Kuebler v. State

204 So.3d 1220

Charles L. Kuebler a/k/a Charles L. Kueblur a/k/a Charles Kuebler a/k/a Charles Louie Kuebler a/k/a Charles Keubler a/k/a Charles Louis Kuebler

v.State of Mississippi

NO. 2012–CT–01825–SCT

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

November 10, 2016

DAVID PAUL VOISIN, EDWARD BLACKMON, JR., ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, BY: MELANIE DOTSON THOMAS, JEFFREY A. KLINGFUSS, ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE

EN BANC.

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI

KING, JUSTICE, FOR THE COURT:

PART ONE

¶ 1. Finding harmless error, the Court of Appeals affirmed Charles "Louie" Kuebler's conviction of deliberate-design murder and sentence of life in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC). This Court now finds that the trial court committed reversible error by denying Kuebler the opportunity to present his theory of defense, in granting a flight instruction, and by prohibiting Kuebler from offering evidence to rebut the State's argument that his flight indicated consciousness of guilt. Accordingly, we reverse and remand for a new trial.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. Tamra "Tammy" Stuckey was shot and killed on the couch in Kuebler's apartment in the early morning hours of June 30, 2010. Tamra had been staying at Kuebler's apartment on Morningside Drive in Jackson for three or four days prior and had shown an unreciprocated romantic interest in Kuebler during this time.

¶ 3. The Court of Appeals stated:

On the evening of June 29, 2010, at approximately 5:15 p.m., Kuebler, Tamra, Nate, and his friend Jennifer Olivier were "hanging out" at Kuebler's apartment. Nate and Jennifer left but returned at approximately 7:15 p.m. At around 8:00 p.m., they all went to Jennifer's apartment to watch television. At 10:30 p.m., the four individuals relocated to the pool area, where they joined Aaron Aruck and Kristen Schumacher, whom they met for the first time. Aaron and Kristen lived in a nearby house with two other roommates. During their time at the pool, Kristen heard Kuebler verbally berating Tamra, who became upset. ...

Around midnight, Nate and Jennifer returned to their apartment. Kristen testified that Kuebler continued talking to Aaron and her, but "anytime Tamra tried to say anything, [Kuebler] would silence her and call her stupid; tell her to get in the house." Because Tamra had to be at work at 5:00 a.m. in the morning, she eventually left the pool and retired to Kuebler's apartment shortly after midnight, leaving Kuebler, Aaron, and Kristen at the pool. After Tamra left the pool area, Kuebler started propositioning Kristen for sex, which made her feel very uncomfortable. At some point Aaron realized Kristen wanted to leave the pool area because of Kuebler's behavior; so they returned to their apartment.

Around 12:15 a.m., Tamra walked to Jennifer's apartment to retrieve some clothes Jennifer had laundered for her. Approximately ten minutes later, Kuebler came to Jennifer's apartment to retrieve Tamra's purse.

At 1:18 a.m., Tamra called Jennifer and Nate, crying. She told them Kuebler was being "mean" and "ugly" to her. Jennifer offered for her to come spend the night, but Tamra refused, stating she would have to "walk past" Kuebler if she left, and that would "make matters worse." Jennifer offered to go over to Kuebler's apartment and bring Tamra to her apartment, but Nate said that would not be a good idea. Nate told Tamra to just "go l[ie] down and go to sleep." Tamra said she would.

At 1:35 a.m., Tamra texted her long-time friend and roommate of six months, Kirby Edgar, a single message: "Wake up ... I need [yo]u to save me." Kirby lived in Canton, Mississippi. Tamra had also called Kirby twice, minutes before the text, but Kirby was asleep and answered neither.

Shortly after 2:00 a.m., Aaron realized he had left his cell phone in Kuebler's apartment when he had gone there to use the restroom earlier in the evening. Aaron returned to Kuebler's apartment to retrieve his phone and found Kuebler rummaging around in his closet looking for something. Tamra appeared to be asleep on the living-room couch. Once Aaron got his phone, Kuebler "put his hand on [Aaron's] shoulder and sort of hurried [him] out of the [apartment]." Aaron returned to his place and began smoking a cigarette on the front porch. Approximately ten minutes later, Aaron heard Kuebler screaming "hysterically." Aaron ran back to Kuebler's apartment to find Tamra lying on the couch, shot in the forehead. When Aaron asked Kuebler what happened, Kuebler told him he and Tamra "were fooling around with each other and that she enjoyed him holding the gun to her head while they had sex."

Before Aaron arrived at Kuebler's apartment, apparently Kuebler ran to Jennifer and Nate's apartment, where he beat on their door and yelled, "Tammy got shot in the head. Call 911." Nate testified Kuebler was "acting pretty crazy ... screaming and yelling"; so when Nate went into Kuebler's apartment, he looked for the gun. After walking outside to call 911, Nate returned and found Kuebler's gun on the floor by the coffee table. Nate observed that Tamra appeared to be deceased. Kuebler, covered in Tamra's blood, was attempting to give her CPR. Kuebler explained to Nate that the gun had fallen on the ground and gone off. Jennifer testified that when she arrived at the scene Kuebler was screaming and crying, saying, "Tammy, wake up." He told Jennifer, "[S]omething happened. My pistol fell on the floor."

Aaron returned to his place to tell Kristen that Tamra had been shot. Kristen called 911. At 2:41 p.m., the Jackson Police Department (JPD) received the call reporting the shooting. Officer Derrick Archey was the first responder on the scene, but other JPD officers arrived shortly thereafter, including Officers Keith Freeman, Sean Snow, Dewayne West, Carl Ellis, Mark Seals, and Crime Scene Investigator Eneke Smith. Tamra was pronounced dead at the scene. The officers found Tamra's body lying on the couch, with a gunshot wound to the head, with her feet "tucked" under the couch pillows.

The officers took statements from Kristen, Aaron, Nate, and Jennifer. However, when officers attempted to put Kuebler in the back seat of a patrol car in order to question him (as is the procedure and which was done to the other witnesses), Kuebler became belligerent. He shouted obscenities and racial slurs, as well as physically resisted the officers. He was also telling the officers to "get [Tamra] some help," but the ambulance was already on the scene and medics had pronounced Tamra dead. When Kuebler refused to get into the patrol car, or put his hands behind his back after wrestling with the officers, they forced him to the ground and put handcuffs on him while he kicked and screamed. Once inside the patrol car, Kuebler proceeded to kick out one of the windows, resulting in the police placing him in leg shackles.

Investigator Smith recovered a Smith and Wesson .380 caliber handgun from the crime scene, along with two live rounds in the magazine, and one live round and shell casing from the floor. The gun and bullets were processed for fingerprints, but none were found. At the JPD station, Kuebler's hands were swabbed and the materials sent to the Mississippi Crime Lab (MCL) for a gunshot-residue test. Gunpowder was found on the back of Kuebler's right hand and left palm. Also, particles indicative of gunpowder were found on his right and left palms, and the back of his right and left hands. While JPD did not perform a gunshot-residue test on Tamra, Dr. Feng Li, the forensic pathologist, did. The test was sent to the MCL for processing; however, an analysis was not conducted on Tamra's kit because of the lab's policy not to perform analyses on victims "due to the fact that a victim of a gunshot wound" would always test positive. However, the State submitted Tamra's gunshot-residue kit to the MCL for analysis the first day of trial. On the third day of trial, the lab released the results of the test. Gunpowder was positively found on the back of Tamra's right hand and palm, and on the back of her left hand. Further, particles indicative of gunpowder were found on both of her hands.

In September 2010, Kuebler was indicted for deliberate-design murder under Mississippi Code Annotated section 97–3–19(1)(a) (Rev. 2014), with the charge enhanced for using a firearm during the commission of a murder, in violation of Mississippi Code Annotated section 97–37–37 (Rev. 2014).

Kuebler v. State , 2012–KA–01825–COA, 205 So.3d 623, 2015 WL 5202944 (Miss. Ct. App. Sept. 8, 2015), reh'g denied (Feb. 23, 2016).

¶ 4. Kuebler's theories of defense at trial were that Tamra had either committed suicide or had been attempting to commit suicide and the gun had accidently discharged while he was attempting to stop her. On the night Tamra was murdered, Nate told police officers that he thought the shooting had been an accident. However, at the time of trial, he testified "not so much."

¶ 5. Starks Hathcock, a forensic scientist for the MCL, testified that the weapon found at the crime scene was the handgun that had killed Tamra. Hathcock performed a "drop test" with the gun and determined that the gun could not have been discharged without someone cocking the gun and pulling the trigger.

¶ 6. Dr. Li testified that Tamra's cause of death was homicide and that she was shot at an intermediate range of two and one-half to three feet away. Dr. Li testified that, because of the trajectory of the bullet, the gun could not have fallen to the floor and accidentally discharged. However, Dr. Li additionally testified that if Tamra had been lying on the couch threatening to shoot herself with the gun pointed at herself and Kuebler had approached her and attempted to stop her when the gun discharged, the autopsy results would be consistent with that theory. Dr. Li also testified that he could not rule out that Tamra had her hands on the gun at the time the trigger was pulled and that he could not rule out accident as a manner of death.

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