Opinion ID: 1828411
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Substance Abuse as Additional Mitigation

Text: Owen argues that trial counsel was ineffective for not investigating Owen's history of drug and alcohol abuse because had counsel investigated this avenue of mitigation she could have presented witnesses that would have testified to Owen's history of substance abuse and thereby influenced the jury in favor of a life recommendation. The postconviction trial court found that Owen failed to satisfy the prejudice prong of Strickland because evidence of his substance abuse likely would not change the sentence, given the weighty aggravation and substantial mitigation found by the sentencing judge. We agree that Owen has not demonstrated prejudice. During the penalty phase, the defense called Dr. Crown, a neuropsychologist, Dr. Berlin, a psychiatrist, Dr. Sultan, a psychologist, and investigator Hillary Sheehan to testify about Owen's background and his mental health. Based on this testimony, the sentencing judge found three statutory mitigating circumstances, including both mental health statutory mitigating factors and sixteen nonstatutory mitigating circumstances. [14] The sentencing judge found that Owen was exposed to sexual and physical violence on almost a daily basis from his infancy to his teenage years; was sexually abused himself beginning around age nine; lived in filthy and deplorable conditions after his mother's death; and was sent to an orphanage that was just as bad, or even worse than Owen's former home. Sentencing Order at 4049-50. He concluded that Owen had one of the more horrific childhoods that this Court has seen or heard of, id. at 4051, but ultimately found that the weighty mitigation present in this case did not outweigh the four established aggravating factors: prior violent felony (first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, armed burglary, and sexual battery), offense committed while engaged in commission or attempt to commit burglary, HAC, and CCP. During the postconviction evidentiary hearing, Owen called six lay witnesses who testified to his use of drugs and alcohol as a child and adolescent. Owen also called two expert witnesses. Dr. Henry L. Dee, who testified as an expert in the area of psychology and neuropsychology, reported that Owen began to drink beer at age ten or eleven, began using marijuana, hashish, Seconals, Dexedrine, Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin mushrooms, and peyote around age twelve to fourteen, and began using crystal methamphetamine around age nineteen. Dr. Dee opined that Owen had brain damage and that Owen's substance abuse would certainly exacerbate Owen's impulse control problems caused by his neuropsychological impairment and mental illness. Heidi Hammond Guerra conducted a comprehensive substance abuse evaluation of Owen and testified as an expert in the field of mental health counseling, addiction counseling, and rehabilitation counseling. She testified that Owen used drugs steadily from age nine or ten. Guerra explained that the only period of sobriety in Owen's adult life was when Owen briefly went into the Army. Owen asserts that the evidence presented during the postconviction evidentiary hearing would have given the sentencing judge and the jury a more complete picture of Owen's mental health and would have resulted in more weight being given to the mental health mitigating factors found by the sentencing judge. We disagree. Only Dr. Dee's testimony touched upon Owen's mental health as it related to the Slattery murder. He opined that generally speaking, Owen's impulsivity would have been exacerbated by his substance abuse. Yet, Dr. Dee did not offer an opinion as to whether Owen's actions on the night of the offense demonstrated impulsivity, and as the postconviction trial court explained, the facts of Owen's calculated murder of Karen Slattery largely refuted the theory that Owen acted impulsively at the time of the crime. Given the deliberate manner in which Owen twice entered the home in which Karen Slattery was babysitting before attacking her, it seems unlikely that Dr. Dee's testimony about how Owen's substance abuse would have exacerbated his impulsivity would change the trial judge or jury's evaluation of Owen's mitigation. Our confidence in the death sentence is not undermined by counsel's failure to present evidence of Owen's history of substance abuse.