagley Page 5 After the guilt phase of the trial, the jury convicted Slagle of aggravated murder with two death-penalty specifications of committing murder in the course of aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery. The jury also convicted Slagle of aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery. The jury, however, acquitted him of attempted rape. The penalty phase commenced about three weeks later. Slagle’s counsel called Slagle’s mother, father, and sister to testify that his alcohol abuse had changed him from a well-behaved child. The testimony revealed that Slagle’s childhood was far from ideal. His parents divorced when Slagle was three years old, and he attended several schools and changed residences fifteen to twenty times. Slagle started using drugs and alcohol by the age of thirteen. At the age of seventeen, Slagle received inpatient treatment for alcoholism after being arrested as a passenger joyriding in a stolen car. Although testing revealed that he had aboveaverage intelligence, Slagle dropped out of high school after failing the eleventh grade for the second time. He held various jobs for short periods of time before settling into a pattern of drinking every day. Dr. Kurt A. Bertschinger, M.D., testified that Slagle was predisposed to be an alcoholic because of his family history and other factors. He also testified that Slagle could be treated in jail. The court’s psychologist for competency and sanity, Dr. Thomas W. Hall, Ph.D., testified that Slagle was an alcoholic and that his judgment was impaired at the time of the crime. Finally, Slagle made a brief unsworn statement, apologizing for Pope’s death and requesting that the jury not give him the death penalty. The defense submitted several exhibits into evidence. The defense was permitted to make the first and last of the arguments to the jury. Slagle challenges several comments that the prosecution made during its closing argument at the sentencing phase and claims that the State was referring to nonstatutory aggravating factors. See Petitioner’s Br. at 35. The State first said that Slagle was a young murderer because he was 19 years old at the time of trial. Over defense counsel’s objection, the prosecution asked the jurors whether Slagle sympathized with Pope or showed her any mercy. The prosecution referred to several circumstances of the murder and its brutality. At one point, after detailing the circumstances of the crime, he asked the jury, “How aggravating is that?” JA 833. In response to Slagle’s evidence that he came from a broken home and had an alcohol problem, the State told the jurors, “We all know people from divorced homes. We all know people who have had alcohol problems either in the present or in the past. And they chose and they lead full and functional lives.” JA 838. Slagle also argues that besides these comments, the prosecutorial misconduct from the guilt phase of the trial infected the sentencing proceedings. See Petitioner’s Br. at 34-35. After deliberating, the jury recommended the death penalty. The trial court agreed and sentenced Slagle to death for the aggravated murder of Pope. The court also sentenced Slagle to concurrent terms of imprisonment for aggravated robbery and burglary.