Court Opinion

ID: 9658080
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:46:10.811326+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:51.347260
License: Public Domain

HABHAB, Judge
(concurring).
I concur with the majority opinion. The majority considered each assignment of error submitted by the defendant. It found none of sufficient merit to warrant reversal. I agree with that result.
This was a dreadful, shocking, and tragic crime against humanity that is almost without parallel in this state. From the testimony of witnesses, the jury could find that the defendant went behind Jennifer, picked her up off the couch, and proceeded to choke her. As she was held in mid-air she kicked and gasped for breath. She regained consciousness on the floor, and with blood coming from her mouth, attempted to speak. Defendant used his foot to prevent her from rising. She was yet alive. The defendant’s brother, Edward, then put a belt around her neck while the defendant held her with his foot. The strangulation was completed.
The defendant and his brother then took her clothes off and put her body in the shower. Later the defendant had sex with the dead body. Still later she was beheaded by Edward. Her body was abused and disposed of in the most ugly of manner.
The defendant was seventeen years of age when the murder occurred. The case was transferred to the adult court on June 19, 1989. The State was specifically and unequivocally granted permission by court order to amend the trial information of Edward Deases (who as an adult had been charged by trial information earlier) so as to include Ruben as a defendant. No *99amendment was actually filed, but Ruben on June 21, 1989, filed a written arraignment where, before entering his written plea of not guilty, be stated he had received a copy of the trial information charging him with murder in the first degree in violation of section 707.2(1).
I believe these facts alone rise to the level of a showing of good cause. Moreover, there is no possible way the defendant could have been prejudiced, for the State and the defense counsel elected to proceed with arraignment just as though an amendment formalizing the order granted by the trial court had been filed. Like the majority, I would affirm.