Opinion ID: 1652618
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Perimeter Evidence

Text: The primary thrust of Johnson's entire appeal is a combined claim of prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective assistance of counsel arising from defense counsel's mistaken use of certain evidence to support the PTSD defense. That evidence, which defense counsel highlighted in opening statement, consisted of 1) a tin-can-rope perimeter set up around Johnson's garage, 2) a foil wrapper, possibly from a baked potato, found in the garage, and 3) the flattened tires on Johnson's vehicle. Defense counsel's theory, as related to the jury, was that on the night in question, Johnson experienced Vietnam-related flashbacksan acute disassociative reactionthat led him to believe that he was back in Vietnam, confronted by the enemy, and fighting in a free-fire zone. In an effort to maintain a defensive position, he had supposedly set up the perimeter so that persons coming near the garage would hit the rope and cause the tin cans to rattle, and while resting within the perimeter, he renourished himself with a baked potato. He flattened the tires, according to the story, to disable his vehicle and prevent the enemy from using it against him. Defense counsel then related in some detail how Johnson left his perimeter on a reconnaissance mission, encountered the enemy (the three remaining murder victims) and dispatched them. [1] The perimeter, potato, and tire evidence (hereinafter referred to as the perimeter evidence) unraveled early in the trial. The fourth witness in the State's case in chief, a highway patrolman, testified that he was the one who set up the tin-can perimeter and left the foil in the garage. He had taken these measures while watching the Johnson house in case Johnson returned there after the rampage. The next witness, another highway patrolman, testified that he saw yet another officer let the air out of the tires of Johnson's vehicle to disable it and prevent Johnson from using it. From that point on, defense counsel conceded that Johnson had nothing to do with the perimeter evidence. In closing argument, the State capitalized on defense counsel's mistake by contending that it was one of the many ways that Johnson had lied in order to maintain the PTSD defense. The claim of prosecutorial misconduct is that the prosecutor sandbagged defense counsel into believing that Johnson was responsible for the perimeter evidence and that the failure to disclose the truth about that evidence was an intentional misrepresentation. The authorities had questioned Johnson's wife about this evidence, and there was apparently some passing mention of the evidence in the police reports, although at no time did the State indicate that the evidence was attributable to the highway patrolmen, rather than Johnson. The reasonable implication was that Johnson, himself, set up the perimeter, baked the potato and flattened the tires; otherwise, there would have been no reason to mention the evidence in the reports. The implication was born out further by the fact that the tin-can-rope perimeter was listed in the reports as one of the items collected by the evidence technicians, as if the items somehow linked Johnson to the crimes. Due to an obvious lack of communication, the authorities were themselves confused about this evidence, but regardless, the erroneous implication was never corrected. According to defense counsel, the problem was compounded by the prosecutor's passive conduct during a deposition of Johnson's wife taken a week before trial. At the deposition, defense counsel interrogated Johnson's wife extensively about the perimeter evidence, and she speculated that Johnson must have been responsible for it. Although two prosecutors were present for the deposition, neither made any effort to correct defense counsel's and Johnson's wife's mistaken impression. Defense counsel claims to have been further misled by the fact that an investigator for the State advised that the two highway patrolmen, who had been endorsed as witnesses, were only involved in the collection of some of the physical evidence, and would testify solely on chain of custody issues. As a result of this representation, defense counsel did not question the two patrolmen before trial. The corresponding claim of ineffective assistance of counsel is in large part the converse of the claim of prosecutorial misconduct: Defense counsel should not have relied on the inference from the police reports, the suggestive silence of the prosecutors at the deposition, and the representation regarding the highway patrolmen. Defense counsel, in other words, made too many assumptions about the perimeter evidence without adequately investigating the facts, and failed to conduct a proper investigation that, at the least, should have included interviews with the two highway patrolmen because they were endorsed witnesses. To refute these claims, the State offers several theories. At the outset, the State maintains that the evidence withheld was not evidence favorable to the defendant so to require disclosure under the familiar rule of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 1196-97, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). While proof that Johnson was responsible for the perimeter evidence would, perhaps, have been exculpatory, the testimony of the highway patrolman most assuredly was not. In addition, the State submits that there can be no prosecutorial misconduct for failure to disclose evidence where, as here, defense counsel filed no formal request for discovery and discovery was handled solely on an informal basis. Moreover, the State contends that even if counsel had filed a formal request, Rule 25.03 requires only that the State disclose the names, last known addresses and existing statements of the witnesses. Because the State had already voluntarily disclosed all reports required under Rule 25.03, the State concludes that a formal discovery request would have been fruitless. Next, the State suggests that it could not have anticipated that defense counsel would attribute the perimeter evidence to Johnson's paranoia. Until defense counsel's opening statement, as the State explains, the patrolmen's testimony had no significance. It was for that reason, too, that the State claims an excuse for its earlier representation that the highway patrolmen were only involved in the collection of physical evidence. According to the State, that representation, when made, was entirely true. On the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, the State argues that it was not unreasonable for defense counsel to conclude that the perimeter evidence was Johnson's handiwork. No other explanation of this evidence was apparent, there was no evidence to the contrary, and no further investigation suggested itself. Moreover, the implication that Johnson was responsible for the perimeter evidence, and his professed inability to remember his involvement, were entirely consistent with the PTSD defense. Though this Court does not condone the conduct of the State in failing to correct the erroneous implication from its own confusion about the perimeter evidence, nor the conduct of defense counsel in failing to further investigate the source of the perimeter evidence, it is unnecessary to address these issues definitively on their merits. Johnson did not raise the issue of prosecutorial misconduct until after trial, and therefore, this Court reviews for plain error only. As stated, plain error relief will only be granted if manifest injustice or a miscarriage of justice resulted from the error. Rule 30.20; Simmons, 955 S.W.2d at 736. For his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, Johnson must show a reasonable probability that but for his counsel's allegedly unprofessional errors, the result of the trial would have been different. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 689-90, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2065-66, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). For the reasons that follow, this Court holds that defense counsel's mistaken use of the perimeter evidence, even if that use was the result of prosecutorial misconduct or ineffective assistance of counsel, did not give rise to manifest injustice or a reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different. First and foremost, the mistake did not preclude Johnson from maintaining the PTSD defense. Johnson's PTSD experts testified that the existence and effect of the disorder did not depend on the perimeter evidence and that the perimeter evidence would have been only minor corroboration for the theory. In addition, defense counsel had shown some caution in attributing the perimeter evidence to Johnson, he did not press the point once he realized that it was not supported by the evidence, and he tacitly explained the mistake to the jury. During opening statement, trial counsel prefaced his reference to this evidence with the caveat, [a]nd he doesn't remember particularly and then hedged somewhat in describing the evidence by stating that somebody went back to Johnson's house ... (emphasis added). To be sure, the highway patrolman testified that he was the someone in question, but defense counsel made it known to the jury that he had been unaware of that fact by eliciting on cross-examination that the patrolman had submitted no report. Likewise, when the State proved that another patrolman had flattened the tires, defense counsel made it clear to the jury that he had been unaware of the patrolman's involvement because the report stated only that the tires had been flattened. Furthermore, when Johnson, himself, took the stand, he testified that he had never told defense counsel that he was responsible for the perimeter evidence and that he simply did not remember one way or the other. These developments not only took the sting out of the State's claim that defense counsel had lied about this evidence but also, in effect, bolstered defense counsel's contention that Johnson indeed suffered from a disassociative state, a symptom of which, as his experts claimed, was an inability to remember events that took place during the disassociative state. Most likely, the defense theory failed not because of the mistaken use of the perimeter evidence, but on the overall weakness of the theory itself and the proof offered in support of the theory. The essence of the PTSD theory, as stated, was that Johnson was suffering from Vietnam-related flashbacks and was in a disassociative state, a mental illness that prevented him from comprehending the wrongfulness of his conduct. From our close review of the record, it appears that the State, in both the cross-examination of the defense experts and the presentation of its own experts, was highly effective in exposing the weaknesses of the defense. Moreover, the State was even more effective simply by emphasizing the raw facts. One particularly persuasive point focused on the confession Johnson made to the authorities shortly after his arrest, a confession in which Johnson recalled in much detail that his targets were the sheriff and his deputies, not the Viet Cong. He explained to the authorities how the deputy had come to his house regarding a domestic disturbance, and how, after a brief confrontation, he snapped and shot the deputy. In this regard, he recounted details such as the deputy's distance from the house and the deputy's actions when Johnson began shooting, and that he went back in his house after the shooting and told his wife he was in trouble. To explain his conduct to the authorities, he related that I knew I had a job to do because [Sheriff] Kenny [Jones] let me down, an apparent reference to the fact that Johnson and the sheriff had disagreed on how to handle the ongoing difficulties with Johnson's stepdaughter. Next, Johnson told the authorities that after shooting the deputy, he drove to the residence of Sheriff Jones. Although he didn't see the sheriff, he did see his wife, Pam, and he shot her instead. He then tried to locate Deputy Connell, but was unsuccessful. Subsequently, he went to the sheriff's office but did not stop because too many officers had gathered there. He later made his way to Deputy Borts' house with the intention of turning himself in, but when he heard Borts mention his name while talking on the phone, he shot him as well. On his return to the sheriff's office, he stated that he saw officers running out the door and, believing that they were coming after him, he opened fire again. Tellingly, Johnson referred to his Vietnam experiences only once during the confession. He stated only that I could see everything about Nam. Johnson's detailed and intimate recitation of these events, together with his stated reasons for his conduct, seems wholly inconsistent with the defense of mental disease or defect. In effect, Johnson admitted that he had known what he was doing and why, and consequently, he was hard pressed at trial to fit the facts to the theory. In the end, this was the likely reason why the defense failed. Johnson's claims of prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective assistance of counsel are denied.