Opinion ID: 4549439
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the penalty-phase trial: evidence

Text: ¶11 The jury received evidence at trial about (A) Drommond‘s relationship with Reed, (B) his mental health problems after their divorce, (C) his desire to keep her from dating or marrying someone else, (D) his bipolar disorder at the time of the murder, (E) the murder itself, (F) his statements after 3 STATE v. DROMMOND Opinion of the Court the murder, and (G) the impact of the murder on the Drommond children. We summarize below the relevant parts of that testimony.
¶12 Bradley (Reed‘s father) and Melina Yorke (Reed‘s friend) testified about Reed and Drommond‘s relationship, which began in 1994. According to Yorke, in August 1995, Reed told Yorke that she had talked to a male friend from high school at a music store, and that when Drommond found out that the two had talked, his temper snapped. Yorke said that Drommond choked Reed, leaving bruises on her neck. ¶13 Despite this incident, the couple married a short while later. Reed and Drommond later had two children. Bradley testified that when Drommond lost his job in about 2002, the marriage deteriorated, and, by the beginning of 2005, Reed and Drommond had divorced. ¶14 Bradley testified that soon after the divorce—in March 2005—Drommond strangled Reed to the point that she thought she would die because she had used his cell phone to call another man and had incurred a large bill. After the strangling, Reed obtained a protective order against Drommond, but she agreed to continue taking the children to visit him. Bradley testified that Drommond also frightened Reed with threatening emails in August 2005, causing Bradley to stay periodically at Reed‘s house at night.
After the Divorce ¶15 After the divorce, Drommond went to live with his parents and stayed there until June 2005. Dr. Linda Gummow—a neuropsychologist and Drommond‘s expert witness at trial— detailed much of Drommond‘s mental health history during this time. ¶16 Dr. Gummow first outlined Drommond‘s mental health. She said that Drommond was diagnosed with major depressive disorder at the end of 2004, and at the beginning of the next year, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder, explained Dr. Gummow, is ―a major mood disorder.‖ She further explained that, to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a person must have had at least one manic episode—which is an ―episode[] of very high mood, way beyond normal elation‖—and episodes of depression, which are episodes of ―very extremely low moods.‖ 4 Cite as: 2020 UT 50 Opinion of the Court ¶17 A few months after the divorce, testified Dr. Gummow, Drommond cut himself, attempted suicide several times, and had ―hostile thoughts‖ toward Reed and his own family. As a result, he was admitted to Lakeview Hospital at the beginning of May 2005, where he stayed for about five days. ¶18 Dr. Gummow said that while Drommond was at Lakeview Hospital, he was treated by several physicians and received many diagnoses of his mental health problems. At various times at the hospital, Drommond was diagnosed with bipolar disorder not otherwise specified (bipolar disorder NOS),1 schizoaffective disorder, and—upon discharge—bipolar disorder one.2 ¶19 Dr. Gummow testified that after being discharged from Lakeview Hospital, Drommond had ―no treatment‖ other than being ―given some bottles of pills.‖ Dr. Gummow said that this was a mistake—that he should have seen a mental health professional once a week, that ―his medication should have been monitored,‖ and that ―his moods should have been tracked very regularly.‖
from Dating or Marrying Someone Else ¶20 As mentioned above, Drommond lived with his parents after the divorce. But at the end June 2005—about a month after he was released from Lakeview Hospital—he moved into an apartment with some roommates. ¶21 Drommond‘s roommate, Rian Carlson, testified that, a couple of months before the murder, Drommond asked Carlson to get him a gun so the two could start a ―bounty hunter service‖ or, more accurately, so Drommond could have the gun to use as an ―an intimidation factor.‖ Carlson said that he obtained a handgun __________________________________________________________ 1 According to Dr. Gummow, bipolar disorder NOS is the diagnosis that a physician gives a patient when the physician does not know what type of bipolar disorder the patient has. 2 Dr. Gummow explained that there are ―several different types of bipolar disorders‖ but that ―bipolar disorder one means you‘ve had a clear manic episode and you have an episode of depression, multiple.‖ 5 STATE v. DROMMOND Opinion of the Court about a month before the murder and gave it to Drommond. That was the handgun that Drommond would use to murder Reed. ¶22 Carlson testified that he and Drommond eventually shared their ―bounty hunter idea‖ with a friend named Michael Hansen. Carlson testified that Drommond talked with him and Hansen about how they were going to ―scare‖ and ―rough [] up‖ people who owed him money. The group never followed through with any of those plans, and the group‘s focus soon shifted to Reed. ¶23 Carlson explained at trial that Drommond found out that Reed was dating someone, and he didn‘t like it. He wanted to put a stop to it. So, testified Carlson, two or three weeks before the murder, Drommond talked with him and Hansen about scaring Reed out of dating by breaking into her house and cutting her phone line. Carlson told the jury that the group never did so but that Drommond did have Hansen drive by Reed‘s house and her boyfriend‘s house to ―check it out.‖ ¶24 Detective Lloyd Kilpack, who investigated Reed‘s murder, testified that Hansen told him in an interview that Drommond even paid Hansen $400 to break into Reed‘s house to tell her not to marry her fiancé and to drive by Reed‘s house and her fiancé‘s to jot down the license plate numbers of the vehicles parked outside.3 (Hansen never did so.) Detective Kilpack also testified that Hansen told him that, on the day before the murder, Drommond again asked Hansen to break into Reed‘s house and scare her out of getting married, reminding Hansen that he had paid him $400 to do so. Detective Kilpack added that Hansen even showed him a text message from Drommond in ―which Mr. Hansen was reminded that he was given $400 by Mr. Drommond for this particular situation and driving by the house.‖ According to Detective Kilpack‘s testimony, Hansen refused to go through with it and offered to return Drommond the money. Detective Kilpack testified that he saw the following text message from Drommond to Hansen in response: ―I‘ve been doing this for years. __________________________________________________________ 3 Detective Kilpack also testified that Drommond‘s father told him that, a few weeks before the murder, Drommond ―told his mother that he was going to hurt [Reed]‖ and ―told [his mother] not to be a hero.‖ According to Kilpack, Drommond told his mother ―that if he wasn‘t able to do it, he had an army that would accomplish it for him.‖ 6 Cite as: 2020 UT 50 Opinion of the Court Don‘t worry about it. I‘ll take care of this.‖ Apart from Kilpack‘s testimony about the text messages, we refer in this opinion to the testimony in this paragraph as the Kilpack–Hansen Hearsay Testimony.
¶25 Dr. Gummow testified that, when Drommond murdered Reed, he suffered from bipolar disorder NOS, childhood onset. This was important, she said, ―because the bipolar disorder has a lot to do with Mr. Drommond‘s criminal behavior and understanding what happened, and also understanding what might happen in the future with regard to him.‖ ¶26 Dr. Gummow explained how people with bipolar disorder might generally behave. She explained that people experiencing a manic episode are ―extremely active,‖ ―talk too fast,‖ ―move too fast,‖ and are ―not rational.‖ She also said that those experiencing manic episodes are likely to ―get involved in legal trouble‖ because, for example, ―they‘re out and about and they irritate people, they get in fights‖—all that, because they ―don‘t know that they‘re high.‖ A person experiencing a manic episode ―may think that they‘ve lost control of themselves,‖ said Dr. Gummow, ―but often they‘re not aware of the fact that their behavior is going off the chart.‖ Dr. Gummow testified that bipolar disorder is ―incurable‖—that ―it can be controlled, minimized, and people can be comfortable, but it‘s always there.‖ ¶27 Besides opining that Drommond had bipolar disorder NOS, Dr. Gummow also discussed the diagnoses of the four court-appointed psychologists who had determined that Drommond was competent. Each psychologist—none of whom were called as witnesses at trial—had diagnosed Drommond differently: bipolar disorder one (Dr. Oster); narcissistic personality disorder (Dr. Malouf); personality disorder not otherwise specified, with prominent narcissistic and borderline features (Dr. Cohn); and major depression and severe cluster B personality disorder (Dr. Golding).4 Dr. Gummow conceded that Dr. Cohn‘s and Dr. Golding‘s diagnoses were supported by some __________________________________________________________ 4 The parties do not point to clear definitions of these personality disorders in their briefs and so we do not define them here. 7 STATE v. DROMMOND Opinion of the Court evidence and that they would be harder to treat than bipolar disorder and that they couldn‘t be treated with medication.5
¶28 Several witnesses testified about the murder itself, too. The jury heard that Drommond shot Reed twice, that he shot Bradley too, and about the later struggle to disarm and subdue Drommond. See supra ¶¶ 3–8. And a medical examiner testified that an autopsy confirmed that Reed died from her wounds.
¶29 The jury also heard testimony about things Drommond told Carlson, Sean Buchanan (Drommond‘s cellmate), and Kristina Shakespeare (Drommond‘s cousin) after the murder. ¶30 First, Carlson testified that when he went to visit Drommond in jail after the murder, Drommond expressed no remorse and seemed to think it was ―a joke that he was there.‖ ¶31 Then, Detective Kilpack testified about his interview with Buchanan. Kilpack testified that Buchanan said that Drommond told him (1) that he wanted Reed‘s sister to be ―taken out of the box;‖(2) that he wanted Reed‘s sister‘s ―neck broken‖ or for her to be ―killed‖ so ―she could not take care of his children;‖ (3) that he should have killed the entire Bradley family; (4) that he planned to be released from custody after six or seven years, after which ―they will see I‘m crazy‖ and ―that the bitch had it coming;‖ and (5) that ―he had popped [Reed] with precision‖ and that as he said so, ―he was smiling.‖ We refer to this testimony as the Kilpack– Buchanan Hearsay Testimony. ¶32 Detective Kilpack also testified about his interview with Kristina Shakespeare. Kilpack said that, in the interview, Shakespeare shared how Drommond told her after the murder that ―he felt great because [Reed] was gone‖ and that ―if he had the power to do so, he would kill the entire Bradley family.‖ We refer to this testimony as the Kilpack–Shakespeare Hearsay Testimony. __________________________________________________________ 5 Dr. Golding‘s diagnosis was characterized at trial as personality disorder not otherwise specified with cluster B traits. 8 Cite as: 2020 UT 50 Opinion of the Court G. The Impact of the Murder on the Drommond Children ¶33 Finally, Reed‘s sister testified that Reed‘s children ―miss their mother very much.‖ A photograph of Reed and her two children was also admitted into evidence.