Court Opinion

ID: 9774354
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:17:34.009633+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:06.961981
License: Public Domain

WINTERSHEIMER, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion because the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in denying a continuance regarding the services of mental health professionals and because the penalty phase instructions did not amount to reversible error.
Several continuances requested by the defense were granted while some last minute requests were denied. Defense counsel requested additional time to prepare an examination to assist them in the sentencing phase. It was only after the verdict that counsel for Hunter suggested that the earlier requested evaluation was to show incompetency. The trial judge did not abuse his discretion in overruling the requested delay under the specific facts of this case as presented at that time by the defense. KCPC had evaluated Hunter and determined that he was competent to stand trial. Another defense doctor reported that he could not say that Hunter was incompetent. Nothing in this record indicates that the trial court was on notice with sufficient information to require a competency hearing. Dr. Beal found that “there was no compelling evidence that James Hunter was suffering from a thought or mood disorder or from mental retardation at the time of the psychological evaluation.”
The motions presented to the trial judge did not indicate that evaluations by Dr. Shra-berg, who had agreed to give a second opinion as to the defendant’s mental condition at this time, were necessary to prepare Hunter’s defense at trial or to prepare a defense of mental illness or mental retardation or mitigating factors regarding Hunter’s mental condition. The trial judge indicated he would consider other evidence and was willing to reconsider the question of postponing the trial after Dr. Shraberg had evaluated Hunter.
It would appear that the trial judge may have misconstrued the basis for Hunter’s motion for a continuance or his need for the second evaluation as pertaining to competency rather than defense and mitigation. Such a misunderstanding might have been the result of the representations made by defense counsel as to the purpose of the exam or reasons for seeking delay. Dr. Shraberg’s report on his post-trial evaluation of Hunter does not indicate that the defendant was incompetent to stand trial and states that he appears to understand the nature of the charges and the consequences of the various sentences.
The jury instructions given during the penalty phase were correct. Dining the guilt phase, Hunter’s defense was denial of the crime. He now argues on appeal that he was entitled to an instruction on extreme emotional disturbance as a mitigating factor during the penalty phase. Smith v. Commonwealth, Ky., 737 S.W.2d 683, 686 (1987), observes that there must be evidence to support the inference that the defendant was unable to control his actions in carrying out a homicide. As has been noted by this Court in Foster v. Commonwealth, Ky., 827 S.W.2d 670 (1992), a planned deliberate homicide is the antithesis of extreme emotional disturbance. K.R.S. 532.025(2)(b)(2) provides for an instruction on mitigating circumstances which may be supported by the evidence. The evidence here indicates that Hunter was *728the only witness to his relationship or state of feelings regarding his deceased wife at the time of the fire. Although there was marital discord, there is no positive evidence that Hunter was still angry at his wife when he went to her house on the day of the fire. The evidence is that there were two substantial trails of gasoline from the bedroom to the kitchen and on to the back porch. The evidence indicates that the victim was asleep at the time the fire was set. In view of the fact that the trail of gasoline went into and included the bedroom, the individual who laid the trail of gasoline and set the fire could hardly fail to know that the victim was asleep in the bedroom. This is strong evidence of an intentionally set fire, rather than a fire set on emotional impulse.
Under all the circumstances, I do not believe there was reversible error in refusing to grant an additional continuance in order to obtain a second psychiatric opinion and that the failure to give an instruction on extreme emotional disturbance at the penalty phase was not reversible error.
Hunter received a fundamentally fair trial. I would affirm the conviction and sentence.
REYNOLDS and SPAIN, JJ., join in this dissent.