Opinion ID: 1444205
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Evidence of criminal agency in the deaths

Text: Middleton contends first that the state failed to prove that the victims' deaths resulted from criminal agency, a necessary element to establish the corpus delicti of murder. He points to the evidence that Powell suffered from heart disease; that she was taking lithium, which is associated with cardiac problems; and that her cause of death could not be determined. Likewise, he stresses that Davila's cause of death was not determined. Middleton cites Frutiger v. State, 111 Nev. 1385, 907 P.2d 158 (1995), where this court concluded that there was insufficient evidence that an alleged victim's death was caused by the criminal agency of another. Middleton does not, however, discuss the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the victims and discovery of their remains or the evidence found in his storage unit. In deciding a sheriff's appeal in this case in 1996, we considered this same argument in regard to the sufficiency of the evidence to bind Middleton over for trial. Sheriff v. Middleton, 112 Nev. 956, 921 P.2d 282 (1996). We held: Although medical evidence as to the cause of death is often critical in establishing that a death occurred by criminal agency, there is no requirement that there be evidence of a specific cause of death. Id. at 962, 921 P.2d at 286. We reversed the district court's order granting Middleton's pretrial petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The district court had limited its review to evidence of the bare conditions of the bodies themselves, and found that the bodies alone did not reveal death by criminal agency because they did not reveal anything, and therefore the state had not met its burden. This conclusion is not mandated by our decision in Frutiger. The court must consider and weigh all the evidence offered which bears on the question of death by criminal agency. In this case, the circumstances of the disappearances of the women, the discoveries of their bodies in remote locations, tied with rope, wrapped in garbage bags, bitten severely, clearly creates a reasonable inference of their deaths by criminal agency. Furthermore, unlike in Frutiger, where the weight of the available medical evidence indicated a likelihood of death by natural causes, in this case there is no evidence to rebut the inference of death by criminal agency. The district court erred in not considering at least the circumstances of the disappearances of the women and the discoveries of their bodies. There is ample evidence by those circumstances alone tending to prove that Powell and Davila died by a criminal agency. Id. at 964, 921 P.2d at 287. This analysis is still dispositive, even allowing for the requirement that at trial criminal agency had to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. The evidence showed that Powell's heart was basically healthy and that the amount of lithium in her system was not life threatening. There was no evidence that Davila suffered from ill health. Thus, unlike Frutiger, the record does not show a likelihood of death by natural causes. Furthermore, in deciding the sheriff's appeal, we did not discuss the evidence which indicated that Middleton took Powell and Davila to his storage unit, where he kept them captive. This evidence further supports the jury's finding that the deaths resulted from criminal agency.