Court Opinion

ID: 9583475
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:39:06.220127+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:39:02.659445
License: Public Domain

HABHAB, Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. I would affirm the defendant’s conviction of first-degree murder. I concede, for the most part, the district court committed the errors addressed in the majority opinion. However, I find these errors were harmless and did not prejudice the defendant. I find there is overwhelming evidence the defendant is guilty of first-degree murder, and I am unable to conclude the defendant did not receive a fair trial.
I find the State proved beyond a reasonable doubt the defendant was guilty of first-degree murder. The defendant was the last person to be seen with Rochelle Barry. Sara Tomson, Rochelle’s friend, and Gail Bartlett, a disinterested witness, both observed the defendant and Rochelle walk straight back into the woods from where Sara’s car was parked. Sara testified Rochelle went into the woods with the defendant at 3:05 a.m. on Saturday, August 19, 1989. Rochelle was never seen alive again. Neither Sara nor Gail ever saw anyone else go into or come out of that wooded area.
At about 6:20 a.m. on that Saturday morning, Officer Rathbone discovered Rochelle’s clothing in an area straight back into the woods from where Sara’s car was parked and in the line which the defendant and Rochelle walked into the wooded area a few hours earlier. When the clothes were found scattered on the ground in the woods, Rochelle’s jeans were ripped on the sides, her bra was in pieces and the straps were removed from the cups, her underwear was ripped on the sides, and her shirt had two blood spots on it. Rochelle’s socks and shoes were in the same area. The grass in the area where the clothing was found was matted down, as if someone had been lying in it.
The officer found footprints leading away from the area where the clothing was discovered. The soil in this area is a dirt and sand mixture. The pattern of the footprints was very similar to the pattern on the soles of the defendant’s shoes which he was wearing on the night of August 18, 1989, and on the morning of August 19, *2371989. The police also discovered some bare footprints alongside the shoe prints leading away from this area. The officers followed the footprints down across the main road and along the long sand pit to a path where Rochelle’s body was found two weeks later. They found some footprints leading out of the area where Rochelle’s body was ultimately found. The footprints then went across to where a fence is, up a dike, and in the direction of Easton Avenue.
At about 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 19, 1989, Larry Bierman observed an individual crossing Interstate 380 and then walking into a ditch behind the chain link fence located behind Design Studio flower shop. Mr. Bierman testified the individual crossing 1-380 was wearing faded jeans and no shirt. He explained the individual had a light-colored shirt tucked into his jeans pocket. He further testified the individual was walking briskly and kept turning around to see if he was being watched. At approximately 7:38 a.m., Sharon and Michael Bauler observed the defendant walking quickly on 1-380 approaching Design Studio. They testified the defendant was coming up oh the back side of Design Studio where a fence separates the building from the interstate. They testified he had on black jeans and no shirt. Mr. Bier-man and the Baulers observed the defendant in a line that is almost directly in line with Easton Avenue where the footprints last led. At about 7:45 a.m., Lucille Efting saw the defendant cut through her yard on Amherst, a street which is right off of Easton. She testified the defendant was wearing jeans and white tennis shoes and no shirt.
There are numerous inconsistencies in the defendant’s story of what happened on the days surrounding Rochelle Barry’s disappearance and the testimony of various other witnesses. The defendant told the police detective he never went into the woods at the Mitchell Avenue sand pits on that Friday night and Saturday morning. Both Sara Tomson and Gail Bartlett testified they observed the defendant walk into the wooded area with Rochelle. The defendant claims he went down to the bonfire at the sand pits. Not one person saw the defendant at the bonfire. The defendant claims he was mingling around the area of Boise Street. Not one person saw the defendant near Boise Street. The defendant told the police two girls drove him around Waterloo/Cedar Falls and then dropped him off near the intersection of Ansbor-ough and Maynard Avenue, a few blocks from his home. He could not remember the girls’ names, and he could not remember what type of car they were driving. He also could not remember what time he got home but he noticed it was starting to get light outside. A meteorologist testified the official sunrise on August 19,1989, was at 6:20 a.m. but that some light was visible as early as 5:35 a.m. The police could not find any leads as to the identity of these two girls who allegedly drove the defendant home. Moreover, as previously mentioned, four different people saw the defendant walking across 1-380 away from the sand pits, near Easton, and up around Amherst in the direction of his home between 7:30 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. This evidence blatantly contradicts his story that two girls dropped him off near his house as it was starting to get light outside.
The defendant claims he fell asleep watching M-TV and then Officer Piper woke him up to go down to the police station. Officer Piper testified she went to the defendant’s residence on Maynard Avenue at approximately 7:30 a.m. and found no one at home. She further testified that when she returned to the residence at approximately 9:15 a.m. the back door was ajar and the defendant immediately came out of the house to see what she wanted. Furthermore, Melissa Watson, the defendant’s girlfriend, testified the defendant called her at 8:45 a.m. from a phone booth at a Sinclair Station near his house and told her he had just returned home “a little while ago.” It is clear the officer did not wake the defendant up when she arrived at his residence at 9:15 a.m. because only thirty minutes before he had been at a phone booth calling Melissa. Additionally, the police did not find the defendant’s television on the M-TV channel as if the defendant had fallen asleep watching that channel.
*238When questioned by the police on Saturday morning, the defendant claimed the new clean white shirt he was wearing at the time of the questioning was the same shirt he had worn Friday night and earlier that morning while at the sand pits. But, all of the people who saw the defendant on Friday night and Saturday morning claim he was wearing a white tank top which had a blue Shagnasty’s logo on it, black jeans, and white leather hightop Reebok shoes. The police found the black jeans, socks, and leather Reeboks in the defendant’s washing machine later that day. On Saturday morning at approximately 9:15 a.m., Melissa went to the defendant’s residence because the defendant asked her to stop by on her way to work. However, the defendant was not home. At this time, Melissa noticed the washing machine was running. She also found the Shagnasty’s shirt and took it from the defendant’s residence thinking it belonged to her. When the police retrieved the Shagnasty’s shirt from Melissa, it was dingy and covered with grass stains, dirt, and a blood spot.
The defendant claims the scratches, located all over his body on Saturday morning, he received from work. However, the record is clear the defendant had not worked for ten to eleven days, and Dr. Albert Dolan testified the scratches located on the defendant’s body on the morning of August 19, 1989, were only six to eight hours old. The doctor also testified various scratches on the defendant’s body were inflicted with fingernails of a hand scraping across that part of the body.
The two blood spots on Rochelle’s shirt and the one blood spot on the defendant’s shirt are consistent with the defendant’s blood type and are inconsistent with Rochelle’s blood type.
Thomas Ogle, an inmate at the Black Hawk County Jail during the fall of 1989, testified he asked the defendant if he had killed “the girl” (Rochelle). He testified the defendant then became upset and stated he was accidentally wrestling around with her, they fell, and she hurt herself. Ogle then explained when the defendant mentioned “wrestling around” he was probably referring to having sex. Eddie Johnson, another inmate, testified that during a Bible study the defendant asked some of his cell mates whether God forgives all sins and, specifically, whether God forgives for murder. Johnson testified the defendant became very upset and “a nervous wreck” when the local newscast reported the body of Rochelle Barry had been found. According to Johnson, the defendant could not eat and had the shakes. Johnson further explained, later that night, after hearing the news story of Rochelle’s body being discovered, the defendant was crying and saying “it was an accident, I didn’t mean it.”
Based on the overwhelming evidence, I find a reasonable jury could convict the defendant of first-degree murder. I find the individual instances of error discussed by the majority were each harmless and do not compel reversal. See State v. Reed, 482 N.W.2d 672, 675 (Iowa 1992); See also State v. Holland, 485 N.W.2d 652, 655-56 (Iowa 1992). I also do not find the defendant was prejudiced by a cumulative effect of error. A defendant is not denied a fair trial through the cumulative effect of individual instances of claimed errors by trial court, where the “defendant ... failed to demonstrate any prejudice from any [particular] asserted error during the trial.... Because no prejudice existed, he did not establish he was denied a fair trial by an accumulation of prejudice.” State v. Pierce, 287 N.W.2d 570, 575 (Iowa 1980).
I am unable to conclude the defendant did not receive a fair trial. I find there is overwhelming evidence the defendant is guilty of first-degree murder and I would affirm his conviction.